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Spiritual Intelligence, the Behavioral Sciences, and the Humanities
Frank MacHovec, Ph.D.
The Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, Maine, Queenston,
Ontario, & Lampeter, Wales. 2002, 291 pages.
Reviewed by
Rabbi A. James Rudin
Frank MacHovec is a clinical psychologist who has taught at
Rappahannock Community College and Christopher Newport University, both in
Virginia. His main thesis is the belief that a “Spiritual Intelligence Quotient”
(SIQ) is a constant in human history that frequently transcends organized
religion.
The author illustrates this thesis with many examples from
the realms of art, music, poetry, religion, and even politics. MacHovec’s book
ranges far and wide, including references from the Hebrew Bible, the New
Testament, Abraham Maslow, B.F. Skinner, William Shakespeare, Eric Fromm,
Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi and many other sources. MacHovec devotes a
large section of his book to Asian religions, but surprisingly scant attention
is given to the Koran and Islamic teachings.
There are many charts that compare and contrast traditional
organized religion with SIQ. There is a test for readers to determine one’s SIQ
rating. MacHovec is not anti-religious, but the book’s constant refrain is his
repeated declaration about a spiritual quality that exists outside of churches,
synagogues, temples, and mosques.
This is certainly not news to any student of religion, but
MacHovec goes to great, even excessive length to anchor SIQ in a scientific way
that draws on sociology and psychology.
Few readers will question the author’s assertion that
compassion, self-esteem, love of others, reconciliation, and self-exploration
are commendable goals. Nor will most readers challenge MacHovec’s belief that
one can gain spiritual satisfaction outside the confines of organized religion.
After extensive quotes from MacHovec’s many spiritual
mentors and lengthy descriptions of various religious beliefs, the author
concludes with his eight cardinal principles of SIQ: there is a higher power
outside ourselves that is positive and good, there is goodness in everyone, it
is better to love than to hate, it is better to do good and give than to
receive, all life is sacred, all men and women are brothers and sisters, truth
is sacred whatever its source, and life is a mission as much as it is a career.
Perhaps MacHovec did not intend it, but the themes of his
book are, in fact, not that different from sermons frequently preached in
traditional religions’ many houses of worship.
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