Page 3 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 23

Editorial

I want what I should.

Does human free will - the �tle of this issue of the eJournal - mean the ability to
decide, in the sense that I don't just react or create automa�cally, that I don't
just proceed according to the law, and also carry responsibility?
Or perhaps it even means, as people think today, that real freedom is about a
space of unlimited possibili�es, free from all constraint, obliga�on and
punishment?
But even a li�le reflec�on makes it clear that this kind of freedom does not actually exist, because every
human being is is subject to condi�ons, obliga�ons and dependencies from birth.
No child is asked whether it wants to be born, no child can choose its parents, its family, the city, the country
in which it is born and many other things in the course of its life.
It is not a ques�on of denying the requirements, but of the freedom to do something and yet, with and
despite all the circumstances to create, design and decide for themselves. The human being is not under
inevitable causal constraints from his past, his ins�ncts, his environmental condi�ons, his environmental
condi�ons, his feelings, ...

But: “I want what I should.”?
It is not true that man in paradise was presented by God with a decision in the sense of choosing either good
or evil. Rather, God asked him to decide not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man's
freedom consisted in agreeing to God's commandment as an offer to choose for himself what he should do.
We are used to making a clear dis�nc�on in our thinking and language: either I determine - or I am
determined. Either I am free - or I am not free. Either I do something or something is done to me. There is
only ac�ve or passive.
Interes�ngly, the Greek language has a third verb form in addi�on to ‘ac�ve’ and ‘passive’, namely ‘middle’:
I allow. I myself (ac�ve) allow, consent (middle) to something happening to me (passive).
This is a very good way of expressing the basic orienta�on of our life and the purpose of our freedom as given
by God: to agree to the life that he has given us, to the inten�ons that he a�aches to it, to the grace that he
gives for it, to allow him to guide us.
I hope that this edi�on of Chris�an Psycholoy Around The World will open up relevant perspec�ves of this
personal freedom in the field of Chris�an Anthropology, Psychology and Therapy.

Yours, Werner May
www.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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