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It jars upon our sensibilities and disturbs our preconceived notions to be told that the spiritual has its root in the carnal and is as truly its product as the flower is the product of the roots and the stalk of the plant. The conception does not cheapen or degrade the spiritual, it elevates the carnal, the material. To regard the soul and body as one, or to ascribe to consciousness a physiological origin, is not detracting from its divinity, it is rather conferring divinity upon the body. One thing is inevitably linked with another, the higher forms with the lower forms, the butterfly with the grub, the flower with the root, the food we eat with the thought we think, the poem we write, or the picture we paint, with the processes of digestion and nutrition. How science has enlarged and ennobled and purified our conception of the universe; how it has cleaned out the evil spirits that have so long terrified mankind, and justified the verdict of the Creator: "and behold it was good." With its indestructibility of matter, its conservation of energy, its violability of cause and effect, its unity of force and elements throughout sidereal space, it has prepared the way for a conception of man, his origin, his development, and in a measure his destiny, that at last makes him at home in the universe.

The early modern period was rich in the development of devotional practices. It was a continuation of this greater flowering of inward practices which marks the end of the Middle Ages. Discipline, method, the new sense of human agency was turned to account by Ignatius Loyola in the form of spiritual exercises which were intended to open us to God. The "devout humanism" of early seventeeth century France... explored the ways of achieving a "theocentrism" of one's life. It supposes, and at the same time intensifies, a high degree of reflectiveness about one's own orientation, a consciousness of the distraction and self-absorption that currently dominates, and proposes ways to nourish a dedication to and a love of God which will take us beyond these. In these practices of prayer and devotion, and in the reflections, say, of St. François de Sales, in his Traité de l'Amour de Dieu, God's presence in the world, however narrowed in the theories of theologians, is still very much felt.

But devout humanism supposes that we can find within us that élan towards God on which we can build, the seed which we can nourish. Now this falls afoul of the strand of hyper-Augustinian spirituality which was so powerful in that age. If our nature is really quite depraved, then the hope of finding this élan within us can be a snare and a delusion, a figment of our own pride. Recognizing our distance from God, we can only throw ourselves on his mercy, hoping that he will heal our ruined nature. We must obey his commandments from a distance in fear, rather than presume to approach him in love.

- A Secular Age, p. 229

Distance ages and remote regions of space are as real to it as what is present and near. In thought, it rises above the life of the senses, seeking always what is general and open to all men. In desire and will, it aims simply at the good, without regarding the good as mine or yours. In feeling, it gives love to all, not only to those who further the purposes of the self. Unlike the finite self, it is impartial; its impartiality leads to truth in thought, justice in action, and universal love in action

- Betrand Russell, famous atheist.