We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 

DE Chardin was a priest who most likely went through a spiritual crisis. And thus, I think, his quote here was not part of a sermon from a man of the cloth, but rather the result of intense reflection and inner turmoil. 

Similar to de Chardin, philosopher-cum-psychologist William James, who