Abstract
Keywords
Exemplars have been serving as inspiring, motivating and guiding models of virtue and excellence in various fields such as morality, wisdom, care, and bravery since ancient times (Bronk, 2012a; Olberding, 2012). The study of spiritual exemplars, however, has been sparse (Oman & Thoresen, 2003) and focused on text-based study of well-known figures (Goshen-Gottstein, 2017; Sharma & Kennick, 2012) or on exemplars’ self-reports of their experience and understanding (Costeines, 2009; James, 1958; King et al., 2014). The present study pioneers in its portrayal of spiritual exemplars from the perspective of those who perceive them as such.
The psychological roles that exemplars play in general and in the religious and spiritual field in particular will first be described, followed by reviewing the study to date of spiritual exemplars and its lacunas. The state of the art of exemplar methodology will be described and the innovative methodological approach of this study, that responds to these lacunas, will be presented.
Exemplars: generic roles and roles in the religious and spiritual domain
In almost every area in which human aspiration for excellence or virtue is expressed, from boxing to singing and from compassion to bravery, a special place is reserved for exemplars of that area. These are individuals who are perceived as embodying an ideal of excellence or virtue, the highest human potential or the “vertex of maturity” (Piaget, 1970) toward which development in that area leads.
For those who aspire to develop, thrive and excel in any area, its exemplars serve several functions. Their example “seems to be a very effective way to remind ourselves of the kind of persons we wish to be” (Croce & Silvia Vaccarezza, 2017). In addition, exemplars attract, inspire, and give confidence that success might be achievable also for others (Moberg, 2000), and admiration of them motivates emulation (Zagzebski, 2017). Furthermore, exemplars’ embodiment of “ideal conceptions” allows for an understanding of what these conceptions, which are often abstract, vague or unclear, actually mean. Finally, reflecting on the choices and practices of exemplars can provide important clues about what is required, to come closer to the ideal (Harrison & Gayle, 2020).
The study of exemplars has been in existence since ancient times. In
In the religious domain too, a special place is reserved in many traditions for those who exemplify the ideal state, desideratum, and holy grail of the tradition. Often, the ultimate personification of that ideal is the founder of the religion, its “original saint” (Scheler, 1987). Accounts of the lives and persons of these founders, in which myth and fact are inextricably interwoven, play an important inspirational, directive, and educational role for the adherents. For example, the words and actions of Muhammad are recorded in the Ḥadīth, the source for religious law and moral guidance in Islam (Sayeed, n.d.). The New Testament records the life events and person of Jesus, and the imitation of Christ has been viewed as the fundamental purpose of Christian life (Burridge, 2007). And the Buddha’s actions and responses to different situations, recorded in the Buddhist scriptures, are commonly referred to by Buddhists as worthy of emulation (Flores, 2009).
In addition to the founders, many traditions also have “entire classes of holy persons . . . [who] function as paradigms for piety and [whose] holiness inspires cultic veneration” (Cohn, 1988) and who exemplify “the ideal of the tradition in its concrete manifestations in the lives of humans” (Goshen-Gottstein, 2017). They are the saint in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the
The importance of such exemplars for religious and spiritual formation, development, transformation, and thriving is evident in these traditions (Oman, 2013; Oman & Thoresen, 2003). As Bandura (1986) points out, Modeling influences can serve as instructors, inhibitors, disinhibitors, facilitators, stimulus enhancers, and emotion arousers . . . People can acquire abstract principles but remain in a quandary about how to implement them if they have not had the benefit of illustrative exemplars. (pp. 50, 73)
Learning from such “illustrative exemplars” was named by Oman and Thoresen (2003) “spiritual modeling,” and they wrote, Throughout history, religious traditions have emphasized the importance of keeping company with good or holy persons, arguing that people tend to become more like persons with whom they associate . . . Relationships with spiritual models may determine how people engage themselves in a variety of organizational and nonorganizational spiritual practices, what sorts of religious coping strategies they employ, under what conditions they act morally consistent with their beliefs, and the nature of their beliefs about what is sacred and ultimate.
Bandura (2003) agreed with Oman and Thoresen on the “paramount role of spiritual modeling in the development and exercise of spirituality,” and emphasized that the spiritual modeling framework could be applied not only to organized religions, but also to the “growing pluralization of spiritual interests and manifestations” in modern society (p. 170). Oman et al. (2008), who explored the integration of spiritual modeling in education, argued that “There is good reason to believe that regularly exposing students to spiritual models (both religious and non-religious) can help them absorb and emulate the models’ character strengths” (p. 82).
The study of spiritual exemplars
The study of spiritual exemplars, conducted so far, can be divided to two types. The first relies on secondhand (and sometimes much more distant) textual descriptions of well-known religious and public figures. Studies of this type focused on the characterization of the spiritual paragons’ personality, values, words, and actions. They emphasized the exoteric or “performative” dimension of those figures, such as founding, reforming or revolutionizing a tradition or institution, and/or their being “apt to have accomplished a great deal and been successful in their missions” (Scarlett, 2012). The second type of research relies on firsthand accounts—letters, diaries, autobiographies of and interviews with the spiritual exemplars themselves. Studies of this type focused on the spiritual exemplars’ experience and understanding, conveyed from the exemplars’ perspective.
The first studies of spiritual exemplars across different cultural and historical contexts, conducted at the beginning of the 20th century by Richard M. Bucke and William James, represent these two types of study. Bucke (1901), who found and described more than a dozen people who displayed what he called
Additional text-based studies of religious and spiritual exemplars, published more than a century later (Goshen-Gottstein, 2017; Scarlett, 2012; Sharma & Kennick, 2012), belonged to the first type. In the introduction to Sharma and Kennick’s (2012) book
Of the second type of study, the first after James’ (1958) was Conway’s (1988) doctoral study on “The criteria for spiritual realization.” In that study, Conway surveyed two dozen spiritual teachers “representative of different sects within the Great Traditions.” The participants were asked to respond, via Likert-type scale ratings and open-ended commentary, on 20 previously-selected “possible aspects of spiritual realization” according to existing literature. Conway found that the criteria most consistently affirmed by the participants included “Equanimity, bliss, unattachment to extraordinary experiences, compassionate serving of sentient beings, freedom from exclusive sense of “me,” intuition of nonduality, love of God/Supreme Reality . . . etc.” (in the Abstract of the paper). Based on his findings, Conway (1988) concluded that teachers from different traditions “seem to share most if not virtually all of the most important altered traits of consciousness . . .” Considering the methodology used, however, Conway commented that, in his study, what was measured was only “people’s thoughts about the criteria for spiritual realization” (p. 331).
