ABSTRACT
Sir Charles Lyell is said to have coined the phrase “mind over matter” in 1863. Perhaps influenced by the work of Darwin, Lyell was referring to the dominance acquired by beings with developed intelligence (humans) over other species and physical objects. However, Western religious traditions have long privileged the immaterial (or spiritual), transcendent sphere of existence over the mundane aspects of human lives reflected in matter. This metaphysical division is said to be rooted in the Judeo-Christian tra- dition, in which God is represented by a disembodied voice that interacts with embodied human beings (McDanell, 1995). Durkheim’s (1915) classic work on the sacred and profane is a well-known example of this tendency to separate the material from immaterial and view them as dichotomous realms—spirit vs. matter; piety vs. commerce—thus marginalizing the material in the study of religious and spiritual practice.
