Value Perception and Spiritual Perception in Max Scheler

Abstract

This chapter uses Max Scheler’s phenomenology of value perception to devise a framework for describing spiritual perception. I first present Scheler’s account of persons, of how, through feeling, we perceive values, and of how these feelings guide actions, sense perceptions, and reasoning. I use this framework to describe two kinds of spiritual perception, which I call sacramental and personal perception. In the former, one perceives God through creatures; in the latter, one experiences oneself acting along with God. Finally, I outline some ways in which Scheler’s account of value, and my theory of spiritual perception based on it, should be expanded to more closely match actual experience. For example, Scheler’s value-hierarchy should be revised, more attention should be paid to the bodily and communal factors that affect spiritual perception, and an account should be given of how we can directly perceive God as person, rather than just acting along with God.