Jane Adam's Spirituality

Jane Adam's social work is not, I believe, religiously motivated. Spiritually motivated, perhaps. But more than that her desire to do good seems to stem from a very deep, strong sense of simple human morality- that all humanity has worth in itself with or without that worth being assigned by god. We should take care of each other as people because- I think we can all agree- that we would like others to take care of us.

One example I will cite of Jane Adam's resistance towards religion was her refusal to be converted into the "missionary field" despite every attempt of her superior's at school. The influence of her father- who she admired greatly and was not part of any church- and the solidarity and intellectual rationality of her peer group kept her from becoming more than interested in religion. Her interest, even, is more intellectual than spiritual. She describes being fascinated with the texts of the religion, and with the history of the catacombs later on.

This is not to say she is against the practice of religion at all- her prolonged study of it confirms her belief in at least a partial usefullness. In chapter 4 she describes her desire for an "outward symbol of fellowship"- though when she considers christianity as an option its appeal lies mostly in its connection to democracy. She spent much of her time traveling to locations of great religious import, but again she is searching for a sense of a more philosophical than religious ideal- the "universal comity" and "supreme humanity" of the positivists.

What I can safely say is that she believed religion was a good way of systemizing and solidifying otherwise stratified moral/philosophical ideas. What she hopes for is a "cathedral of humanity" "capacious enough to house a fellowship of common purpose", with a "vision of human solidarity". If a religion were approximating this, or moving towards it, I would assume that she would be all for it, if not particularly attached to its poetic, spiritual aspects herself.