Is There ‘Spiritual Intelligence’? An Evaluation of Strong and Weak Proposals

The debate over whether spiritual intelligence exists as a distinct cognitive ability is clarified by distinguishing strong and weak versions. The strong version, which posits a separate spiritual intelligence meeting Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences criteria, lacks support from neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, individual differences, experimental tasks, and psychometrics. The weak version, where general intelligence is deployed distinctively in spiritual contexts, is supported by evidence. Six key marks of spiritual intelligence are identified: ineffability, embodiment, open-minded attention, pattern-seeking meaning-making, participation, and relationality. This approach uses the Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) framework, useful for modeling spiritual practices, and should be integrated with psychometric and experimental research.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The debate about whether, and in what sense, there is ‘spiritual intelligence’ remains unresolved. We suggest it will be helpful to make a distinction between strong and weak versions of the claim. The strong version proposes that there is a separate and distinct spiritual intelligence that meets the criteria set out by Howard Gardner in his ‘multiple intelligences’ framework. This involves evidence from neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, individual differences, experimental tasks, and psychometrics. We review the relevant evidence and conclude that there is no support for the strong proposal. The weak version of the claim assumes that the intelligence that is apparent in spiritual contexts is the same as is found elsewhere, but it is nevertheless deployed in a distinctive way. We suggest that the evidence supports the claim, and we review six key marks of spiritual intelligence: ineffability, embodiment, open-minded attention, pattern-seeking meaning-making, participation, and relationality. Our approach makes use of a cognitive architecture, Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS), which has been proved useful in modelling spiritual practices. It will be helpful in the future to bring this approach into dialogue with other scientific approaches to spiritual intelligence from psychometrics and from experimental research.