On one hand, Jesus didn't have psychology (obviously) and He is who we are following. Isn't His understanding of human nature and God's work enough for my psychology? It is hard for my mind to trust various theories of personality development and human nature, when these initially arose out of the enlightenment and evolution. Not that the latter is particularly evil, but they don't account for the supernatural, the fall (and sin), the presence of the Holy Spirit. "Theories" is such a vague term to me. Underneath I wonder who I am trusting, and therefore who is forming me. My deepest question is, if I follow psychology am I still following Jesus? Jesus didn't have psychology and He did pretty well (at least in God's eyes), why would I need it?
These thoughts resurfaced as I recently read an article by John Coe:
Clearly there is much value and insight in these theories addressing underlying human dynamics and defenses, the importance of the therapeutic relationship, the process of re-parenting in therapy, the reality of re-habituation, the place of unconditional posi- tive regard or the value of radical openness to becoming. In fact, the element of truth- fulness in these theories is what makes them potentially seductive for becoming a substitute to the faith.
He continues:
As much as I value these theories for their elegance and powerful explanatory value, they are incomplete and insufficient for fully understanding the person and growth...
The central oversight of the depth-relational theories of personality is their inability to understand how truly other-worldly-relational is the person...the self is radically relational; in fact, it is beyond relationality in that the true understanding of human personality and human happiness is realized only when the person is grounded in the Source of Being; that is, indwelt by, and in union with, God by the Holy Spirit.
To be continued tomorrow....
Maybe psychology has become increasingly complex since the time of Jesus because as we travel down the path of cultural development, we have much more to "un-learn". Jesus represented a kingdom that was psychologically (and physically and spiritually etc) sound. So his way of life naturally embodied great psychology. If a therapist sat down with Jesus, they would probably agree, although the therapist would spend most of their time trying to translate terms.
ReplyDeleteBrendan, I totally understand. I guess my concern is that I am going to spend my time and effort translating terms, rather than following Jesus. And I am wondering if Psychology provides a way of following Jesus practically or at least noticing the ways I am not following Him. At the core, I don't want to come to Jesus as a Psychologist or any other title. I just want to come to Him as a son and not have to filter through all the other crap. So I am just pondering how to put Psychology in context of Jesus and not the other way around. :)
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