Horizonal Spirituality

Spirituality is often assumed to be ontological. It's assumed to have something to say about the true nature of being. It's assumed to involve concepts, whether natural or supernatural, which we may not be able picture in our minds, but which we can discuss in the abstract.

I propose the term horizonal spirituality for a spirituality based on perception.

Although I'm familiar with the concept of infinity, if I try to picture in my mind an infinite number of coins or an infinite number of elephants, I find that I can't. I can only picture something that fits into a finite horizon. If I can't picture something, I can't perceive it ; and if I can't perceive it, I must doubt its existence.

Perception here isn't limited to physical sensation, or to things which actually exist. I can picture someone halfway around the world. I can picture Superman flying. I can even picture the entire universe, if I picture it squeezed into a very small space, or a subatomic particle if I picture it magnified many times. In this sense, I can perceive these things. But I can't picture a maximally perfect infinite being. This is something that doesn't fit within my functional mental horizon.

Horizonal spirituality, then, is not concerned with the God that Anselm of Canterbury and his ontological successors attempted to prove through logical reasoning, but it's not necessarily anti-theistic. Rather, it's iconic in that supernatural beings that come in discreet forms can be part of it, as can other images or items that you might place on an altar and focus your attention on. It can be pantheistic or naturalistic, it's just not concerned with concepts which are fundamentally imperceptible.