Ontological Gratitude and the Idea of a Secular Spirituality

Dr Richard Colledge (Australian Catholic University)

Abstract: In his 2010 article, “Secular Spirituality and the Logic of Giving Thanks”, John Bishop takes his cue from a recent address by Richard Dawkins (that appears to suggest the appropriateness of a “naturalised spirituality” involving “existential gratitude”) to re-examine some aspects of Robert Solomon’s Spirituality for the Skeptic (2002). This paper picks up on Bishop’s engagements with both Dawkins and Solomon, but introduces also Hannah Arendt’s notion of “primary natality” into the discussion. My claim is that any serious naturalistic spirituality needs to take into account not only a gratitude for one’s existence per se, but for the whole context of individual and collective being