One of the important “spiritual laws” that guided the early Christian community was neatly formulated by St. Augustine: in the Christian life, only God is to be enjoyed in himself, the things of this earth are to be used for the sake of human life and the life of faith, and, finally, other people and oneself are to be enjoyed because of a relation to God and used in the earthly affairs of life. This three-part spiritual law, defined by the relation between human acts of use and those of enjoyment, has shaped not only the piety and practice of many Christian communities, but it has also oriented Christian reflection on the status and use of the whole realm of creation, social life, and personal relations. What is more, analogous “spiritual laws” to this one found in Christianity can be found in other religious traditions. A Buddhist, for example, is not to “cling” to desire for things of this world as the realm of samsara, but also must have compassion for all that do suffer, human or non-human. In doing so, a Buddhist takes refuge in the Dharma. However, now that humans have the technological means to fundamentally alter and enhance forms of life, human and non-human, are there “spiritual laws” for enhancing life other than those defined by the distinction between “use” and “enjoyment?” Can we discern orientation for the enhancing of this life in ways other than an opposition between what is to be enjoyed and what is to be used?
What is submerged, what is implicit, and what is not sufficiently examined? Where can “Enhancing Life Studies” make a difference? Where do we want to shift scholarly attention?
With Enhancing Life Studies we will shift and refocus the religious debate about the use of this life in order to explore the connection between enhancing finite life and enhancing spiritual life. We thereby face a double challenge: First, we need to discern and reformulate notions of the value of finite life by uncovering and articulating the spiritual laws that orient human personal and communal life in regard to that value. Second, we want to move beyond the rigid distinction between “use” and “enjoyment,” a distinction which has too often lead to de-valuing this present life in order to explore and analyze a more complex multi-dimensional account of the value of finite life in terms of needs and potentialities (see Project Description).
We also ask: what aspirations for enhancing life assume implicitly a strong notion of value not reducible to “use-value” or “enjoyment” that is formulated by spiritual laws? What gives people spiritual orientation for the enhancement of this life?