Awe as the Foundation of Religion: Reflections on the Universe and Life

By Wojciech Maria Zalewski

In this book, the author searches for the essence of religion. Despite its existence from the beginning of humanity and being a universal phenomenon, religion is not defined uniformly. Humanity has always searched for a theory of everything, on one hand, through humanistic means, one of them being religion, on the other hand, through scientific explorations. In both realms, awe is the force that prompts these investigations.

The author proposes the understanding of religion as based on two premises. First, awe is a natural, positive, permanent, intimate, life-supporting emotion founded in the human experience of the unity of the universe and life, whether realized or not. Second, religion is an expression of that unity through awe. Once it is conceptualized, it metastasizes through culture and civilizations into a variety of religious traditions, all with a common denominator: awe. Through experiencing awe, everyone is a religious person unified with the mysterious unity of the universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889433941

Book preview

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Awe as the Foundation of Religion

Reflections on the Universe and Life

Wojciech Maria Zalewski

ISBN 979-8-88943-393-4 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89043-489-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88943-394-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Wojciech Maria Zalewski

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All citations from the scriptures follow Attridge, Harold W. (ed.), The HarperCollins Study Bible, fully revised and updated, New Revised Standard Version, HarperCollins, 2006.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preamble

Mind over Brain

Awe

Manifestations of Awe

Awe toward the Universe: The Scientific Dimension

Awe toward Life in the Standard Model

The Brain as the Center of Awe

Brain with Amygdala

Awe and Religion: The Theological Theory of Everything

Awe in Social Settings: Culture and Civilization

Culture: Religion Affirms Life

Civilization: Religious Traditions

Awe and God

Concluding Reflections

Addenda

Examples of Awe

Hebrew Bible

Psalm 148:3–11.

Psalm 148

The Lord's Prayer, gospel according to Matthew 6:9–13

The Lord's Prayer (A New Testament Prayer)

We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd by Walt Whitman

About the Author

In honor of my mother and my late wife, Rosemarie, with whom I built life for over fifty years

To my children—Barbara with her husband, Robert, and Marcus

To my grandchildren—Nadia, Sofia, Naomi, Adeleine, and Asher

To my wife, Krystyna, who supported this endeavor

I am also grateful to my editor and colleague Dr. Karen Rondestvedt and a number of friends with whom I had the privilege to discuss my thoughts and who encouraged its publication.

These reflections were written as an expression of gratitude for the nanosecond of the universe time given to me to be a part of the awe-inspiring universe-life god as well as a participant and contributor to the chain of life, with its manifold mysteries.

In the beginning was the big bang.

In the beginning when God [Elohim] created.

—Genesis 1:1

In the beginning was the Word [Logos].

—Gospel according to John 1:1

Now I know only in part; then I will know fully… And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

—1 Corinthians 13:12–13

Scio me nihil scire. (I know that I know nothing)

—Socrates

Awe is sort of this ineffable sense of transcendence.

—James Doty, Stanford University neurosurgeon and compassion scholar

Preamble

I am life. Life contains every part of the universe. I am within it. The universe is pulsating in me. I experience it through awe. Response to awe is religion.

In a world of wonder and great scientific discoveries of the key ingredients of the universe and life, I have my own place, which I experience through awe. I am an entity functioning according to a set of universal principles anchored in me. Perforce I feel them subconsciously. I cannot define the phenomena that physically and emotionally link me with the universe and life. I am touching them as I touch forces such as gravity and other nonmass elements of this universe and the force of life—vis vitalis. It is an experience of awe and beauty. Awe, in turn, sanctifies the universe and life and becomes religion. The rest is descriptive.

Part 1

Mind over Brain

Awe

What is awe? Awe is sort of this ineffable sense of transcendence, said Stanford neurosurgeon and compassion scholar James Doty. In some ways, you melt into it.¹ Awe is an emotion. Emotions are natural reactions to the environment in defense of life. They are both passing events and permanent attitudes. They originate in the nervous system and follow to the limbic system, in the brain. Among emotions are admiration, adoration, appreciation of beauty, anger, anxiety, awe, empathy, excitement, fear, horror, joy, and nostalgia, among others.

My interest here is awe. There are numerous understandings of awe. Scholarly investigation of awe is relatively recent. Seminal studies by Keltner and Haidt of