Psychology and Spiritual Formation in Dialogue

Moral and Spiritual Change in Christian Perspective

Thomas M. Crisp, Steven L. Porter, Gregg A. Ten Elshof, Thomas M. Crisp, Steven L. Porter, Gregg A. Ten Elshof

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780830873111
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Psicología de la religión

Can the phenomena of the human mind be separated from the practices of spiritual formation—of growing to have the mind of Christ? Research into the nature of moral and spiritual change has revived in recent years in the worlds of psychology on one hand and theology and philosophy on the other. But psychology and spiritual formation draw upon distinct bodies of research and theory grounded in different methodologies, resulting in conversation that has suffered from a lack of interdisciplinary cross-pollination. Rooted in a year-long discussion held by Biola University's Center for Christian Thought (CCT), this volume bridges the gaps caused by professional specialization among psychology, theology, and philosophy. Each essay was forged out of an integrative discussion among theologians, psychologists, philosophers, New Testament scholars, educators, and pastors around the CCT seminar table. Topics that emerged included relational and developmental spirituality, moral virtue and judgment, and suffering and trauma. Psychology and Spiritual Formation in Dialogue speaks across disciplinary divides, fostering fruitful conversation for fresh insights into the nature and dynamics of personal spiritual change. Contributors include- Justin L. Barrett, School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary- Earl D. Bland, Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University- Ellen T. Charry, Princeton Seminary- John H. Coe, Biola University- Robert A. Emmons, University of California, Davis- Stephen Evans, Baylor University- Bruce Hindmarsh, Regent College, Vancouver- Marie T. Hoffman, New York University- James M. Houston, Regent College, Vancouver- Steven J. Sandage, David R. Paine, and Jonathan Morgan, Boston University- Siang Yang Tan, School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary- Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Brandon J. Griffin, and Caroline R. Lavelock, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityEdited by- Thomas M. Crisp, professor of philosophy, Biola University- Steve L. Porter, professor of theology, spiritual formation, and philosophy, Talbot School of Theology and Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University- Gregg Ten Elshof, professor of philosophy, Biola UniversityChristian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.

Part One

The
Relationship
Between
Psychology
and Spiritual
Formation

Spiritual Theology

When Psychology and Theology in the
Spirit Service Faith

John H. Coe

A pastor once confided to me, “I know how to preach, teach and administrate a church. But when people tell me their spiritual problems, that they don’t pray enough or that they struggle with anger or worry, and I quote to them the Bible that they should pray more, put off anger and not worry, they often respond ‘I know that pastor—so what is wrong with me?’ The truth is, I don’t know what to say or do from there. I’m stuck.” I don’t think the problem is unique to this pastor. Those of us who preach would love to see transformation just by the speaking the Word: “Pray more; love God; put off anger!” And—poof—it is done. But that is a fantasy.1

There is a great need in the church for a robust methodology that takes seriously the study of spiritual growth. On the one hand, contemporary evangelical theological education has focused on doctrine and technical historical-textual studies but sometimes to the neglect of an in-depth understanding of sanctification.2 Even when there exists an adequate doctrine of sanctification, what is still missing is how that truth of sanctification becomes a reality in the believer’s life. On the other hand, Christian psychological training has focused on observation, reflection, and theorizing about psychological dynamics related to health, sin, and being sinned against. But it typically ignores the study of spiritual growth and the transforming ministry of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life and how the absence of the Holy Spirit affects the unbeliever’s experience. Consequently, what is missing is an in-depth understanding of the process of growth in the Spirit. That is, there appears to be a gap in our theological and psychological training of pastors and Christian psychologists: In seminary the gap is between understanding the theological content of the faith and engaging thoughtfully in the praxis of spiritual formation, a gap that needs to be bridged by an understanding of the process of how we grow in Christ. In schools of Christian psychology, the gap is between the natural psychological processes of sin and growth and growth in the Spirit, a gap that needs to be bridged by an understanding of the dynamic processes of how the Spirit of God transforms the person.