Several phenomenological studies of current spiritual teachers/masters followed. These interview-based studies focused on the firsthand experiences and/or understandings of spiritual teachers/masters, including less publicly known ones. Each of them focused on a different, pre-defined group: one on a specific tradition (Nagle, 2004), others on a pre-determined spiritual scheme (Costeines, 2009; Kilrea, 2013) and others on a specific age group (Abo-Zena & King, 2021; King et al., 2014, 2017).
Nagle’s (2004) doctoral study aimed at determining whether “the theory of the Self presented in the
Costeines’ (2009) doctoral dissertation on “What enlightenment means” was based on a qualitative study of “nondual consciousness” as experienced by sixteen “purportedly enlightened spiritual teachers” who “best represented the criteria for the stage of nondual consciousness” (p. 73). Costeines conducted a semi-structured interview with each of the participants and concluded that the participants’ “stable traits” included “nondual ontology, disidentification from mental constructs, timeless awareness, mental lucidity, nondual action, beatific peace spontaneous joy, absence of neurotic suffering, unitive relationships, unitive love awareness of spiritual immortality, and awareness of positive cosmology” (p. iii).
Kilrea’s (2013) doctoral dissertation on “the everyday, lived, physical, and sensory experience of spiritual enlightenment” was based on her dialogue-style interviews with four well-known spiritual teachers. Kilrea reported that each of the participants had undergone “a radical inner transformation characterized by a loss of their previous sense of identity, worldview, way of relating, and usual sense of being” and reported that they were “feeling the body and its sensations more fully, and experience greater pleasure and well-being as a result of this transformation” (p. iii)
Finally, a series of studies of youth spiritual exemplars in different traditions and cultures was conducted over the last decade. It started with King, Clardy and Ramos’ (King et al., 2014) study, which aimed at developing “theory about psychological constructs relevant to spiritual development in diverse adolescents” (p. 186). It included in-depth interviews with 30 spiritual exemplars aged 12 to 21 years from six countries and eight religious traditions, who were nominated “for living with profound spirituality within their own culture.” The analyses of the data revealed that “the exemplars’ spirituality consisted of heightened transcendence, resolute commitment to an ideology, and behaviors consistent with their belief system” (p. 206). The authors also concluded that, for those adolescent spiritual exemplars, “spirituality was more than a feeling of transcendence; it was a means for understanding themselves and the world around them and also shaped their behavior” (p. 206).
Two additional studies of the same adolescent spiritual exemplars followed. In King, Abo-Zena and Weber’s (King et al., 2017) study, the authors explored the role of social influences on the religious and spiritual development of youth spiritual exemplars, and in Abo-Zena and King’s (2021) study, the authors sought to understand how youth spiritual exemplars “incorporate social influences in their own spiritual developmental trajectories” (p. 1).
Of these studies, Nagle’s (2004), Costeines’ (2009), and Kilrea’s (2013) were doctoral dissertations and do not carry as much credibility as peer-reviewed published articles. As mentioned above, each of the studies either emphasized the exoteric or “performative” dimension of its studied spiritual exemplars or focused on their self-described experience and understanding. In none of them was the spiritual exemplars’ perception by others or their impact on others directly explored by asking those who nominated or regarded them as such.
The aim of the present study is to address this lacuna, broaden the scope of our knowledge regarding spiritual exemplars and enrich it by exploring what makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another. To this effect, the focus of the present study was not narrowed to famous or known exemplars, nor to spiritual exemplars of a specific tradition, culture, gender, age or spiritual scheme. Rather, it sought to include a variety of spiritual exemplars rather than use constraining specifications. To obtain rich and varied information about the perception of spiritual exemplars by others, descriptions of such exemplars were obtained from expert informants, varied in their spiritual perspective and focus (academics, practitioners), tradition, gender, age, and geographical places. To further obtain nuanced, authentic, and in-depth information, the authors adopted a novel approach of nominating or identifying spiritual exemplars and describing them, different from the one commonly used in exemplar methodology.
Exemplar methodology
Exemplar methodology was defined by Bronk (2012a) as “a sample selection technique that involves the intentional selection of individuals, groups, or entities that exemplify the construct of interest in a highly developed manner” (p. 1). Damon and Colby (2013) maintained that the exemplar approach “is necessary for providing an
The first issue that researchers have to address when using exemplar methodology is that of nomination—how exemplars are recognized and/or chosen as study participants. The nomination strategy and process have crucial implications for any exemplar research, and much attention is usually given, therefore, to its design. Thus, Bronk (2012b) posited that “[a] systematic and thoughtful approach to devising nomination criteria . . . is key because who the exemplars are and which criteria are considered will significantly impact the study’s findings” (p. 6).
In previous studies of exemplars, one basic strategy of exemplar nomination has been commonly used. According to Bronk et al. (2013), “researchers first design nomination criteria that will be used to qualify potential participants as exemplars . . . [these] are shared with nominators who use them to identify potential exemplars” (pp 3, 4).
