The Quest for the Universal Human

Recently I gave an address to a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on the topic of "The Quest for the Universal Human: The Relevance of an Impossible Ideal." The main idea is that as human beings we have a higher "self-actualizing" and "self-transcending" need beyond the basic needs for survival, security, belonging and success. We search for profound meaning and integrative perspective. This search for snoptic vision and encompassing dialogue had led me to explore wisdom traditions, comparative worldviews, historical sensibilities, liberal arts, psychological theories and social ideologies. I am convinced that this is the body of general knowledge that every university student and educated adult needs to know, and probably doesn't. Our educational programs in the United States largely fail to give us a conceptual, imaginative, and spiritually transforming framework large enough to live a fully conscious and creative life in today's pluralist society and global age. Likewise, our religious communities continue to live in isolated cultural enclaves, largely ignorant of how other spiritual and cultural traditions can relate to each other in a constructive and complementary way. We are still thinking in terms of polarizing dichotomies rather than in terms of creative paradoxes. What do you think?