Feelings of self-transcendence, of connectedness to God, others, and the world, are widely seen as a principal feature of spiritual well-being. So when pandemic conditions shut us in and, to a degree, cut us off from our normal routines of living, this can lead to psychological and even spiritual depression. David Perrin is a professor of religious studies at St. Jerome’s University of the University of Waterloo in Canada. By craft and training, he is a theologian, a former president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, a widely published scholar on spirituality, and the author of a forthcoming article titled “The Collapse of Self-Transcendence: COVID-19 and the Reshaping of Meaning-Making in Everyday Life.” During this episode we discuss self-transcendence as a feature of human experience, how the pandemic affects us spiritually, and how to work through and past our present circumstances.
Interview by Matthew Wickman, Founding Director BYU Humanities Center.
Produced and edited by Brooke Browne and Sam Jacob.
Belden Lane is Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies, American Religion, and History of Spirituality at Saint Louis University. He is the author of several...
Katie Kresser is Professor of Art History at Seattle Pacific University and author of the 2019 book Bezalel’s Body: The Death of God and...
Norman Wirzba is Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. The...