Common to all the exemplar studies conducted so far is that nomination criteria were primary and limiting. For example, the participants in Nagle’s (2004) study were nominated by experts for having “attained Self-realization,” and one of the selection criteria in Kilrea’s (2013) study was “a body positive approach to the experience of spiritual enlightenment.” A different approach to exemplar nomination, that was adopted in the present study, was implied by Algoe and Haidt’s (2009) and Haidt’s (2013) work on the “other-praising” emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration, and especially by Zagzebski’s (2010, 2015a, 2015b, 2017) “exemplarist moral theory.” Both Haidt and Zagzebski suggest that we identify exemplars “readily and spontaneously” (Harrison & Gayle, 2020) by the emotional response they evoke in us, before we are able to explain the cause for those emotions. Haidt uses the term “elevation” to describe that emotional response, while in Zagzebski’s model it is
Current study
In this study, an innovative approach to exemplar methodology, inspired by Zagzebski’s (2017) “exemplarist moral theory,” is applied in a study of spiritual exemplars from multiple spiritual traditions and approaches. Its objective is to shed light on the recognition and perception of spiritual exemplars by those who regard them as such. The primary question it explores is: what makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another? In other words, it asks, how do people recognize certain individuals and perceive them as spiritual exemplars? How do they describe or explain their recognition and perception? The study explores this question by analyzing descriptions, provided by experts in the religious-spiritual field, of individuals they perceived as spiritual exemplars, using a free-listing procedure.
Method
The term “spiritual exemplar”
Building on the principles of Zagzebski’s “exemplarist moral theory,” the authors decided to impose as minimal constraints as possible on the exemplar nomination process and instead use the experts’ descriptions of their exemplars to inductively characterize the exemplars. In so doing they also followed King, Mueller, and Furrow’s suggestion, in their paper
Nevertheless, several choices had to be made in formulating the request to the experts. The first choice was between the different terms previously used to denote those who exemplify the ideal of their spiritual-religious tradition or path. The terms “religious genius” (Goshen-Gottstein, 2017) and “spiritual master” (Sharma & Kennick, 2012) were excluded because of their previous definitions, which linked them exclusively to religious traditions. The term “spiritual teacher” was decided against because it implied that the individual had students whom they taught, which is not always the case (e.g, the Christian saint or the Buddhist
The second choice that had to be made was between the terms “religious exemplar” and “spiritual exemplar.” After some deliberation, and in light of their intention to broaden the scope, the authors decided to use the term “spiritual exemplar,” in order to accommodate exemplars both from within and outside religious traditions.
To indicate that the term “spiritual exemplar” included exemplars from within and without the traditions, the authors decided that, when introducing it to the experts, reference would be made to similar terms used in the Abrahamic traditions (e.g. God-realized), the Eastern traditions (e.g. enlightened), the indigenous-shamanic traditions (e.g. spirit-medium), and in humanistic/transpersonal psychology (e.g. self-transcendent).
Procedure
This study is the first of a large research project, whose goal is to shed light on spiritual exemplarity from different angles. At its first stage, 300 experts in the religious and spiritual field were selected, whom the authors intended to ask to nominate and describe their spiritual exemplars.
While some studies of exemplars relied on lay conceptions (e.g. Walker & Pitts, 1998), the expert approach (e.g. Colby & Damon, 1992) was used in most of them. The rationale for this is that experts in every field are epistemically advantaged over lay people in describing exemplars (Zagzebski, 2010), in articulating their perceptions, insights, and experiences, and in making the shift from the exemplar to the “abstract conceptual schemata” they exemplify (Olberding, 2012). In Colby and Damon’s (1992) study of moral exemplars, for example, the nominators were “people who reflect systematically about moral ideas as part of their professions” (p. 27) from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, In King et al. (2014) study of adolescent spiritual exemplars, the nominators included spiritual leaders and scholars from a wide range of religious and spiritual backgrounds. In this study, we expected that the experts would be able to provide thicker, richer, and more nuanced descriptions than lay people. Both scholars and practitioners in the field of the study may be considered experts (Bronk, 2012a), and it was decided to include both to allow for a broader perspective and greater variability.
The authors selected the experts using different sampling strategies, namely, the reputational case selection (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984; Miles & Huberman, 1994), opportunistic, snowball/chain, and intensity sampling (Kuzel, 1992; Miles & Huberman, 1994; Patton, 1990). With regards to the primary occupation or function of the experts (many of whom indicated several occupations or functions), more than half of them (161, 54%) were scholars. In choosing them, preference was given to scholars of living religions and effort was made to include scholars of different traditions from all over the world. Of the remaining experts, 46 (15%) functioned primarily as authority figures in different traditions, 17 (6%) as leaders of interfaith dialogue and heads of organizations and networks bringing together spiritual authority figures of different traditions, 18 (6%) were authors of books on spirituality and religion, 27 (9%) were spiritual or religious magazine and website editors and interviewers, and 31 (10%) were long-time spiritual seeker or practitioners.
The experts’ email addresses were obtained through directory profiles on the websites of the organizations that the experts were affiliated with, personal connections that the first author had from previous research work (Freimann, 2018), and the snowball/chain method. The first author wrote introductory emails to each of them, in which the purpose of the study and the request were described as follows: The study is designed to shed light on the living experience of individuals, who are perceived as enlightened / self-transcendent / Self-realized / God-realized / spirit-medium / awakened / surrendered / fully integrated or otherwise an inspiring exemplar of their religious / spiritual path, from different traditions and paths around the world. Such individuals will be referred to here as “spiritual exemplars.” . . . Should you agree to participate in the study, you . . . will be asked to name two-three people you consider spiritual exemplars and to describe each of them in writing.
A consent form, approved by the institutional ethics committee of the University of Haifa as part of the entire research project, was attached to the email. It repeated the above description of the purpose of the study, definition of spiritual exemplars, and the request. It also specified the voluntary nature of participation and the right to stop participating in the research at any time, and assured confidentiality and anonymity.
Of the 300 experts who were sent the email, 84 agreed to participate and provided a signed consent form. Each of them was then sent an email, in which she or he was asked to name two-three spiritual exemplars they knew, “people that impressed you as the most enlightened, awakened, God-realized, spiritually developed, surrendered, etc., at least one of whom is alive,” and to describe each of these spiritual exemplars in a third to two-thirds of a page, “specifically indicating what it is that makes each of them exemplary.”
Additional requests were to indicate the expert’s acquaintance with each exemplar, and provide information about themselves, including “(a) religious, spiritual or philosophical background or affiliation; (b) years of engagement with that tradition, school, etc.; (c) whether [they] considered [themselves] a thinker, seeker, practitioner, researcher, teacher, etc. in that tradition, school, etc.”