Spiritual Theology as a Task for Theologian, Psychologist, Pastor, and Church

I want to reclaim for evangelical theological and psychological education and for the church a robust understanding of spiritual theology as pastoral-psychological-spiritual theology. Spiritual theology is the theological discipline that attempts to fill this gap of understanding the process of spiritual growth by integrating (1) the scriptural teaching on sanctification and growth with (2) observations, reflections, and experience (an empirical study) of the Spirit’s work in the believer’s spirit and experience, which is within the purview of both pastoral theology and a Christian doing psychology. Here is where theology and Christian psychology come together to understand the process of spiritual formation for the church. Thus it is unclear whether spiritual theology should be within the purview of theology or psychology, for it takes one versed in both to really do spiritual theology well. In that case, this study could just as well be called spiritual psychology or psychological spirituality or integrative spirituality than spiritual theology. However, I will use the term spiritual theology because it has a certain standing tradition in the history of theology, though the name is less important than the phenomena and methodology.3 If schools of Christian psychology wish to give this a different name, that is fine. My experience teaching in a school of psychology is that what has been called “integration” has fallen short of this, being a study of the content of theology and psychology and less a focused understanding of the dynamic psychological-spiritual processes of growth in the Spirit based upon the work of Christ in salvation. And though the model developed here is an academic one, it would be a mistake to think it is for professionals only.4 I will argue that theologians, pastors, and psychologists need to do spiritual theology if they are to understand all the dynamic process of growth in Christ. Nevertheless, spiritual theology is implicitly the task for all believers who desire to integrate the truths of the word of God into the reality of how the Spirit works in our everyday lives.

The Data of Spiritual Theology: Scripture and Empirical Study of Life in the Spirit

On this model of spiritual theology, certainly Scripture is the central and most important datum for the content and understanding of the process of spiritual transformation—clearly a theological task. Nevertheless, this textual study needs to be combined with an empirical study and understanding of how these realities discussed in the Bible actually work in real life—a psychological-observational task. And both theologians and psychologists must stretch themselves to ask how the Spirit of God works in transformation in real life. I cannot overestimate the significance of this point—one that is sometimes difficult for the pastor, the theologian, and the psychologist to recognize. After all, how we put off anger in the Spirit and how we become filled with the Holy Spirit are very real questions for believers. And when I say there is a need for empirical study I do not mean the dogma of “empiricism” held by certain scientistic thinkers who restrict knowledge to what the senses provide. By empirical, I only mean the God-given use of observation, reason, experience, and reflection to understand certain dimensions of reality—namely, life in the Spirit. This is clearly the job of every Christian but also the specific task of the spiritual theologian.

This empirical element in spiritual theology will focus on two fundamental dimensions. First, because spiritual growth involves the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life—something that takes place in real life—it is insufficient to limit our study of the work of the Spirit to a textual study of the Scriptures if we are to have a full understanding of His work in sanctification. Rather, it is necessary to actually study the Spirit’s work in the human experience (what we might call pneumadynamics). Second, because the Spirit does the work of transformation in the human person, we will also need to study the dynamic processes of the human spirit, sin, psychopathology, and response to the Spirit (psychodynamics). It turns out that these empirical tasks of observation and reflection are the work of spiritual theology and need to be done in both the schools of theology and psychology if pastors and Christian therapists are to have a robust understanding of the dynamics of spiritual growth. Of course, there may be different emphases and different goals to their work (on the one hand, for preaching and pastoral counseling, on the other, for doing therapy, etc.).5 In that case, it seems even more clear how much theologians and psychologists need one another if they are to do spiritual theology in the most complete manner.

