Page 40 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Empirical steps toward a Christian Psychology

Matthias Schlagmüller (Germany)
Comment

to „The Roles of Automatic and Conscious

Thought in Worldview Consistency“

Eric Jones concerns himself in his contribution
with one of the central questions of the Christi-
an faith, the progressive process of sanctificati-
on – “how we become more like Jesus”.

This is, according to Hebrews 12:14, a pre-con-
dition „... in order to see the Lord“.

If it is possible, as the Bible demands, for Chri-
stians “to be recognised by their fruits” (Mt.
7:16), they should then be distinguishable in
their behaviour from non-Christians. Matthias Schlagmüller (Germany)
Psychologist, PhD, since 2000 tea-
Studies such as those by the Barna Group cher at the IGNIS Institute. He is the
(2009) show, however, that the divorce rate of deputy director of studies, teaches
born-again Christians is exactly as high as in social psychology, learning and me-
the total population (33%). Although the di- mory, diagnostics, and supervises
vorce rate among the „evangelical Christians“, research work.
with 26%, lies under this figure, the divorce rate
among the US population of Asian extraction is
substantially lower, with 20%.

With the help of a small survey questionnaire In the ensuing discussion, Jones points out how
distributed to 155 students, Jones attempts to il- important it would be to carry out similar inve-
luminate a constituent aspect of the question of stigations on a larger and more representative
sanctification, namely: When do Christian va- sample, in order to obtain more precise indica-
lues become so internalised that they influence tions of how the sanctification process develops
action and thinking completely automatically? and whether Christian ideas are in fact more
His hypothesis is that, with a relatively young deeply anchored in older persons.
sample (average age 23.4 years) of 155 students
at a Christian College, the process of sancti- Jones takes up one further important point,
fication is not yet so advanced, and the areas namely the difficulty of investigating the sanc-
of the brain whose operation is rather uncons- tification process empirically at all, since this
cious/automatic are not sufficiently moulded process is also influenced by the fact that “…
by Christian ideas, that any correlation should God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through
be expected between these ideas and the satisf- the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through
action with life assessed in the survey. Only if belief in the truth“ (2. Thess. 2:13).
the Christian ideas are deliberately activated in
the experimental group should a correlation be Another problem connected with the question
detectable. The data from the study supports of the sanctification process is: To what extent
Jones’ hypothesis that no far-reaching change is the process promoted primarily by an increa-
in the (automatic) thinking processes has yet se in knowledge, e.g. from reading the Bible, or
taken place. whether motivational processes might not have

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