Of the 84 experts who initially agreed to participate, seven did not provide descriptions of exemplars. The remaining 77 experts who nominated and described their spiritual exemplars will be referred to hereinafter as informants. They sent descriptions of 180 spiritual exemplars, an average of 2.4 exemplars per informant.
Participants
Of the 77 informants, 35 (45%) were female and 42 (55%) were male. In response to the questions about their years of engagement or affiliation with a religious or spiritual path, the majority (40) indicated between 25 and 49 years, followed by 24 over 50 years and 13 between 10 and 24 years of engagement or affiliation. In terms of their adherence to a single tradition, they divided between 20 categorized as “strict exclusivity,” 26 as “openness to other traditions” and 31 as “multifaith, non-denominational or transpersonal.”
In terms of their main role or position, most informants indicated several roles and positions. For example, Informant 192 wrote, “My own spiritual background is in the Sufi tradition. I have been a practitioner for forty-five years. I am also an academic who teaches Islamic Studies and Sufism, but I consider this secondary to my practice.” Thirty-four of them, however, identified primarily as “scholar” or “thinker,” 24 as “authority figures” (leader, influencer, teacher, coach), 17 as “practitioner” or “seeker” and two as “media person” (editor, interviewer). In response to the question about their current main tradition, the main groups were multifaith, non-denominational or transpersonal (19), Buddhist (15) and Hindu (14), followed by Christian (9) and Shaman/Indigenous (6).
With respect to the informants’ acquaintance with their exemplars, in 91 of the cases (50%) the informant indicated a close acquaintance with the exemplar, including 41 cases (23%) in which personal friendship or close discipleship were indicated. With regards to 49 (27%) exemplars, the informant indicated they had a distant personal acquaintance. In 40 cases (22%) the informant never met the exemplar and knew them only from reading their books or listening to or watching their talks.
Forty-one informants (54%) nominated only exemplars whose religious or spiritual affiliation was similar to their own. Twenty-eight (36%) of them nominated exemplars with both similar and different affiliations, and eight (10%) nominated only exemplars with different affiliations than their own.
Data analysis
Once all the exemplar descriptions were obtained, thematic analysis of the descriptions was conducted. Thematic analysis is a flexible research tool that is recommended for topics that have not be extensively explored before (Braun & Clarke, 2006), such as in this study. It is used to reveal patterns and meanings in a text by identifying recurring themes, and to interpret different aspects relevant to the research question.
The analysis process followed a dynamic, spiral five-step procedure, in which codes were generated, categories developed from the codes, and themes and subthemes constructed from the categories.
The fourth and fifth steps were done in discussions of all four authors. In the
The first author is a Jewish doctoral student who spent several decades as a spiritual practitioner under the tutelage of a Japanese Zen master and then a Western Advaita teacher. His interest in spiritual exemplarity is interwoven with his interest in the spiritual teacher-student relationship and in perennial philosophy. The second author is a professor of psychology and studies spiritual development and spiritual experiences both inside and outside religious traditions, using qualitative methods. In her own spiritual path, she does not belong to a certain tradition and did not have an experience with a spiritual exemplar. The third author serves as a professor of psychology who has been tracking the nature of consciousness and psychospiritual development. The fourth author is an Emeritus Professor of Education who taught courses and researches and writes about spiritual dimensions of human development and education. She has studied and practiced in Sufi, Christian, and Buddhist contemplative traditions. Considering that a close relationship with a spiritual exemplar or mentor tends to create a bias in the evaluation and text analyses of other exemplars or mentors, having researchers both with and without such a personal experience helped mitigate such a bias and contributed to a more balanced analysis.
For anonymity purposes, each of the informants was given a three-digit identification number between 100 and 400, and each of the exemplars was given an identifier, consisting of the initials “SE” for “spiritual exemplar,” their informant’s three-digit number followed by a period, and another digit. Thus, if Informant 321 nominated two exemplars, they were given the identifiers SE321.1 and SE321.2.
Findings
Descriptive demographics of the spiritual exemplars are presented first; then, the themes, subthemes and categories, constructed from the exemplars’ descriptions; and in the third part, general qualities derived from an overview of the descriptions are referred to.
Spiritual exemplar demographics
Of the 180 exemplars described, 110 (61%) were alive at the time. More than 80% of the exemplars were over 60 years old, half of them were over 70 years old. The female: male ratio among the exemplars was 40:140. In 71% of the cases the informant personally knew the exemplar, including a personal relationship or discipleship in 51% of the cases.
Regarding the exemplars’ religious or spiritual affiliations, 55% of them were affiliated with Eastern traditions (22% Buddhist and 33% Hindu), 18% with the Abrahamic traditions (11% Christian, 4% Sufi, 2% Jewish and 1% Muslim), 9% with Shamanic or indigenous traditions and 18% were described as New Age, multi-faith, non-denominational, pagan, secular, psychology or unknown. The exemplar’s religious or spiritual affiliation was similar to that of the informant who nominated them in 69% (125) and different in 31% (55) of the cases.
The media presence of each exemplar was determined by conducting a Google search of their full name in quotation marks with the word “spiritual.” Of the exemplars described, 37 had under 1K results, 33 had between 1K and 10K results, 50 had between 10K and 100K results, 37 had between 100K and 1M results, and 23 had over 1M results. Of the sixty exemplars who had more than 100K results, five were described by three or more informants each, three by two informants each, and the remaining 52 were described by one informant each.
Themes constructed from spiritual exemplars’ descriptions
In thematic analysis of the descriptions of the 180 spiritual exemplars, 15 categories were developed from the codes and organized into three main themes. The first theme refers to visible, verifiable facts about the exemplar’s role, practice, actions, etc., and it is called here
The different codes that were generated by engaging with the exemplars’ descriptions, the categories that were developed from them, and the subthemes and themes that were then constructed from the categories, are presented in Table 1. The numbers in the table represent the number of exemplars, from whose descriptions at least one instance of the category, subtheme or theme were generated. For example, if the codes “Teacher,” “Author,” “Healer,” and “Practice” were generated for an exemplar, that exemplar was counted as 1 in the “Role” and 1 in “Practice” categories, and then as 1 in the
Codes, categories, subthemes, and themes.
