Page 77 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Church Traditions for a Christian Psychology

Fr. Gregory Jensen (USA)
Orthodox Ascetical-Liturgical Spirituality:

A Challenge for Christian Psychology

And: The Challenge of the “Fool for Christ”

Abstract The Passions
Recent theological scholarship emphasizes the If we break “the exterior relationship with God,”
important, and really foundational, role of asce- the “the interior relationship” among the diffe-
ticism and liturgy for Christian formation. The rent aspects of the personality is also broken
Orthodox Church in its pastoral praxis has long (Fagerberg, p. 18). Following Greek philoso-
emphasized the need for ascetical struggle not phy, the fathers of the Church spoke about what
only for moral purification but also to reform contemporary psychology calls the personality
and transform our relationships with God and in terms of “faculties” or “forces manifest” in
the world of persons, events and things. Viewed the human person (Spidlik, 1986, p. 102). These
anthropologically, I argue here that Christian were “understood to be three in number.” First
ascetical struggle reflects the dynamic nature of “a human being is able to think—this is the in-
human life as it was meant to be and so has the tellective faculty.” Second, we can be “moved to
potential to serve both as the basis for a general action” by having our “ire stirred up—this is the
science of human thought and action as well as irascible faculty.” Third and finally there is “the
a critique of the unexamined secularism within concupiscible faculty” or more simply, desire.
contemporary psychology (both Christian and The faculties are all created good and meant
non-Christian). to operate in harmony with each other and in
obedience to God with the “intellective facul-
ty … ruled by God” even as “the irascible and
Introduction concupiscible faculties” are in turn ruled by the
Recent theological scholarship emphasizes the intellective faculty. But having fallen into diso-
important, and really foundational, role of as- bedience to God, the personality’s “hierarchy is
ceticism and liturgy for Christian formation. upset” and so the faculties are corrupted; our
Clark (1999) makes this argument based on relationship with the world of persons, events
the historical data while Fagerberg (2013) does and things is similarly distorted.
the same from the perspective of systematic
theology. Anthropological “asceticism must be Writing in the sixth century, St Maximus the
incorporated into the liturgical life of the ec- Confessor calls this corruption of the faculties
clesial body” because, “[c]oncepts [alone] can- and the distortion of our relationship with God
not purify us from passions. Dialectics cannot and the created order (human and non-human)
stop human cravings from acting in support of the passions. Because my relationship with God
greed, pride or concupiscence” (Neamtu, 2009, is now broken and my faculties corrupted, I find
p. 257). Most importantly, Christian ascetical that my thoughts, desires and actions “tear [me]
struggle reflects the dynamic nature of human to pieces” (Staniloae, p. 93). For Maximus (and
life not simply as it is now but as it was meant the whole Orthodox tradition following him),
to be and, as such, has the potential to serve to live according to the passions means “to live
both as the basis for a general science of human according to the senses” in such a way that we
thought and action as well as a critique of secu- “change the whole [person] into ‘body’” (p.
larism within both Christian and non-Christian 106). In this model, the “passionate individual”
psychology. is not the one who is moved by noble motives
to pursue good ends but rather the one who li-
ves solely “by the senses penetrated by desire

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