Page 99 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 1

The Book

Level II Coe and Hall address the professional domain of psycho-
is about methodology, research and process of doing therapy and spiritual direction as well as church minis-
psychology in God. With the sage of the Old Testament tries for discipleship and spiritual formation, and want to
(who found wisdom in both creation and revelation) as mend the split between mind and spirit.
a model for social science, Coe and Hall explain; how They suggest a relationally orientated psychotherapy that
Christians can develop an appropriate way of observing can create a sacred space, when it is done in the Holy
God’ s creation according to His Word and in His Love; Spirit by a psychotherapist who is deeply emotionally
how they can reflect on creation and the Word; and how present, able to become attached to the client as a caregi-
they can interact with the reflections of others (other psy- ver, and helping to create new shared spiritual stories, by
chologists) in the Love of God. “With God in heart and which the client can live.
Scripture in hand, the sage or spiritual psychologist en- For psychospiritual soul care, they want to learn from
ters into the created world of things, particularly huma- church history with different concepts from biblical up to
nity, to understand the thing itself, especially as it relates modern times. Again, the soul care providers will be the
to the human good and growth.” (p 135) main “instruments” for a more holistic form of soul care.
By their discernment of the movement of the Holy Spirit,
Level III using all their training and experience, they will be able to
describes the theorizing and development of a body of be present in the moment and know how to be with their
knowledge for the sake of serving the spiritual formation clients in ways that will facilitate relational health and a
needs of the church. deep response to the love of God.

As the Old Testament sage learned from creation and All in all, Coe and Hall are aware that they can only give
revelation, the knowledge necessary for TP - on the na- some ideas on this level so far, and need further research
ture of the self, of sin and pathology, and of psychological and more experience in how to practice psychology in the
health - will be informed by both of these sources. But spirit as soul care.
Scripture has a unique authority and will provide the ba-
sic truths to interpret all data of observation: nature as Level V
creation, the nature of humans as relational beings crea- finally gives a short summary of the ultimate goal of
ted in the image of God, creation in the context of de- Transformational Psychology: For the spiritual transfor-
monic conflict, the results of sin for the individual and mation of the psychologist to union with God, conformi-
the hole creation, the gift of redemption, the work of the ty to Christ, love, and glorifying God, we need a new con-
Holy Spirit in transformation and the church, the human cept of training psychologists in Christian universities
destiny of heaven or hell. and seminaries. Studying psychology should support the
psychologist to become a healthy person in his or her re-
Within this interpreting framework, Coe and Hall think lationship to God and others. They should learn in a holi-
about the human person as an embodied spirit (or soul) stic way (no split between observation, reason, faith) and
“whose nature has numerous bodily, affective, cognitive, in meaningful community between faculty and students
volitional and gender capacities, the expression of which on all levels of TP. This will include psychology, theology,
may lead by freedom to flourishing in harmony with one’ psychotherapy, and spiritual direction, all in theory and
s nature, ultimately shaped by and finding their relational practice.
telos in the love of neighbor and union with God, rela-
tionships made possible by our nature but realized only Coe and Hall conclude with an invitation:
by the ministry of the indwelling Spirit of God.” (p 220) “The call of this book has been for the development of
To understand relational aspects and problems, they refer a spiritually transformative psychology that can aid in
to insights of attachment theory, but place emphasize on the reformation of the university, the school of theology
the difference between God’ s love and the more technical and the church. …Perhaps it ultimately will look different
concept of attachment. than what we have outlined. So be it. The call, however, is
the same: to be open to one’ s neediness, to what is real, to
Level IV the Word, to the cross, to the Spirit and to one another –
tries to apply the body of knowledge from level III, gai- and on that basis, to develop a psychology for the sake of
ned by the believing psychologist (as described in level transforming the church and the world. Perhaps you will
I) with the methodological ways (explained in level II) join us in bringing about this revolution.” (p. 422)
to the praxis of psychology in the spirit as soul care. “…
what may be broadly termed ‚soul care‘. That is, we want
to consider… the question of how we apply our under-
standing of human nature, grounded in our own spiritual
formation and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
to help others in their psychospiritual growth process.”
(p 337)

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