Note: (1) Codes were generated first, categories were developed from the codes and finally themes and subthemes were constructed from the categories. (2) In the table, the numbers in parentheses represent the counts and percentages of exemplars, from whose descriptions at least one instance of the category, subtheme or theme were generated.
Concrete-performative
As a sociologist and semi-skeptic, I tend to be dubious of “gurus,” “spiritual masters,” and the like and know fairly well the “game” as it is played. [SE217.1, New Age] to me was no exception to this in that respect, but her dedication and charity work were her ultimate vindication.
The
Role
The largest category (86 exemplars, 48%) includes the main roles that the exemplars played: author, healer, teacher, and leader.
Practice
Another visible and sometimes quantifiable action that was mentioned in the descriptions of 16 of the exemplars (9%) was their practice. For example, SE192.3 (Secular) “has had a very disciplined meditation practice for about fifty years.”
Specific actions
These were referred to in 21 descriptions (12%), as in the description of SE134.3 (Secular) who “founded . . . an international federation of communities spread over 37 countries, for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them.”
While statements of the
Descriptive-qualitative
[SE344.1, Hindu] demonstrated the cosmic energy in action—miracle energy, so I saw things my mind could not grasp . . . But in the end what made him exemplary for me was his pure love and dedication to his master and to humanity.
The
Spiritual state
This subtheme of the
Embodiment of spiritual essences
This category was developed from descriptions of 60 exemplars (33%). Of these, some exemplars were described as embodying the qualities or essences of their tradition while others were described as embodying universal essences. An example of the former is the description of SE110.2 (Shaman/Indigenous) as a living representation of her indigenous tradition and maybe of the indigenous traditions of this world. There is something expressed in her personality that is beyond her personality . . . she is a manifestation of the wisdom of indigenous people of all times.
Descriptions of exemplars as embodying universal spiritual essences include that of SE110.1 (Christian) as “a person that is connected to a sacred reality” and of SE134.1 (Hindu) as “a person who has recognized and has embodied . . . the nature of reality.”
Presence
This quality was mentioned in 29 of the descriptions (16%), as in the description of SE275.1 (Christian), whose informant wrote that “with [him], one has a sense that the world has melted away and we are fully and completely present in this encounter.” Several other qualities appear to be related to presence: power, depth, peace, and equanimity. Power was referred to, for example, in “[SE123.1, Hindu] had an immensely powerful presence.” Depth was referred to, for example, in “[SE232.2, Hindu]’s depth of presence”), peace in “[SE333.3, Buddhist] is being of great peace” and equanimity in “[SE273.1, Hindu] seemed unflappable, the closest thing I’ve seen to the unshakable equanimity described in yogic texts.”
Knowing
The codes of knowing, wisdom, and understanding were indicated in the descriptions of 57 exemplars (32%). This category was generated, for example, from the description of SE114.1 (Shaman/Indigenous) as “[a] diviner who was able to access innate forms of wisdom and cosmic knowledge” and of SE311.1 (Hindu), whose “wisdom and knowledge seem boundless and endless.”
Special powers
Codes related to this category were generated from 17 of the descriptions (9%). For example, SE346.2 (Shaman/Indigenous) was described as “a healer . . . using interdimensional spirit connections.” A special type of special powers that was mentioned was that of intuitive knowing of the state of others, as in the description of SE316.1 (Hindu) as “knowing exactly what was going on inside a person, even when he wasn’t in the room with them.”
Effect on others
The ability to bestow or evoke spiritual experiences and states (called here “spiritual impartation ability”) and/or to reveal potentials and facilitate transformation in others (called here “transformation facilitation”) was described for 34 exemplars (19%). Spiritual impartation ability was described, for example, by Informant 311, who testified that “I have seen [SE311.1, Hindu] take a group of over a thousand people and share his state of samadhi with them.” Transformation facilitation was described, for example, for SE326.1 (Psychology), who “has been facilitating the most incredible life-changing personal transformation processes over the past 30 years.” A combination of both was described for SE181.1 (Hindu): [He was] able to transport his students to an experience of higher states of consciousness. This was particularly apparent in intimate settings, when the air around him would become charged with a sacred intensity, transporting those in his presence to an otherworldly state of joy and existential contentment . . . Many of the people [close to him] grew to become people of unusual accomplishment, by virtue of the training they received from him.
Human nobility
This subtheme includes the categories of goodness, humility, integrity, and “overcoming odds and emerging a better human being.”
Goodness
Selflessness, kindness, goodness, compassion, and love were attributed to 31 of the exemplars (17%). With regards to selflessness, SE345.2 (Buddhist) was described by his informant as “one of the most selfless people I have met.” Goodness was expressed in descriptions such as “There is an essential goodness to [SE151.2, Multifaith] that makes him an exemplar of the essential goodness in all things.” Love was referred to, for example, in the descriptions of SE131.2 (Sufi) as “a man who had died in the ocean of love” and of SE134.2 (Jewish), “Love was the essence Rabbi realized.”
Deficiency in this quality was referred to, on the other hand, as a reservation in the description of SE134.1, whose informant related to his “dark side” in saying that “Despite his living very humbly and modestly, stories have been told that he was at times extremely stern, if not cruel, to his own immediate family and servants.”
Humility
Lightness, ease of being, honesty, humility, simplicity, humor, authenticity, and transparency were referred to in the descriptions of 57 exemplars (32%), sometimes as different facets of the same condition. For example, SE190.1 (Buddhist) was described as “humble, sincere, at times confessional of his own faults, and often very humorous,” and SE273.3 (Hindu) as one without “any signs of pretense or artifice in him.” Similarly, SE297.1 (Christian) was described as one whose “spiritual force was animated by absolute honesty and vulnerability. I have never met anyone as truthful, honest, and self-effacing.” This quality was sometimes described in reference to the exemplar’s faults and weaknesses, as in “[SE134.2, Jewish] was also a vulnerable, flawed human being and this was also apparent to those who knew him well. There was no effort to hide.”
