Awe and Wonder Lead to Humility

Opening ourselves to the majesty of the stars and far-off planets can offer glimpses of awe and wonder, said Heather Templeton Dill on Thursday, Jan. 23, in her presentation at the Calvin University January Series.

At the same time, she added, we can have a similar experience by paying attention to the little things in life. 

“Awe can be something you feel when you go out in nature, or you can see it in everyday things. You just need to pay attention and be deliberate about it,” said Templeton Dill, president of the John Templeton Foundation.

Templeton Dill has been president of the Templeton Foundation since 2015. During her tenure in that role, according to background provided by Calvin University, Dill and the Foundation have awarded 1,534 grants and donations totaling more than $1.026 billion.

In her talk, titled “A Philanthropic Approach to Inspiring Awe and Wonder,” Templeton Dill spoke of the enduring value of experiencing awe and wonder and of the research projects the foundation is funding on the topic.

“We have the mission to make sense of awe and wonder,” she said. “These are no ethereal concepts meant only to evoke an emotional response. They are robust terms with an active orientation for research.”

What the research on awe and wonder is finding, said Templeton Dill, is that these two emotions can also be part of a process that leads to humility, which in turn can offer us a significant way in which to live in the world.

“When you experience awe over something, it is often because you’ve come across something that doesn’t make sense. It is new. It is surprising, and this can lead to a state of wonder,” she said.

In one of the research projects the foundation has funded, for example, the researcher asked 2,600 people to describe their experiences of awe. They responded that awe can come through “soul-lifting music or visual designs, or from something spiritual or from religion,” said Templeton Dill.

Researchers also found that awe “can evoke feelings of being in the presence of something vast and transcendent. It can help us to be humble and expand our understanding of the world,” she said.

And there is more.

“The research suggests that experiencing awe leads to something else,” said Templeton Dill. “It can lead to a feeling of self-transcendence and the realization of how large the world is. It can lead to a deep sense of gratitude.”

All of this work, Templeton Dill explained, was started and inspired by her grandfather, John Templeton, a mutual fund manager who began the foundation out of a curiosity to understand, through research, “the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind.”

Crucial in her grandfather’s mission, she said, as expressed in many of the books he wrote, was to help people gain a better understanding of and find ways to develop the virtue of humility.

“He believed that humility comes out of awe and wonder and opens the way forward,” she said. 

Humility, he believed, leads people to grow beyond their self-interests and become more engaged with others.

“He wrote that humility may lead to increased acts of service, the disposition to forgive, and a higher likelihood to be generous with others with our time, talent, and treasure,” said his granddaughter.

When people experience awe over something, research suggests, they often find themselves standing back and wondering why they have been so overtaken. Then, by taking it all in and allowing the experience of wonder to settle, they can become more teachable, more humble.

Humility, said Dill Templeton, was on John Templeton’s list of the essential virtues he wanted his foundation to pursue. For him, humility was key because it helps us to see our small but important place in the universe. It opens us up to admit what we don’t know, and it encourages us to ask questions and to learn.

So awe is appreciation that leads to wonder and a sense of questioning – and as we ask questions and realize all that we don’t know, we come to humility.

“Humility can lead to increased wisdom and a focus on others above ourselves and our own interests,” said Templeton Dill. “But humility doesn’t just make us better people. It can make the world a better place and an antidote to challenges in the world today.”