The overall aim of the European SPES Forum is to make spirituality accessible as a public good to as many people as possible. Or, to phrase it differently: to open up spirituality as a vital source in social and economic life. This aim is expressed in the key word of SPES, being on the one hand an acronym for ‘SPirituality in Economics and Society’ and, on the other hand, the Latin word for Hope, the virtue that sustains our belief in a better future.
Spirituality is deliberately defined in broad and pluralistic terms so that the Forum may bring together people from different spiritual backgrounds and traditions: Christians, Buddhists, spiritual freethinkers, Jews, Muslims. Our working definition is: Spirituality is the multiform search for a transcendent or deep meaning of life that connects people to each other and brings them in touch with God or ‘Ultimate Reality’. Within this definition there is room for differing views, for spiritualities with and without God and for an ethics of dialogue or ‘active pluralism’.
The European SPES Forum wants to offer an alternative, not only to all kinds of religious fundamentalism (in which spirituality is dogmatised to become an exclusive religion or truth), but also to materialistic and technocratic humanism (which ignores spirituality, making it an entirely individual and private matter). Our alternative to religious fundamentalism and technocratic humanism is a form of spiritual humanism which, among others, European ‘personalist’ philosophers have defended on philosophical grounds.
(Philosophers belonging to the stream of European ‘personalism’ are e.g. Henry Bergson, Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Max Scheler, Romano Guardini, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, Emmanuel Levinas, or Dorothée Sölle. But many other philosophers not linked to ‘personalism’ have written on the theme of spirituality. E.g. Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida or Ludwig Wittgenstein.)
There are, of course, many religious and church-based centres that offer spirituality, in a wide variety of shapes and forms, but these tend to focus on either the more mystical or the more theological and pastoral aspects of spirituality. They offer less scope for a spirituality for secular life that looks into ways in which spiritual motives play a role or could play a role within everyday economic, social and professional life. The European SPES Forum has a focus on experience-based spirituality that succeeds in making a connection between day-to-day activities and the inner, pluriform quest for meaning.
On a more organisational level, the Forum functions as an interface and a network for three target groups: |