Integrity
This category, which included also trustworthiness, consistency, reliability, and ethical conduct were referred to in descriptions of 40 exemplars (22%), as in the description of SE137.1 (Christian) as “no separation between what he says and teaches, and what he does, how he acts, and who he is as a person.” Deficiency in this quality was referred to in the description of SE273.1 (Hindu): “He was a monk, presumably celibate all his life, but there have always been stories of sexual liaisons in the late 60s . . . He was human, and by definition imperfect.”
Overcoming odds and emerging a better human being
Descriptions of 22 of the exemplars (12%) included statements which referred to challenges and crises that those exemplars had to face, and the fact that they emerged from them as better human beings. For example, SE134.2 (Jewish) “wore the scars of the deepest sort and emerged as a man of love, joy, and light.”
Relational-impactive
I regard [SE310.1, Hindu] the most enlightened being actually living on this planet. I could bring up many reasons, listing all her extraordinary achievements in areas of charity and helping the poor, her extraordinary capacity to sit for days, mostly without breaks . . . But for me personally these astonishing accomplishments are secondary. What I feel, without being able to objectively prove it, is that her presence in my life has changed me for the better, making me more caring, loving towards others, conscious, and open to the Divine.
The
Transmission
Spiritual transmission, inspiration, and upliftment experienced by the informant were described in 48 of the descriptions (27%). For example, the informant of SE212.1 (Buddhist) wrote that “Being in his presence awakens my being to the knowledge of reality . . . It is a knowledge that . . . resonates within the direct encounter with him.” The impact of SE225.3 (Hindu) on her informant was described as follows: When [she] turned her gaze upon me, it was like everything else disappeared, her presence was so strong, focused, and compelling. We briefly exchanged a few words and I went on my way. For about a week or ten days afterward, I would fade in and out of a deep and extraordinary heart/mind state of love . . .
Transformation facilitation
Facilitation of the informant’s transformation by teaching, encouragement, confirmation and support were described for 67 of the exemplars (37%). For example, Informant 296 wrote that SE296.1 (Christian) “contributed to my inside path . . . to my realization of what is important in my life.” Informant 131 wrote that SE131.2 (Sufi) “awakened [my] heart and gave me an instrument that can detect love, compassion, justice, purity, and wisdom.” And Informant 265 testified that meeting SE265.1 (Hindu) “changed me to be more compassionate to others, non-judgmental, and appreciative of everyone that walked in my life from that point onwards.”
Relational feelings
Feelings of the informant toward the exemplar, which included awe, admiration, gratitude, and love, were described for 38 exemplars (21%). For example, gratitude was referred to explicitly in expressions such as “I am extremely grateful to [SE273.1, Hindu] for changing my life for the better” and implied in expressions such as “I became awake to the infinite through [SE215.1, Hindu]; one can never forget that” and “What I owe [SE225.1, Buddhist] is beyond measure.”
A striking expression of love for the exemplar was that of Informant 232, who wrote: “[SE232.1, Hindu] was a beautiful, unselfconscious human being—bright, sharp, and incisive in his perception, open and Loving in his being . . . I loved him deeply, and felt extraordinarily free with him, despite my youth.”
General qualities—multifacetedness and elusiveness
[SE 272.2, Multifaith] is, and always has been, connected to his true self, his Origin Consciousness. He gives unconditionally and has never looked for fame or fortune . . . He respects and loves the Medicine and the sacred Teacher Medicine Plants. I have total respect and love for [him] and count myself as blessed for knowing him.
The above breakdown of the spiritual exemplars’ descriptions was done in order to reveal recurring and important categories and themes in those descriptions. But most of the exemplar descriptions were multifaceted or well-rounded, consisting of a combination of different themes and subthemes (
Multifacetedness
Of the 180 descriptions, 22 (12%) included all four themes/subthemes, 64 (36%) included three, 69 (38%) included two and only 25 (14%) consisted of a single theme/subtheme. The great majority of the exemplar descriptions (86%) included, therefore, statements of two or more themes/subthemes, suggesting that spiritual exemplarity was a multifaceted construct. The following three excerpts are examples of such multifacetedness:
SE 190.1 (Buddhist)
I am a little at a loss to describe him. I obviously love him a great deal. I would say he exemplifies the bodhisattva ideal of love, compassion, and positive altruistic intention toward others. I feel there is nothing I can’t communicate about with him. He emits a kind of ease, even blissful presence, that is tangible and rare. His ability to read what is happening within me and respond to it seems at times uncanny, almost telepathic or shamanic. He embodies both the ordinary and the sacred, even magical, in a way that is hard to convey.
SE 225.2 (Shaman/Indigenous)
[F]or me, her teachings were and are alive with truth, meaning, and value . . . When she spoke to me or anyone else, she gave her complete attention, that was marked by an openness of heart and a clear eye . . . This is a woman who, in preparation for and maintenance of her role as shaman in her Basque culture, spent a year alone in silence in nature three different times . . . She was a living breathing healer, teacher, visionary, and spiritual warrior who walked her talk and talked her walk. I feel a great love, gratitude, and indebtedness to her now and always.
SE 134.2 (Jewish)
Rabbi lost his wife and daughter in the Holocaust which he managed to escape and eventually landed in New York City. He began as a Chassidic Rabbi, but over time found himself keeping company with ministers of all faiths . . . Rabbi himself was a humble, delightfully inspired, joyful being of love. One could feel the gratitude he felt for life which he beamed . . . He wore the scars of the deepest sort and emerged as a man of love, joy, and light. He founded several interfaith seminaries to bring people together in the space of shared humane and spiritual values. He walked the life he taught.
Elusiveness
The elusiveness of what makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another was explicitly mentioned by four informants. The excerpt at the top of this manuscript, which is a rich description of SE190.1 (Buddhist) from multiple angles, begins with “I am a little at a loss to describe him” and ends with “He embodies both the ordinary and the sacred, even magical, in a way that is hard to convey.” Informant 225 indicated that “How [SE225.3, Hindu] manifests her love and grace to me remains unclear but . . . undeniable” and Informant 190 wrote that “It is impossible to classify or even accurately describe [SE190.3, Secular].” Informant 251 suggested that the reason “It is almost impossible to talk or write about the experiences with [SE251.1, Buddhist]” was that “The experiences are beyond time and space.”
