Jesus’ life provides the template, the BEST example, of how we are to grow in six ways (Luke 2:52).
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy became the standard for understanding human development and setting institutional policies to support healthy populations after WWII. However, in an attempt to avoid the messy complication of having to weigh in on and risk trampling on diverse religious beliefs, institutions lopped off the top of Maslow’s theory….. “peak transcendent experiences,” i.e. spiritual experiences, as unnecessary to achieving the fullest measure of human self-actualization. Notice how the six ways that the Bible says we are to grow correlates well with Maslow’s hierarchy when one restores Maslow’s spiritual observations. Some would say, “Isn’t morally the same as spiritually?” No, it isn’t. Morality is predicated on shared values and understanding within culture/ community of “right” and “wrong”. One can be “moral” according to those shared values without knowledge of or a relationship with the Divine Spirituality entails pursuit of a higher standard…. the virtues and attributes of the Divine and an intimate relationship with the Divine.
Christian spirituality exalts the virtues observed in the life of Jesus Christ and embraces the Holy Spirit’s indwelling to aid in living into those virtues personally.
