Page 3 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 21

Editorial

Experiencing oneself as being loved and simultaneously wishing to grow in love: these two
impulses send every person on an individual, unique and lifelong path. If we mean it
seriously with our progress along this path, they lead to a crying out of our hearts, a cry of
libera�on: “Lord, help me to love (more)!”
It is a rocky path: “Believing in love brings with it the risk of being deceived. But to believe in
love and to be deceived is be�er than not to believe in love. In the la�er case, one would
truly be deceived.” (Sören Kierkegaard,1813-1855, Works of Love, Vol.I, 8/9)
The great danger s�ll remains: loving without expec�ng love in return.
This path will hardly be a topic in psychotherapy and counselling, but represents rather the
other end of the love process: How can clients experience themselves as being loved, even
in their own failures, in crises and stress situa�ons, or with regard to their own biographies.
To love without expec�ng love in return, in contrast, is more a task for every therapist or
counsellor.
This edi�on of the eJournal ‘Chris�an Psychology Around The World’ seeks to examine love
in different dimensions and to “get closer to it” from different perspec�ves, especially
bearing in mind the extremely varied backgrounds of the authors – theologically,
denomina�onally, culturally and professionally.
Love is a lifelong learning process.

Yours, Werner May
emcapp.eu
post@werner-may.de

Why do we have a bilingual journal?
In our movement for Chris�an Psychology, we meet as Chris�ans with very different backgrounds: different churches, dif-
ferent cul-tures, different professional trainings...
There is a common desire for the movement, but highly “mul�-lingual” ideas of its realiza�on! Therefore, a bilingual
journal is just a small reference to our mul�lingual voices to remind us:
Languages are an expression of cultures, countries and of their people. By wri�ng in two languages, we want to show our
respect to the authors of the ar�cles, to their origin and heritage, and at the same �me 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 o�en. 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 pragma�c reason: As we want to have authors from one special country to write the main ar�cles of
every journal, it will be easier for them to distribute the journal in their own country, when it also is in their own language.

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