This elusiveness was also implicitly suggested by the abstract and poetic nature of most of the descriptions under
The multifacetedness and elusiveness of spiritual exemplarity may be related to the fact that, while the informants were asked to describe each exemplar in “a third to two-thirds of a page,” most of them exceeded that quota. Assuming two-thirds of a page to be equivalent to 250 words, only 34 (44%) of the informants complied with the request and wrote between 90 and 250 words per exemplar. Thirty-two of them (42%) wrote between 250 and 500 words, seven (9%) wrote between 500 and 1000 words, and four (5%) wrote over 1000 words per exemplar.
Finally, reservations about expressing the essence of an exemplar’s exemplarity were indicated by Informant 176, who ended his 430-word description of SE176.2 (Hindu) with “my reasons for choosing him for this list are very directly personal and perhaps mystical. It is best that these remain off the record.”
Discussion
Exemplars are widely thought to be a principal vehicle for thriving, learning, and developing excellence and virtues in different fields and areas of life. In the religious and spiritual domain, exemplars play an important role in spiritual formation, development, transformation, and thriving. They exemplify higher potentials in this domain and show that spiritual ideals can actually be lived out. For some, they inspire, motivate, and guide others toward the realization of those potentials in themselves.
One way of exploring the ways in which spiritual exemplars have such effects on others is by asking: what makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another? How do people recognize or perceive certain individuals as spiritual exemplars? How do they describe or explain their recognition and perception? To answer these questions, the authors elicited descriptions of spiritual exemplars by using a grand tour-type open-ended qualitative item, namely a request to describe spiritual exemplars that the person knew. Using bottom-up analysis processes of these descriptions, the following themes of indicators for choosing or recognizing someone as a spiritual exemplar emerged:
The findings of this research brought to light the key role of subjective impression, relationality, and felt impact in the recognition and perception of spiritual exemplars. While many of the exemplars’ descriptions included verifiable information about the exemplars’ roles (as teachers, leaders, healers and/or authors), practice, and specific actions, in most cases it did not constitute the larger part of their descriptions. Only four descriptions consisted of such information alone. In all other descriptions it was combined with subjective, relational, and impactive indicators.
The larger part of the text in most descriptions consisted of subjective impressions of the exemplars’ spiritual state (e.g. embodiment of spiritual essences, presence, knowing) and human nobility (e.g. goodness, humility, integrity) and testimonies of the direct, personal impact that the exemplars had on the informant (e.g. inspiration, support, transformation facilitation). The subjective impressions were often charged with positive emotions and the testimonies of impact were often overflowing with rich and heartfelt expressions of the informants’ relational feelings toward their exemplars—particularly awe, admiration, gratitude, and love. The importance of relationality in the recognition and perception of spiritual exemplars was also suggested by the fact that in half of the cases the informant indicated a close acquaintance with the exemplar. This centrality of close relationship may be related to Moberg’s (2000) suggestions, that “role modeling requires the learner to pay careful attention to the model” (p. 677) and that inspiration is best provided “when role models are
The significant role of relational feelings, subjective impressions, and felt impact in the recognition and perception of spiritual exemplars in this research contests the nomination criteria used in other exemplar research (e.g. Becker & Eagly, 2004; Colby & Damon, 1992; Dunlop et al., 2012; Matsuba & Walker, 2004; Oliner & Oliner, 1988; Walker & Frimer, 2010). Those, as asserted by Bronk (2012a), had to be “concrete and quantifiable . . . criteria that include visible behaviors or irrefutable phenomena are preferable to criteria that are vague or open to interpretation” (p. 6). This principle was held in all previous exemplar studies and created a deliberate bias toward demonstrable action-oriented nomination criteria—and exemplars. Thus, an important and significant new perspective regarding the centrality of deep relational feelings, and felt impact was discovered in this study. It may be unique to spiritual exemplars but it may also be relevant to other kinds of exemplars (e.g. moral).
The results of present study also underscore distinctiveness in the kinds of emotions related to spiritual exemplars. “Other-praising” emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration, had been indicated not only in spiritual exemplars in this study but also in relation to moral or virtue exemplars (Algoe & Haidt, 2009; Haidt, 2013; Zagzebski, 2010, 2015a, 2015b, 2017). In relation to spiritual exemplars, however, love, and awe were also indicated, while a motivation “to emulate the admired person” (Zagzebski, 2017), which was emphasized by Oman et al. (2008) and Zagzebski (2017), was distinctly absent from the descriptions. The reason for that absence may be that, in the eyes of many of the informants, the spiritual exemplar exemplified that which is uniquely individual and inimitable. Therefore, rather than a motivation to emulate their exemplar, the informants referred to
Many of the exemplar descriptions included statements both about their spiritually elevated, transcendent or God/Self-realized state and about their human nobility or
This conclusion, about the integrative-wholistic nature of spiritual exemplarity, stands in contrast to other perspectives regarding exemplars in general and moral exemplars in particular. For example, Bronk et al. (2013) conclude in their
It is possible, of course, that many of the informants made the very mistake that Colby and Damon warned against. But considering the close acquaintance of many of them with their exemplars, sometimes over several decades, this seems unlikely. An alternative and more likely explanation is that spiritual exemplars, unlike other types of exemplar (care, courage, wisdom, morality, creativity, etc.), are developmentally more well-rounded and integrated. It seems that such perceived integrity or wholeness (Niemiec et al., 2020; Pargament et al., 2016)
The relatively high volume of the descriptions, provided by many of the informants, combined with their multifacetedness, as exemplified by the statements included under the title It is essential for the exemplary holy man to be effective only through the being of his person, and not through virtues, and even less through acts, works, deeds or actions. They are only pointers to his being and holiness. (p. 157)
Along similar lines is the distinction, made by Vos (2018), between “role exemplars,” who “embody the virtues needed to realise the internal goods” of their pre-defined roles (e.g. parent, teacher, professional, neighbor, etc.), and “existential exemplars,” who “acquire meaning on a deeper, existential level, that is, with regard to what it means to be a human being and to be a human being with and for others” (p. 23). Vos suggested that, while for the “role exemplar” we have clear standards by which we recognize such an exemplar, this is not the case for the “existential exemplar.” In the case of “existential exemplarity,” he writes, “exemplariness and that which is exemplified are not immediately recognisable . . . They resonate on a deeper level of our subjectivity” (p. 24).
