Scholar envisions the study of spirituality as a cultural force

So what exactly is secular spirituality, and why should scholars, doctors, businessmen and educators take notice?

''It has to do with the mind-body connection, with some transcendent or higher level of consciousness that has an impact o­n your daily life,'' said Katz, who officially launched the center when the Dalai Lama visited South Florida a year ago.

In other words, it's spirituality that applies to almost everything: meditating to lower blood pressure, treating attention deficit disorder with Tai Chi, quelling anxiety through yoga and using prayer to improve concentration at work.

Through public seminars, workshops and, eventually, a graduate level certificate program, Katz hopes to drive the synthesis of spiritual practice and worldly pursuits like health, finance and the arts. Currently, the center operates o­n an annual budget of $50,000 to $100,000 from grants and other private sources. Katz said he hopes that with more money, they will soon add a research component and for-credit classes.

It's a vision that might be too edgy for some.

''A lot of people think it's just kooky. I mean a lot,'' said Katz. ``I'm interested in the study of spirituality as a very powerful cultural force that's global, that we need to understand. Some colleagues can't see the difference between that interest, which is what the center is about, and simply bringing in a bunch of preachers and having a circus: Here's a Buddhist, here's a Hindu, here's a Jew.''

Still, many of Katz's colleagues have come to share his view of spirituality -- that it can't be confined to religious texts or to temples, churches and mosques.

''In the academic setting, our emphasis tends to be just that: academic. At the center we emphasize the integration of spirituality into our everyday life,'' said Daniel Alvarez, a professor of world religions at FIU and a fellow at the center. ``Dr. Katz has made that part of his signature.''

SURGING INTEREST

Interest in spirituality has surged in recent years both o­n college campuses and more broadly within American culture, scholars and religious leaders say. Pop culture has become increasingly spirit-saturated since stars like Madonna and Britney Spears have made yoga and Kabbalah hip, the Dalai Lama has posed for Microsoft ads and TV shows such as Joan of Arcadia have cast a spotlight o­n mysticism. A 2003 survey of spirituality and higher education conducted by the University of California in Los Angeles found that 74 percent of college students rely o­n spiritual beliefs for guidance.

Universities, however, have been slow to acknowledge the trend.

''There continues to be a considerable amount of bias against studying religion and spirituality,'' said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University and a director at Duke's Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. ``When you think that most medical care came out of the church and that many of the behavioral sciences come out of religion, it's surprising that this area is not being widely studied.''

Several universities, including Indiana State, George Washington University, the University of Florida and the University of Minnesota, have started centers to integrate spirituality and health. None, however, have construed spirituality as broadly as the FIU center, Koenig said.

''People are finding a role for spirituality in education, in health, in the arts,'' said FIU president Modesto Maidique. ``Nathan is o­ne of those faculty members that has a wide breadth of knowledge.''

Katz said the idea for the center came from the teachings of the 14th Dalai Lama, perhaps the most recognized religious figure in the Western world after the pope. Katz first met the Dalai Lama in 1973. They met a number of times thereafter, including in 1990 during a Jewish-Buddhist dialogue in Dharamsala, India, where the exiled Tibetan leader maintains his government. Katz later invited the renowned Buddhist monk to speak at FIU. The subject of his 1999 talk became Katz's mission.

'Before he went o­n, he smiled and arched his eyebrows and said, `What should I talk about?' 5,000 people were waiting,'' Katz recalled. 'I said, `You're at a university, why don't you talk about our American education system?' So he went o­n stage and said, 'Your American universities do a wonderful job of training the intellect, the brain, but you don't do a good job of training the heart.' ''

For Katz, who has no problem playing spiritual chameleon, the real rift in religion today lies not between faiths, but between liberals and traditionalists. Katz says the piety divide can turn members of a single faith against o­ne another, causing conservatives to dismiss less literal interpretations of the faith as heresy, and liberals to regard orthodox observance as fundamentalists.

''It's much harder for a Reform Jew to talk to an Orthodox Jew than it is for him to talk to an Episcopalian,'' Katz said. ``I wish the center could play some tiny role in getting them to appreciate o­ne another. That's the divide in the world today.''

BY ALEXANDRA ALTER
aalter@herald.comKD VIII N7 Glowing