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Christian Psychology as a Challenge

Christianity – the so-called desert fathers and may be headed for extinction” (Cox 1995: xv).
their quest for God (Leech 1985:130). This re-
discovery of the realm of interiority and trans- As pointed out by Davie et al. (2002:23):
cendence (Thayer 1985:25) coincides with a dis- “The story of secularization is primarily a story of
covery of the value of symbolic structures and the tensions, conflicts and patterns of differentia-
religious experience (Thayer 1985:29). Due to tion between religious and worldly regimes. The
3
the notion of spirituality the emphasis is less European concept of secularization refers to a
particular historical process of transformation of
on self – actualization, behaviouristic theories Western Christendom and might not be directly
and the classical psychoanalytic theories of hu- applicable to other world religions with very dif-
manistic psychology (Thayer 1985:41-42), and ferent modes of structuration of the sacred and
more on the interconnectedness between life profane realms. It could hardly be applicable, for
and transcendence, human existence and God. instance, to such ‘religions’ as Confucianism or
Spirituality became a search for ‘meta – egoic’ Taoism, insofar as they are not characterized by
experience (Leech 19878). high tension with ‘the world’ and have no eccle-
siastical organization.”

Instead of the Western dualism and distinction
between spirit and matter, spirituality became To my mind, Waaijman (2004) has done the
since the nineties and the beginning of the 21st most extensive research on spirituality. He ex-
century, the standard formula for the theory plains the complexity of the concept in its rela-
and practice of “life in the Spirit” and disciple- tionship to nous and pneuma, as well as to the
ship (Sheldrake 1995: 514). According to Sheld- biblical concepts of devotion (eusebeia), holi-
rake (2007: 1-5) there is a lot of ‘fuzziness’ about ness, mercy/charity, and perfection (2003:314
the meaning of ‘spirituality’ in many professio- – 332). (See also Endres 2002:143 – 155). Ac-
nal circles. Nevertheless, he suggests that the cording to Waaijman, spirituality is an expo-
word ‘spirituality’ refers to the deepest values nent of the French spiritualite (Latin: spirituali-
and meanings by which people seek to live. The tas) with roots in the Biblical field of meaning:
concept therefore implies some kind of vision ruach/pneuma (2004:359). Spirituality repre-
of the human spirit and of what will assist it to sents both the divine perspective as well as the
achieve full potential. human spirit. It includes ascetic and mystical
experiences as related to both the Biblical tra-
Spirituality started to emphasize emotive ex- dition (ruach) and Hellenistic intuition and
pressions of intimacy with God within many knowledge (nous). At stake is the relationship
acts of public worship and service (Drishill between the divine Spirit/Pneuma and the hu-
1999:8). man spirit/soul within the reality of life.

Due to globalization and technology with its The rediscovery of the value of spirituality
‘compression of time’, a need for spiritual lea- within therapy and counselling helped pasto-
dership developed. Secularization created a ral care to get rid of the domination of psy-
spiritual vacuum (Blackcaby 2001:5-11). It is chotherapy. Depending on different schools of
therefore no surprise why H Cox, the author of interpretation, pastoral care was either merely
the Secular City (1965), revised his own theory a variant of proclamation (a sort of homiletic
on secularism. In his book, Fire from Heaven procedure or liturgical gesture/prayer) or a va-
(1995), he acknowledged that his projection in riant of the culture of self-actualization or self
the sixties proofed to be wrong. Instead of se- –maintenance (Gerkin 1997:49).
cularism that is endangering spirituality, it is
rather spirituality that is destroying secularism. However, the notion of spirituality opens up
“Today it is a secularity, not spirituality that new avenues for soul care. It challenges pastoral
care to reframe its view on soul as a substantial
3 About the interplay between faith and experience entity separated from body and life to soul as a
within a theology of spirituality, see Ruhbach 1987:23-25; vital ingredient of all of human, social and en-
sola experientia facit theologum.
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