Many of the exemplar descriptions in this research suggest that, as with Scheler’s holy man and Vos’ existential exemplar, the essence of spiritual exemplarity can be testified to or pointed toward rather than explicitly described. The reason for this indescribability may be that, just as one’s own spiritual core or “self” can be felt or intuited but cannot be made “an idol nor any image” (Exodus 20: 4), so can one’s spiritual exemplars resonate with one’s spiritual core or “self” but the essence of their exemplarity cannot be objectified. At the same time, the expression or manifestation of that essence seems to be multifaceted and integrative, affecting different aspects of the spiritual exemplar’s being and integrating them toward wholeness.
The multifaceted and wholistic nature of spiritual exemplarity, the elusiveness or indescribability of its essence and the centrality of subjective impression, relationality, and felt impact to the recognition and perception of spiritual exemplars appear to be common to different religious traditions and spiritual paths. This is why, as Victoria Harrison (2011, 2020) claims in her writings on the “Exemplar Reasoning” approach, focusing on exemplary figures of different traditions can greatly help promote interreligious understanding and dialogue.
Limitations and future research
In this research, a recognition-followed-by-description-and-characterization method, inspired by Zagzebski’s “exemplarist moral theory,” was used for obtaining descriptions of spiritual exemplars. In contrast to the conventional exemplar nomination method, which creates a bias toward objective, concrete, and verifiable nomination criteria—and exemplars that meet such criteria—this method enables and encourages reliance also on subjective impressions, personally-felt impact, and relational feelings. The descriptions of spiritual exemplars “nominated” using this method tend, therefore, also to include such elements and to reflect a different kind of bias.
The themes and subthemes (
In studies inspired by Zagzebski’s (2017) “exemplarist moral theory,” that is, studies in which exemplars are first recognized and then described, as in this research, these themes may be used as reference in order to ensure that richer descriptions are obtained. If used in this way, once exemplars are “nominated” based on an open-ended qualitative item, as in this research, these themes can be offered to the informants as a way to elicit thicker, multifaceted descriptions.
In this research, in order to obtain a broad and rich characterization of spiritual exemplarity, the descriptions of all exemplars were analyzed as a whole. In this, it follows the example of most previous studies of spiritual exemplars across traditions (Bucke, 1901; Conway, 1988; Goshen-Gottstein, 2017; James, 1958; King et al., 2014). Further research could contribute to our understanding of specific types of spiritual exemplars and commonalities and differences between them. In particular, a more systematic investigation of exemplar characteristics in different traditions, across degrees of doctrinal liberalism to conservatism, between male and female, between descriptions of close and distant exemplars, between exemplars of the same tradition as the informant and exemplars of a different tradition, and between short/thin and long/thick exemplar descriptions, may highlight potentially important distinctions.
Furthermore, the informants in this research were experts in the religious and spiritual domain, mostly from the more modern parts of the West, and they were asked to provide their exemplar descriptions in writing and in English. The use of expert informants, half of whom were scholars, and the cognitive and linguistic load in providing written descriptions, have likely created a bias toward cognitive aspects in choosing and describing the exemplars. The geographical and linguistic factors created a bias toward Western exemplars and traits which are valued more in the Western modern culture. Taking these factors into consideration in future research, descriptions of spiritual exemplars could be obtained also by means of questionnaires or interviews, from informants in non-Western parts of the world, from more traditional societies, in different languages, and from lay people as well as from experts. This would balance the possible biases of this study and broaden the characterization of spiritual exemplarity.
The authors hope that this research will stimulate additional research endeavors aimed at elucidating the essence of spiritual exemplarity, as it is perceived by others and experienced by spiritual exemplars, and research on similarities and differences between spiritual exemplars and other types of exemplars. In addition to the approach used in this research, the exemplars themselves could be studied from different approaches, such as narrative and phenomenological approaches, helping to elucidate both commonalities and particular differences among exemplars.
Conclusion
Exemplars serve as inspiring, motivating, and guiding models of virtue and excellence in various fields, and spiritual exemplars play these roles in spiritual formation, development, transformation, and thriving. This study, drawing from an in-depth analysis of descriptions of 180 exemplars from various spiritual paths, suggests that spiritual exemplarity is of an integrative-wholistic nature and that a spiritual exemplar may be thought of as an archetype of multifaceted wholeness. Such wholeness can manifest in multitude of ways and pointed at from different angles but is itself illusive or hard to describe. Contemplation of the wholeness, exemplified by spiritual exemplars, may inspire and facilitate psychological and spiritual integration and movement toward wholeness in their followers. The results also suggest that personal acquaintance with and relational feelings toward the exemplar may enhance that inspirational and facilitatory effect.
The study of spiritual exemplars also holds great potential for further consideration of universal spiritual qualities and capacities, common to various religious traditions and spiritual paths, alongside key distinctions between them. The authors believe that focusing on spiritual exemplars, who are relatable human beings, rather than on abstract concepts and dogmas, would be in the service of creating interreligious bridges of shared interest, understanding, appreciation, and dialogue among them.
The authors would like to end this paper with remarks made by three of the study informants, which point to the possibility of conducting intervention studies in the future. One of them (Informant 131) wrote, “It is an honor just to be able to share words about human beings whose exaltedness is their demonstration of the living presence of God in this world, where so many suffer from ignorance, deprivation, violence, and fear. Such human beings are a refuge for us all.” Another (Informant 225) wrote that “Remembering and writing down my experiences invites me to return to the depths of the love these people feel and offer.” The closing words of an email from another (Informant 336) were: “This exercise brought healing to my life and has in the process realigned the direction of my life—thank you!”
Footnotes
Funding
ORCID iD
