MAN HOW TO BE BIOPSYCHOSPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVOTION ACCORDING TO VIKTOR FRANKL

Abstract

The understanding of the essence of human nature and its relationship with religious devotion, as a search for the ultimate meaning of existence, has been an issue much studied by Philosophy, Theology, Religion Sciences and Psychology. The aim of this article is to present a reflection on this theme, from the perspective of three-dimensional philosophical anthropology of the neuropsychiatrist Viktor Frankl. As a method, a review of the main works of this author was carried out, with emphasis on the anthropological foundations of his Logotherapy, in dialogue with other understandings. For Frankl, man is a spiritual being that exists as unity and three-dimensional body-soul-spirit totality. The noological (spiritual) dimension contains the rational, moral, intellectual, emotional and existential human singularities of freedom of decision and responsibility, before the attractive values of life and the search for the ultimate meaning of existence, expressed by religious devotion. We are masters of our will, but servants of our voice of conscience, in the sense that it comes from the spiritual unconscious, which enables us to tune into the eternal moral law, in the face of concrete situations of meanings to be realized in life.  Life summons every human being to a mission to accomplish that is his alone, as being neither disposable nor replaceable; able to find meaning even in suffering. For the religious human being, despite involving the risk of climbing higher places and surrounded by fog, the accomplishment of this last task becomes much easier than for the irreligious person. In healthy religious devotion, in which man clings to the merciful forgiveness of a loving God, afflictions are more easily faced with unconditional spirit and peace.