Page 114 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 10

Comment to

“Freedom as the goal of the

development of conscience

and psychotherapy Saara Kinnunen
(Finland)
psychothera-
pist, family and
The first survey of Tomasz Niemirowski’s tit- couple thera-
le Freedom as the goal of the development of pist, worked in
conscience and psychotherapy made me think Family Coun-
about how these two concepts fit together. What seling Center in Lutheran Church in Fin-
has freedom to do with the development of land. Master of Arts in Social Psychology,
conscience? Freedom has much to do with psy- Education and Musicology. Member of the
chotherapy and especially with Christian psy- ACC Finland board, supervisor and trainer
chotherapy. God wants to set us free but many of counseling and Christian therapy. She
people are far from that. One goal of Christian has had parenting courses for 35 years and
psychotherapy is to eliminate the obstacles that marriage courses with her husband Arto in
prevent a person from living in the freedom Finland and Russia.
God has meant. Saara Kinnunen is the author of fifteen
books, some of them translated into Esto-
Tomasz Niemirowski shows the logic that con- nian, Russian. The last two books (2014,
nects these two concepts. He says that a person 2016) are on the area of integrative Christi-
is really free only when he/she is sure that what an therapy. Her last book Longing for the
he/she does is good, when he/she acts accor- father was rewarded as the best Christian
ding to his/her conscience and he/she feels free. book of Finland in 2016.
Conscience is both a theological, psychologi-
cal and social psychological concept. In a psy- Former article by Saara you can see here:
chological and social psychological connection http://emcapp.ignis.de/6/#/140
one does not take into account that God has
anything to do with conscience. Person’s religi- ski considers the concept of truth. He says that
on may give information about good and bad. development of the conscience consists in kno-
I suppose that Tomasz Niemirowski takes it for wing the truth: what really is good for me and
granted that God’s voice speaks in our consci- what really is bad for me? Anyone who does not
ence. The false concept of good and evil (that know the truth will not be free. The truth makes
is: underdeveloped or badly developed consci- us free (J 8,32).
ence) manifests itself as a lack of freedom.
“What is the truth?” asked even Pontius Pilatus.
Striving for good and avoiding evil is the same We can make approaches to the question from
what innate desire for happiness. Niemirowski’s many sides. Niemirowski takes two aspects:“The
assumption that a person’s deepest desire is to Father loves me” (J 10,17) and “The Father is
be like God, to live like God or even to be God greater than me” (J 14,28). This truth helps us
sounds strange to my ears. I should put it in submit to the will of God and trust Him.
other words: a person’s deepest desire is to do
the will of God. Consequences of knowing and accepting that
truth is submission to God: “I do not seek my
Freedom and happiness are a universal goal of own will but the will of the Father” (J 5,30). If
life. But how are freedom and conscience con- someone wants to be free then he/she should
nected in a Christian sense? Tomasz Niemirow- always be submitted to God’s will.

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