Page 32 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 1

Christian Anthropology

Comment on ‘The Nature of Des-
pair’ by Krzysztof Wojcieszek.

by Trevor Griffiths

This is a stimulating article, but perhaps it is best to read it surely is a philosophical thought experiment, not realistic
as a useful summary of Classical anthropology to compa- anthropology. Does he mean spiritual death (separation),
re any future developments of anthropological we might or physical death? In my experience as a medical doctor,
make in this 21st Century. most despairing people stay alive, and question why they
are still alive!
At first read it seems tempting to elevate relationships to Let us not forget that St Thomas Aquinas developed his
some spiritual Ideal, especially the relationship of Love, theology and anthropology eight centuries ago in respon-
and to downgrade emotions to a level of mere physical se to the discovery of Aristotle from the Arabic world.
need, so that the one can be set over against the other. This discovery deeply challenged the long-prevailing Pla-
However, on closer reading a number of problems emer- tonic philosophy on which the Western Church had cho-
ge, which can stimulate prolonged and fruitful debate, I sen to risk its good standing. Aristotle’s focus on change
am sure, in EMCAPP in future years. and transformation cut right across Platonic Idealism,
removing all its comfortable certainties, so that Aquinas
The first, and greatest, problem that I can see is that EM- had to formulate his ‘proofs of the existence of God’ in
CAPP states that its approach to psychology and psy- an attempt to create a new foundation. In this 21st Cen-
chotherapy is empirical. An empirical basis is important tury we face a challenge to anthropology that is no less
to establish the place of Christian psychology and psy- deeply unsettling than Aristotle was to Plato. The birth
chotherapy, and I do not imagine anyone would want to of the New Science of chaos theory with emergent adap-
abandon that position so hard fought for. But how does tive systems is a powerful way to understand Life. Many
this statement in Section 2 fit with empiricism: “Feelings people who do not understand it are scared of chaos the-
(emotions) are always selfish and unstable/ dynamic; and ory, but adaptive living systems that emerge from chaos
personal relationships are always altruistic and durable.”? are entirely consistent with tri-une theology. Adaptive
This is asserted as a result of a 5th Century thought ex- human systems take shape around word. They are also
periment by Boetius. Should we base a 21st Century psy- available to empirical challenge, unlike a dualistic Ideal.
chotherapy on it? If we need a Classical root to be brave enough to develop
a new Christian anthropology, we could look to the 7th
Earlier in that same Section, Krzyzstof states: “To avoid Century St Maximus the Confessor, whose view of logoi
despair we should understand the nature of love as a per- is fully trinitarian.
sonal relationship which is impossible to break (without Krzyzstof has achieved a valuable summary of the dualis-
our own conscious decisions).” Having postulated a com- tic alternative, but I fear it will be difficult to shape a 21st
plete dualism between an Ideal Love and physical emoti- century Christian psychotherapy around it.
on, he now asserts that wilful human choice can break the
dualistic Ideal of Love. Therefore, love is NOT an absolu-
te; and more troublesome still for dualism is that the only
therapeutic option now available is to bring people to a
choice to believe that Love IS that absolute. Dr Trevor Griffiths,
Great Britain, was a Ge-
I think Krzyztof’s view that the special role of feelings is neral Medical Practiti-
to protect our body and our somatic needs comes from oner for 25 years, with
Thomas Aquinas’ view of emotions (13th Century), a particular interest in
as interpreted by the 20th Century Polish philosopher mental health and sys-
Mieczysław Gogacz. However, I cannot see how dualism temic family therapy.
explains the comment in the summary that “If we are in He trained at Oxford
the situation of breaking our personal relations (love cri- University and West-
sis, death of relatives, trauma, for example), our emotions minster Hospital me-
(feelings) also collapse; so breaking personal relations has dical School. He now
a damaging influence on our body.” Why damaging!? Yes, runs the Emotional Lo-
relational change demands physical adaptation to new gic Centre, and provi-
circumstances, but physcial damage is not inevitable, and des training to promote
the purpose of emotion is not only to make you take note health and personal
of damage! The present day neuro-science view of the development. He works
nature of emotion is far more assertive and exploratory with churches and vari-
than that. Then also comes, “That state is called the state ous community organi-
of despair, with death as the final result.” [My italics] This sations.

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