From Sex to Humanity: How to be Human - A Guide in Two Parts (Part 2)

And the notion of community does not just rest with those living and breathing. In African thought it extends to those ancestors who came before you and goes on to those who will follow. In this, you, the living individual human being, are part of a multi-dimensional lattice of relationships, some of them linked though acts of sexual union, others through a knowledge that you are part of the same community. “Ubuntu,” says theologian Michael Battle, “refers to the person who is welcoming, who is hospitable, who is warm and generous, who is affirming of others, who does not feel threatened that others are able and good for [this person], has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing they belong in a greater whole, and known that they are diminished when another is humiliated, is diminished, is tortured, is oppressed, is treated as if they were less than who they are. What a wonderful world it can be, it will be, when we know that our destinies are locked inextricably into one another’s.”

Spiritual

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Recognising that there are aspects of our life and existence that reach beyond pure physical explanation, that seeks to see why relationships are so important, that looks for ways of empathising with others’ feelings, points us towards the spiritual nature of humanity.

You could see the relationship between a person’s spirituality and their religious outlook as analogous to the relationship between a person’s sexuality and their sexual activity. Sexuality influences many different aspects of a person’s life and the way that he or she relates to other people, only one of which is their pattern for sexual activity. People’s sexuality is part of the way they are made and also reflects the way they are shaped by their upbringing, but the way that they express that part of their being in sexual intercourse is strongly influenced by moral values, religious teaching and legal rulings of the society they live in. Sexual activity is often the issue that becomes debated endlessly because it is the most obvious outward revelation of a person’s sexuality, but to limit the discussion of sexuality to sex would miss the full extent of the issue.

In terms of spirituality, could you say that a person’s religious behaviour was the tip of the spiritual iceberg? If so, it would be a mistake to say that the tip was all there was, equally it would be a mistake for religiously minded people to forget the mass of spiritual existence that supports their faith.