The Lack of Spiritual Theology in Theological and Psychological Training

In general, I think spiritual theology has been greatly ignored in theological and Christian psychological training as well as contemporary discussions of spirituality. The absence of this understanding of pneumadynmics and psychodynamics in our theological training has been largely due, I believe, to (a) the belief that this is the task of someone other than the theologian or psychologist, (b) the theologian/pastor’s incorrect assumption that an adequate understanding of the process of spiritual growth can be gleaned from solely a textual study that involves little reflection on human experience, or (c) the psychologist’s incorrect assumption that an adequate understanding of the process of spiritual growth can be gleaned from solely an empirical study of the dynamic processes of human growth (psychodynamics) apart from understanding dynamics of the Holy Spirit (pneumadynamics). But there is no good reason for this—theology and psychology must address the real questions of how growth takes place and how the Spirit works in transformation.

Perhaps a word about Christian psychology is relevant here. Christian psychology has done a marvelous job in seeking to understand human psychodynamics, as its secular counterpart has attempted. Unfortunately, however, it often ignores pneumadynamics altogether, given its tendency to mimic its secular counterpart’s naturalistic and reductionistic methodology in doing science, which generally precludes the study of spiritual realities, particularly the experience of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even psychology of religion has fallen into this tendency.

The result of this hole or gap in our theological and Christian psychological training is an impoverished understanding of the process of growth in the Spirit. Overall, training in spiritual theology would greatly assist pastors, theologians, Christian psychologists, and believers in understanding the process of growth in the Spirit.

Definition of Spiritual Theology as a Specific First-Order Discipline

Spiritual theology is the theological-empirical discipline, with its own unique data and methodology, that brings together (a) a study of the truths of Scripture—a historical-literary discipline—with (b) a study of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and spiritual growth in the experience of human beings—a broadly empirical discipline involving observation, reflection, and integration with other relevant disciplines. In that sense, it is at its core an integrative endeavor.

The purpose or goal of this spiritual theology is threefold:

1. 1. To define the nature of this supernatural life in Christ (which is derived from the Bible and theology as the primary data)
2. 2. To explain the process of growth by which persons move from the beginning of the spiritual life to its full perfection in the next life (which is derived from the data of the Bible, theology, and experience)
3. 3. To formulate directives for spiritual growth and development (which are derived from the data of the Bible, theology, and experience)

Spiritual theology’s task is to study all relevant data regarding growth. While the Bible is the central datum for this study, the peculiar and unique task in comparison to other kinds of academic disciplines (psychology, systematic theology, OT studies, NT studies)—that is, the task that is peculiar to this study in the universe of academic disciplines—is to integrate a theology of sanctification with a broadly empirical study of what is relevant to understanding spiritual growth in the real world. With God in heart and Scripture in hand, the unique task of spiritual theology is to go into the world of the church and the Spirit to study and understand all one can about the nature, process, and directives for spiritual growth.

This literary and empirical study of life in the Spirit would include dialogue and learning between theologians, Christian psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, etc. who are seeking to understand the person, human psychological-relational-cultural dynamics, and dynamics of the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This methodology blends particularly the work of the theologian and Christian psychologist in a robust sense. Thus it is unclear whether spiritual theology is most aptly in the purview of the Christian theologian or Christian psychologist—perhaps both can and should do this. Perhaps only both together can do this well. And though the work of spiritual theology can be captured by an academic discipline, it also has a general application in the life of any believer who attempts to understand how to obey and integrate truth into real Christian existence.

A Particularly Evangelical-Theological Concern Over Spiritual Theology

Some may object that this view of spiritual theology contradicts the Reformation commitment to sola Scriptura—or at least to some people’s interpretation of this doctrine, that the Scriptures alone contain all that we need for understanding the spiritual life or that all wisdom for living is contained in the Bible and, therefore, no wisdom for spiritual growth can be discovered outside the Bible. This has been the claim of the Biblical Counseling tradition for years.6 According to some Biblical Counselors, all we need for spiritual growth is an understanding of the Bible and obedience to it. Spiritual theology, on the other hand, is interested in whether there is any extrabiblical wisdom that we can discover and that is helpful for understanding and participating in the process of spiritual growth.

Justification for Doing Spiritual Theology

Because spiritual theology is controversial in certain circles of evangel...