Following Christ Faithfully:
Unexpected Insights from
Psychology
WEEK 1:
WHAT IS “TRUE RELIGION”?
Introduction to the Series
 Problem of self-serving
bias

We tend to see ourselves as
better than we are


E.g., 94% of college
professors think they’re
above average
And miss many weak spots
 Psalm 50.21

We may be inclined to think
God is like us rather than
apprehend God as He really
is
Introduction
 Psychology overlaps
theology







Nature of persons
Development
Thinking
Social relationships
Emotions
Goals and purpose
Behavior
Theology
Psychology
Plan for the Course
 Psychology has looked at
Christianity scientifically


While there is much
misunderstanding (e.g.,
Freud)
There is much we might
learn
 We will take some
insights and reflect on
them in light of Scripture
What is “true religion”?
Overview of Today
 Current climate
 Spiritual is good


Personal experience is good



Religious organizations are bad
Spiritual is private


Religion is bad
Religion is public, thus bad
What does the religion vs.
spirituality debate mean to us?
How does it match James 1:1-27?
Etymology
Religion
Spirituality
 From Latin “religio”
 To tie or bind
 Thus a bond
 Between God and a person
 But also among people
who share belief
 Historically used to cover
all areas of faith, practice,
and experience
 From “spiritus”






“breath” or “life”
Key is being immaterial
Roots in dualism of matter
vs. spirit
(e.g. deacons attend to body;
elders to soul)
In cultural use, does NOT
imply the Holy Spirit
Thus I prefer “Christian
Spirituality”
Spirituality
 Forms of spirituality in our
culture



Transcendent


Ephemeral connection to the
environment

Sense of intimacy with the divine





Secular means “of the time” and
thus focus on now, not eternity
Religion moves to be utilitarian,
not valued in itself
Disrespect for institutions

Something more out there…felt
when looking at sunset or stars at
night
Religious
Cultural secularism

Connection to people
Nature



Humanist


 Roots of the “spiritual turn”
And increase in self focus
Thus many churches try to
accommodate this and meet “felt
needs”
Religion becomes spirituality
Enables movement of R/S to
private domain
Separated from the public domain
Explains current political climate
(and Muslim difference)
Contrasts
Religion (Christianity)













Institutional
External
Objective
Structural
Fixed
Frozen
Requires God
“bad”
Commitment to Bible
Moral obligations
“costly grace”
Community-focused
Purposeful
Spirituality













Individual
Internal
Subjective
Functional
Flexible
Dynamic
No deity required
“good”
Freedom of thought
Serves personal well-being
“cheap grace”
Individual-focused
Useful
Spiritual Only Group is Growing in the U.S.
Religious vs. Spiritual
R and S
R, not S
S, not R
neither
Religious vs. Spiritual
 The S not R group sees religion (such as our church)
as negative, so less likely to:



Attend church
Pray
Hold orthodox beliefs
 More likely to:
 Be independent
 Go to group spiritual experiences (e.g. retreats)
 See religion as separate from spirituality
Emerging Group
 Spiritual against religion



Feel people need to be
freed from religion
Promote spirituality and
talk down religion
Common secular position
Serves to privatize faith
 And free from moral
obligations

This Misses Important Things
 Religion actually supports individuals in many ways
 While still promoting relationships
 With God
 In marriage and family
 In churches
 Spirituality generally is more self-centered and
subjective
Searching for God
 Spirituality encourages a search for something
sacred

And may value the journey more than the destination
 Religion, particularly Christianity, is a seeking to
draw near to God


In a redemption-based relationship
And encompasses all of life (work, meaning, identity, and
sense of belonging) within it
 Religious institutions – e.g., FPCC – promote all of
these

Plus add moral dimensions to life
But…
IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
IN THE “REAL” WORLD
EXAMPLE: Tolerance versus Love
 Some thoughts, with thanks to D.A. Carson’s, The Intolerance
of Tolerance
 Recent change in the meaning:
 Old tolerance: accepting the existence of different views

Tolerate the person; debate ideas
 New tolerance: accepting different views and not debating
 Moves from admitting the right of people to differ to seeing
the differences as unimportant, with other views being as
true (or untrue) as one’s own
 So, saying Jesus is the only way to God is tolerant in the old
view, but INTOLERANT in the new
 Historically, Christians could differ with others on beliefs but
honor them as humans made in God’s image
 Intolerance is now being used to silence speaking out on faith
Examples of “Tolerance”
 Universities, historically bastion of
free speech, now limit one’s
freedom to speak out.

