IJSP Number 3, 2021

50 perplexing to realize that we have a marvellous, complex, and multi-level construction of a science, which has the foundation withdrawn from under its feet. Perhaps we should seek to begin from here, from this point of origin, and determine what can be done to have a vision, if not a super-vision of such a problematic science. Our question is in fact remarkably simple: On what ground do we stand if we have no foundation? Every soteriology comes forward with one especially important problem, namely that of salvation, of spiritual salvation that is, which is possible if spiritual growth is already accessible. What such a process implies is not solely a growing process but also the outgrowing of one’s own limitations. Additionally, such outgrowing means that some limits or frontiers must be surpassed and placed under a pressure that will eventually transcend them. Beyond that breaking point, an unfolding process must unravel solely by following its natural course. The spirit always finds a way to overcome the limitations imposed by the material realm – at least, that was what we insofar thought or believed. As a result of that conviction, we sincerely believed that spirit and soteriology were closely associated. However, considering how the idea of the spirit was evacuated from our conceptions, discarded from our minds, we can understand that its place had to be occupied by something else. Ultimately, it does not matter what that replacement is, it can even be matter itself that replaces the spirit. Everything appears to indicate a direction where we will not have any spiritual sufferings or soul afflictions. And so, if one does not have a spirit or a soul, how can she/he be spiritually ailing or have some soul aches? It means that, if one longs after somebody, or if one is in love, or in deep hatred, or all those feelings combined with other hundreds of emotions and feelings, all this soul’s deep passions are just some chemical reactions in specific areas of the brain, areas one can see, if she/he wants to, on an MRI. In other words, every trouble or thought, emotion or feeling could be searched for in the brain chemistry as the only provable reaction and image of its functioning. However, if we have evacuated the spirit – and even the soul – from our psychological research, the sole soteriological hope remaining is a material one. Ultimately, as we were taught, the world is only materialistic in its essence and, consequently, we can live without the idea of spirit because we do not need such an old concept in our modern civilization. As it appears, although we have evacuated the spirit, we still need some soteriology, as if matter itself or the materialistic perspective are not sufficient to satisfy our transcendental longings. Since the beyond and the spiritual were defenestrated, we are left with matter, physics, or chemistry, and lots of equations and scientific laws, and they are the sole promise and possibility of redemption we are left with. Nevertheless, because materialism becomes very swiftly tedious, it seems that we need more and more of it to satisfy our insatiable appetite and transcendental longing. If we do not obtain sufficiently, we are rapidly dissatisfied