Page 2 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 13

Editorial

Editorial

Discussions about the body-soul distinction and how these two human
dimensions of human nature interact (with some adding the concept of
spirit) is a familiar topic of Christian psychology and counseling, as well
as of theology, that ultimately extends throughout church history.
So why do we choose to focus on this topic as the main theme of this
issue of Christian Psychology Around The World?
In my opinion, the focus in psychology and psychiatry in recent years
and decades has increasingly turned to the importance of the body and
brain and interest in the exclusively mental aspects of human life have
moved into the background.
The scientific advances of neuroscience, biochemistry, and medicine
enable us to increasingly “dissect” the living human body, to perceive,
record, and analyze its reactions to our everyday lives. In principle, we intermay@gmx.net
have found that neurobiological events correspond to every human be-
havior and experience, but we have also learned that these bodily pro-
cesses can be influenced by one’s thoughts and activities, so that, our
culture hopes, we can change our behavior and experience much more
easily than through lengthy therapeutic or pedagogical procedure.
Furthermore, because of an emerging transhumanism, we can envision
the development of a better person, whether in terms of ethical choices
or performance. Short-term changes or even multi-generational influ-
ences through technical interventions, for example, with the help of
computers, could soon become part of everyday life.
Some articles in this issue deal with such new challenges. Others look at
topics that explore the interaction between body and soul, especially in
therapy and counseling.
My thanks go to the authors of this issue, but especially to the artist,
Jason K. Dy of the Philippines, who has made his works available to us
and thus challenges all of us to greater creativity, which enables us to
imagine change, in order to perceive the signs of the times and to help
form the future, which corresponds with all of the contributions of this
issue.

Yours,
Werner May

Why do we have a bilingual journal?
In our movement for Christian Psychology, we meet as Christians with very different backgrounds: different churches,
different cul-tures, different professional trainings…
There is a common desire for the movement, but highly “multi-lingual” ideas of its realization! Therefore, a bilingual
journal is just a small reference to our multilingual voices to remind us:
• Languages are an expression of cultures, countries and of their people. By writing in two languages, we want to show
our respect to the authors of the articles, to their origin and heritage, and at the same time symbolically show respect
to all the readers in other foreign countries.
• There are many foreign languages that we do not understand. Within our own language, we intend to understand
one another, but we fail to do so quite often. To really understand one another is a great challenge, and we also want
to point to this challenge by offering a bilingual journal.
• “When languages die, knowledge about life gets lost.” (Suzanne Romaine, 2011)
• Finally, there is a pragmatic reason: As we want to have authors from one special country to write the main articles
of every journal, it will be easier for them to distribute the journal in their own country, when it also is in their own
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language.