Page 84 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Church Traditions for a Christian Psychology

Rejoice, O previously barren one! [I]f the Lord’s death is the ransom of all, and
For you have conceived the Light of the sun by his death “the middle wall of partition” is
Who is to illumine the whole universe dar- broken down, and the calling of the nations
kened by blindness. is brought about, how would he have called
Rejoice, O Zachariah, and cry out with bold- us to him, had he not been crucified? For it
ness! is only on a cross that a man dies with his
For the prophet of the most High desires to hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for
be born! the Lord to bear this also and to spread out
his hands, that with the one he might draw
The biblical reference to the curse of barrenness the ancient people, and with the other those
is here applied to those who—with real love and from the Gentiles, and unite both in himself.
desire—worship God according to the light of For this is what he himself has said to all: “I,
their own consciences. In other words, there when I am lifted up,” he says, “shall draw all
men to me” (quoted in Hardy, 1954, p. 79).
is in secular forms of psychology, like in non-
Christian worship, a desire that cannot be ful- As we reflect on this image, the Christological
filled. structure of the ascetical life becomes apparent.
Unlike pre-Christian forms of worship and Asceticism is not a matter of self-satisfaction or
philosophy, to the degree that contemporary of “cheap grace.” Rather the Christian life is a
psychology is rooted in secularism, it is not a crucified life and this is necessarily the case not
preparation for but a rejection of the Gospel. only personally but professionally as well.
This requires at times from the Christian clini-
cian and theoretician a more pointed, critical
response than what say we see in, say, someone
like the second century apologist Justin Martyr,
who sees the seminal Christ in Greek philoso-
phy.

For Moses is more ancient than all the Greek
writers. And whatever both philosophers
and poets have said concerning the immor-
tality of the soul, or punishments after death,
or contemplation of things heavenly, or doc-
trines of the like kind, they have received
such suggestions from the prophets as have
enabled them to understand and interpret
these things. And hence there seem to be
seeds of truth among all men; but they are
charged with not accurately understanding
[the truth] when they assert contradictories
(St. Justin Martyr, “The First Apology,” #44).

To the degree that contemporary psychology is
faithful to human nature, we are on solid ground
in highlighting the seeds of divine grace that are
there. But this irenic attitude can’t exhaust our
response anymore than it did Justin Martyr’s;
there is also a need to correct errors about what
it means to be human and to do so even at the
expense of professional, and even personal, re-
putation. As the fourth century church father
St. Athanasius writes:

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