For me, a belief in transcendence assumes that there is always something
more, something larger and greater, in our lives than what we can directly
experience or perceive, something that will forever remain a mystery, an
object of awe, something that will always manage to surpass our human
understanding. In the face of this mystery, and in the pursuit of transcendent
meaning, most students are willing to place their trust only in a private
spirituality rather than in a publicly professed religious faith. Few are willing
even to consider the truth that the fullest experience of transcendence will
sometimes require both self and others, the individual and the community,
the private life and the public life, head and heart, religion and spirituality.