Friday, July 06, 2012
Psychology for Christian Ministry (Watts et al)
Many different kinds of metaphors have been used to charactyerise religious development: images of inner revolution, a journey, horticultural growth, changing nutritional needs, rebirth and death, Different metaphors illustrat tyhe various characteristics involved in religious growth.... how do the metaphors translate into real lives? 101
Many people experience a yearning to develop, driven by what Paul Tillich (1957) called 'the urge to self transcendence', a dim sense of our personal incompleteness. Yet too many regard the dynamic change inherent in 'development' as a threat to 'solid' faith, ironically resisting growth on religious grounds. 101
Development psychology identifies the hallmarks of the adult intellect as an ability to think in abstract terms
Most people develop a general aptitude for logical thinking in readiness for adulthood. HOwever, regigious thinking does not always follow suit. For some people (or perhaps for all people, some of teh time), more elementary ways of thinking about religious matters may continue to be cherished. Despite having an ability to think in more 'absract' terms, it may seem safer to stay within the parameters of literal, or even more impressionistically emotional or sensory, kinds of thinking. 102
The transition from thinking about religion in concrete, lteral terms to a form more suited to the qualities of the adult mind can be a particularly awkward moment in religious development. Many adults seem frozen in a state of what Ronald Goldman (1962) called '11-year-old atheism'.... The awkward experience of recognising that an earlier perspective on religion needs to be discarded and replaced with something quite different, can be a spiritually instructive and refreshing experience in itself. 103
When religious thinking has acquired the qualities associated with an adult intellect, there are two ways in which adults can feel uncomfortable about this development. Some adults may recall the literalistic religion of their childhood as relatively stronger and more 'real'. They may feel guilty about having developed doubt, questions and alternative world views. Apprecieating that these developments are appropriate features of applying their adult intellectual abilities cab assuage the guilt. The shift away from the passion of emotionally governed 'thought' or literal certainties does not need to be interpreted as a withering of faith when seen in the context of the normal process of intellectual development.
For other adult, the revolution in religious undersatnding since their childhood may lead them to think that they did not have 'real' faith as children. For example, people may feel uncertain about teh validity of religious commitments they made to a God they understood in simple, literal terms, when subsequent understanding has fuelled an apparently much more complex, deeply infromed sense of God 104
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Many people experience a yearning to develop, driven by what Paul Tillich (1957) called 'the urge to self transcendence', a dim sense of our personal incompleteness. Yet too many regard the dynamic change inherent in 'development' as a threat to 'solid' faith, ironically resisting growth on religious grounds. 101
Development psychology identifies the hallmarks of the adult intellect as an ability to think in abstract terms
Most people develop a general aptitude for logical thinking in readiness for adulthood. HOwever, regigious thinking does not always follow suit. For some people (or perhaps for all people, some of teh time), more elementary ways of thinking about religious matters may continue to be cherished. Despite having an ability to think in more 'absract' terms, it may seem safer to stay within the parameters of literal, or even more impressionistically emotional or sensory, kinds of thinking. 102
The transition from thinking about religion in concrete, lteral terms to a form more suited to the qualities of the adult mind can be a particularly awkward moment in religious development. Many adults seem frozen in a state of what Ronald Goldman (1962) called '11-year-old atheism'.... The awkward experience of recognising that an earlier perspective on religion needs to be discarded and replaced with something quite different, can be a spiritually instructive and refreshing experience in itself. 103
When religious thinking has acquired the qualities associated with an adult intellect, there are two ways in which adults can feel uncomfortable about this development. Some adults may recall the literalistic religion of their childhood as relatively stronger and more 'real'. They may feel guilty about having developed doubt, questions and alternative world views. Apprecieating that these developments are appropriate features of applying their adult intellectual abilities cab assuage the guilt. The shift away from the passion of emotionally governed 'thought' or literal certainties does not need to be interpreted as a withering of faith when seen in the context of the normal process of intellectual development.
For other adult, the revolution in religious undersatnding since their childhood may lead them to think that they did not have 'real' faith as children. For example, people may feel uncertain about teh validity of religious commitments they made to a God they understood in simple, literal terms, when subsequent understanding has fuelled an apparently much more complex, deeply infromed sense of God 104
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