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Welcome to my website.
I am Daniel Helminiak, and like
my namesake, the biblical figure, I have a vision.
My burning concern is spirituality in
a pluralistic and secularized world. How could the human family
today be one? Whereas religions used to hold communities together,
religion now  splinters
our world. What used to be the solution has become our problem.
We need to forge a
core spirituality that would ground a global
community. We need to discern a set of essential beliefs and
values that could be common to all cultures and religions. Such a
spirituality could only be based on what we all have in common—our
humanity. In the human heart and soul, we must nurture a spirit
that reaches up to the heavens. Thus, there could be common cause
among religious and non-religious folk alike, among those who
believe in God and those who are non-theist. The spirituality we
need must be open to every woman and man of goodwill on the
planet. Such a core spirituality is my vision, and I have begun a
program to research it.
Serendipitously, unexpectedly,
providentially, my shifting life-course prepared me for such a
vision. My own experience runs the gamut from the intense
piety of a simple religious faith to the critical thinking of
sophisticated secular science. In my own person I have held these
extremes together. With belief in God undiminished, with personal
integrity intact, I nonetheless propose a fully down-to-earth
approach to spirituality, a hard-nosed insistence on
evidence-based opinions even in matters spiritual. Still following
Jesus, I hold that “by their fruits you will know them.”
Oh, the polar tensions in my life
experience! I grew up in an intensely devout Polish Catholic community
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Having entered seminary at
a tender age of seventeen, I was ordained a Catholic priest in
Rome, where I earned a Vatican license to teach theology (STL: Sacrae
Theologiae Licencia = License in Sacred Theology), and for
four years I ministered as a parish priest in Pittsburgh. Then,
preparing to teach in seminary, I earned a PhD in Systematic
Theology at Andover Newton Theological School and Boston College,
and for four years I taught core doctrinal courses, on
Christology, and God and Trinity, and courses on spirituality at Oblate School of Theology in San
Antonio.
At Boston College I was teaching
assistant to Bernard
Lonergan (1904-1984), whom Newsweek magazine
(April 20, 1970, p. 75) styled as the Thomas Aquinas of the 20th
century. Aquinas is noted for reconciling the science and religion
of his  day. Lonergan’s thought influences everything I
do; it has provided the basis for my proposed core spirituality.
Realizing I am gay, disillusioned
with the institutional church, and unable to reconcile my
integrity with Vatican expectations, I enrolled at The University
of Texas at Austin, earned a PhD in Human Development, withdrew
from active priestly ministry (the Vatican has never recognized
this resignation: Is my work still the ministry of a bona fide
Catholic priest by the Vatican's choice?), and accepted a teaching
position.
Until my retirement in mid-2018, when
I returned to hometown Pittsburgh, I served as a full Professor in
the humanistic and transpersonal Department
of Psychology at the University of West Georgia, near
Atlanta, and was elected Fellow of the American Psychological
Association. I am also trained as a psychotherapist and served as
a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a
Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Georgia. My
professional specialization is the psychology of spirituality. On
the graduate level I have taught courses on the Philosophy of
Social Science, and Consciousness; besides, I regularly taught
undergraduate courses on Human Sexuality, Foundations of
Neuroscience, Animal Mind, and Introductory Statistics. My
professional commitments themselves forced me to address the
spiritual questions that unnerve our world.
In a virtually unheard-of convergence
of elements, I have been teaching spirituality as a psychology
professor at a state university. Besides, my book, What the Bible Really
Says about Homosexuality, translated into seven
languages, has thrust me into the center of the current culture
wars.
Unpredictable turns in my life have
led me into a lion’s den of global, spiritual turmoil. Here I
stand unperturbed, secure in the convictions of my heart and mind,
prepared by a charmed life to address the big questions that
challenge our world.
I welcome you to my website. I invite
you to share a spiritual quest with me. Here you can glimpse the
vision of spirituality that I have developed, and you can also
have some insight into me. I offer what I have to give: visions of
Daniel.
Links to topics of interest on my
web site
An Account of
Consciousness
The Sexual Revolution
Core Spirituality and Global
Community
Treating Spiritual Issues
in Secular Psychotherapy
How is Meditation Prayer?
Abraham Maslow
& Bernard Lonergan on Global Community
Extraordinary Religious
Experiences and "God" in the
Brain
The Secret of Life
Ken Wilber's Perennial Philosophy
Ken
Wilber: Response to
Marquis, Holden, and Warren's criticism of Helminiak
Roberto Assagioli and
Psychosynthesis
Don Browning's Religious Thought
and the Modern Psychologies
Evangelical Intergration
(of psychology and religion) Project
Lawrence Crabb's Model of
Integration (of biblical religion and psychology)
Wilhelm Dilthey on natural and
social sciences
Summary
of What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality
The Bible and Homosexuality
Why
Bible-litterlist "Christianity" is not Really Christian at All
My
Frustration with the So-Called "Christians"
Answering the
Fundmentalists
Supposed Ethical
Objections to Homosexuality
Daniel in the
Lions' Den: An Encounter with Dr. Robert Gagnon
Helminiak's
Response to Oliff & Hodges on the Bible and Homosexuality
(PDF)
Saint Paul's Surprisingly Positive
Attitude toward Sex
The Ruse of
"Ex-Gay"
DignityUSA:
Roman Catholic? LGBT-Focused?
Catholic
and Gay
Gay Seminarians
Sex as a Spiritual
Exercise
Themes in Sexuality and Spirituality
The Nature of
Spirituality and Its Connection with Sexuality
Is Abortion Ethically Acceptable?
Updated 14 October 2024
Copyright 2022, All Rights Reserved.
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