E.g. professors have been fired for
saying something that offends others …
even if it is not hate speech
 Media: OK with, say, Catholics
reaching out in charity, but shun
them when stand on issues like
abortion/birth control
 Sexual issues: while Christians
have to an extent asked for it, to
disagree with gay marriage is not a
position of tolerance, and may be
equated with homophobia, even if
the person saying it genuinely
shows Christian love

ON BOTH SIDES, CALLING NAMES
IS NOT TOLERANT
 So, increasingly it is intolerant to
say anything is right or wrong that
violates “intolerance”

Though doubtless promoters of
tolerance are intolerant themselves
 Homeschooling Christian
fundamentalists the “mock
attackers” in terrorism drills in in
NJ and Michigan

WHY? Simply because of convictions,
they are seen as intolerant and thus a
suitable “enemy”
 While releasing illegal alien
criminals, US government
deported German immigrant
homeschoolers who came here for
religious freedom to educate their
children
 So, increasingly those in power are
silencing opposing views
Roots of Tolerance
 Based on the notion that there is no true truth
 So, your personal truth is OK as long as you leave mine






alone…and don’t try to influence public policy
Discourages discussion
No discussion of WHY tolerance is a virtue; it is assumed to be
the ONLY virtue, or the greatest of all
However, if no rational discussion, power becomes the key to
enforcing your opinion
Interesting, as tolerance now is Intolerant of those who differ
with it (thus homeschoolers are seen as likely target for
terrorist attacks and thus vilified)
E.g., American Counseling Association
How does EXCLUSION promote INCLUSION???
Impact of Tolerance
 Privatizing our religion
 No place for it is the public domain
 Interpreting Christianity in light of tolerance
 Arguing that God/Jesus are examples of tolerance
 Yet Jesus was quite intolerant of the Pharisees, and spoke of
condemnation for those who seek God apart from Him
 Buddhist ideas are popular because they don’t claim a right
and wrong

Good thing! Their founder deserted his wife to pursue spirituality
 GK Chesterton reportedly said; “Tolerance is the virtue of a
man without convictions”

Though now tolerance is used to push certain convictions.
 If believers had all been tolerant in today’s sense, there would
be no martyrs
Being Public in Our Faith
 Summary of American
tolerance:





Rooted in postmodern disbelief in truth
Indifferent to right or wrong
Or enforces opinion by power
Cynical disregard for truth
Distances from others
 IN CONTRAST, Christian love:






Cares for the other
Yet believes truth is seeing as God sees
Including that persons of all beliefs are
made in God’s image
Discussion of differences is loving,
drawing closer to God/each other
The “meekness of wisdom” Jas 3:13
We share our beliefs and doctrines from
love, not in effort to “prove” ourselves
Augustine on Love

"If you keep silent, keep silent by love: if you speak, speak by love; if you
correct, correct by love; if you pardon, pardon by love; let love be rooted in
you, and from the root nothing but good can grow.
Love and do what you will.
Love endures in adversity, is moderate in prosperity; brave under harsh
sufferings, cheerful in good works; utterly reliable in temptation, utterly
open-handed in hospitality; as happy as can be among true brothers and
sisters, as patient as you can get among the false ones.
The soul of the scriptures, the force of prophecy, the saving power of the
sacraments, the fruit of faith, the wealth of the poor, the life of the dying.

Love is all.”
Saint Augustine of Hippo
What Can We Learn from Religion v.
Spirituality?
 Infiltration of secularism
into culture

Contra Islam
 Individualism pulls self-
promoting pieces from
Christian faith and calls it
spirituality
 Freeing people of
obligations to other people
AND from moral standards
of religious faith
 Using tolerance to justify
sin and remove debate
 Effectively privatizing faith
Biblical Teaching
 The Holy Spirit is a Person in the
Trinity




Not a vague, ephemeral feeling
I stress Christian Spirituality
when speaking of the work of the
Spirit in our lives
Even part of the role of Spirit is to
convict us of moral failures
So, we have sin as a category
 James 1:1-27

True religion, then, is in


Being in relationship with God by
forgiveness of our sins
In the power of the Spirit, acting
to serve others
 Bear One Another's Burdens:
 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any
transgression, you who are
spiritual should restore him in a
spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on
yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Bear one another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ. For if
anyone thinks he is something,
when he is nothing, he deceives
himself. (Galatians 6:1-3 ESV)
Applications
 Watch your language!
 How are you using the
terms?
 How might that lead to
misunderstanding?
 Consider cultural and
political change



How is Christianity being
privatized?
How has tolerance impacted
you?
What does that mean for our
children?
 Recovering the language of
sin



Christian believe that God is
Holy and we are sinners
Repentance is still in our
vocabulary
Galatians 6 challenges us to
mind our sin and that of
others
 Moral obligations
 Good devotions do not make
for good religion
 What more should we do to
work out our faith?
 And speak of its truth?