Page 137 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Foundational Discussions in Christian Psychology

imagination and the creativity of aesthetic the dynamic interplay between vocation, virtue,
thinking, namely what may contribute to a vitality, volition and hope. Together they con-
common good and the well-being of human tribute to the dynamics of spiritual wholeness.
life. With the beautification of life is meant With reference to wisdom thinking, informed
a vision that can enhance human dignity decision making (in the light of sound values
and empower human beings around issues and a normative system for human behaviour)
of justice, equal worth, reconciliation and creates a sense of soulfulness and meaning.
forgiveness. Ethos, a mode of being, is never totally neutral.
• Volition and courage/boldness: healing as In wisdom thinking ethos, the mode of human
sense of devotion, commitment and ou- being, is directed by kenotic love. Ethos helps
treach despite resistance. Volition expres- to structure normative behaviour and in most
ses different levels of motivation. It deals cases deal with questions regarding the inter-
with the question: why (reason)? It boils play between good and bad (evil). Soulfulness
to being functions that is fuelled by a kind is thus connected to the anthropological notion
of sustainability and willingness to endure of conscience as kind of moral alarming system
suffering with patience and reasonable in- (moral sensitivity) in processes of healing. The
sight. Soulfulness is about questions that further argument is that empathy and sympathy
keeps one going when all human logic is are not merely about emotional fluctuation, but
contradicted by the many paradoxes in life. are embedded in a basic sense of responsibili-
Volition presupposes the quality of being ty and respond-ability (respondeo ergo sum).
functions: to be there for the other despite In this regard, a shift from achievement ethics
contradiction. towards sacrificial ethics (grace and love) beco-
• Vitality and embodiment: healing as a sense mes paramount.
of aliveness (elan vital). Vitality represents
different levels of physical wellness and op-
timal levels of health. Sickness and impair- Spiritual expressions/signals of embodied
ments, ailments and disability or disfigu- human soulfulness
rement play a decisive role in soulfulness.
Questions regarding physical abilities are
related to bodily needs, corporeal desires,
the senses and the sensual realm of em-
bodiment. The fact is that we do not have
a body, we are our body. A corporeal sen-
se of aliveness is imperative for a wholistic
understanding of soulfulness in anthropo-
logy. Care for the body and nutrition should
therefore be rendered as spiritual issues as
well.

It has been argued that the spiritual dimensi-
on, with its emphasis on meaning, virtue, vi-
sion, courage and embodiment, functions as a
coherence factor in embodies soulfulness. The
spirituality of pneuma contributes to the dy-
namics of integration between all the different
anthropological dimensions; the ethos of un-
conditional love intends to articulate a sense of
unity and wholeness in human embodiment.
The diagram below is an attempt to come up with
a depiction of an integral model. It illustrates

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