Holistic Religion: Heart, Mind, soul and Strength

One of the central practices in Judaism from ancient days involves the recitation of what is called the Shema. It is called that because the first word in Hebrew is “shema,” which means to hear. It is a command, however, and means more precisely, “Listen to this with the fullness of your being and a complete intention of obeying.” I think I would have rabbinical approval of this interpretation of “shema.”
 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
The shema was taught to the Israelites by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4. The full shema constitutes Deuteronomy 6:4-9, but often just the first verse (“Hear O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one”) is recited. Alternatively, verses 4&5 are considered to be one unit. Jesus quoted them as being one commandment when he was asked what the greatest commandment was in incidents recorded in Mark 12:28-31, Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28. In each of these occasions, Jesus was asked to give his opinion on a matter that was the subject of much discussion among rabbis and scholars of the torah: was there a commandment that encompassed and encapsulated all the commandments? Jesus cited this commandment from Deuteronomy, as well one from Leviticus: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Shema expresses well the holistic and integral nature of the religious-spiritual journey that we are looking at in this sermon series. In Mark, the verse reads “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” These four aspects describe a spirituality that encompasses the fullness of human life and being. Let’s look at each briefly:
  • ·   “Heart”: the heart denotes that central place within human life that directs our actions according to that which we hold to be of ultimate concern and commitment. As I phrase it in the Call to Worship for January 23: “We begin by placing God in the center of our desires, hopes, intentions, designs and wishes for the world. God is the Source of our purposes and the Goal of all our strivings.”
  • ·   “Soul”: The Greek for this is psyche, which can also refer to one’s being. Soul is a hard concept to grasp, and its definition tends to vary according to whoever is commenting upon it. Soul is very much connected to who we are individually. It expresses that point of our being that serves to unify our experiences, decisions, learnings and uniqueness. It is not the same thing as our personality, but is the connective cord that ties together the various personal facets that constitutes us as human beings. In the Call to worship I describe the soul as “All that defines us, all that is a result of our decisions, all that we achieve and do in the world is set aflame by our inner fire, the small light that is our own that we let shine.”
  • ·   “Mind”: Trying precisely to define mind has proven to be a source of great vexation in modern discussions of the brain, mind and body. It involves our processes of thinking logically, making decisions, reflecting upon our experiences, responding to sensory input, communicating, imagining, creating and so on. Perhaps it is most helpful to consider mind as that function moves towards purposeful action based upon our circumstances and what we determine to be in keeping with our deepest values and commitments. In the words of the call to worship: “Our thoughts direct the dreams of our hearts, propel our bodies into action and our mouths open in speech; our understanding deepens and broadens the territories of our commitments.”
  • ·   “Strength”: This refers to the process of embodying and enacting our decisions and commitments. It is not enough simply to have an idea in mind or espouse an ideal, we have to put it on the ground, as it were. It has to go from heart to mind to feet. The call to worship reflects on this activity this way: “As we live, move, speak, love and act in the world, we are animated and activated, inspired and propelled by the One who is at our Center and breathes the Life that comes from Eternity into our fragile frames.”


Visit the webpages devoted to Journey to the Heart of God for further research, information and thoughts on what holistic religion is all about. And come join us on the journey.














(Image sources: shema recitation from http://www.pattybrdarphoto.com/israel/1003ShemaLarge.jpg; shema papercut from http://www.jewishpapercuts.net/images/shema_yisrael__letters.jpg;  shema in Hebrew from http://www.michaelnoyes.com/images/products/product_37_copyright.png;  Spiral flower photo by Frank Starmer, used by permission: http://frank.itlab.us/photo_essays/small/jun_10_5314_spiral_flower.jpg)

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