Page 31 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 9

Fr Gregory Jensen (USA)
Comment to

“The Moral Word in
Personal Reconstruction in

Сhristian Psychotherapy“ Fr Gregory Jen-
sen has a docto-
rate in spiritual
formation and
Elena Strigo’s article offers us a compact model is the Eastern
of how the human person can, as she says in Orthodox chaplain at the University of
her title, experience “personal reconstruction” Wisconsin-Madison. The founder and exe-
through “Christian psychotherapy.” Strigo’s ap- cutive director of the Palamas Institute, an
proach to psychotherapy rooted in the theo- Orthodox ministry dedicated to adult spiri-
logical anthropology of the Eastern Orthodox tual formation and catechesis, he has taught
Church. For the reader who lacks a solid foun- psychology at Shasta College in California
dation in contemporary Orthodox theology, and theology at Duquesne University in
her introductory remarks will be tough going Pittsburgh. He’s published articles in psy-
relying heavily as she does on the work of the chology, theology, and economics. He is
late, Russian Orthodox theologian Vladimir the author of The Cure for Consumerism
Lossky. published by the Acton Institute in Grand
Rapids and is currently researching a book
True to her theological presuppositions, Strigo examining Eastern Orthodox witness in
see psychotherapy as an encounter between two the free market.
persons—therapist and patient—created in the
image of God. This encounter, like all human Former article by Gregory you can see here:
relationships, is mediated by—or better, incar- http://emcapp.ignis.de/5/#/76
nated in—the spoken word. The goal of the of
the therapeutic conversation is to foster in the
patient his willingness and ability to transcend
his tendency to present himself to others (and
to himself) merely in terms of discrete attribu- as an “individual.”
tes. “I am a Christian,” “I am a husband,” “I am This is why, as Strigo points out, repentance
a priest,” and so on. Instead, the goal of therapy (metanoia, change of heart) is the essential first
is to become the person God created me to be. step in the healing process. I wish Strigo had
The primacy of the person—human and divi- been clearer on this point. Repentance this isn’t
ne—is a central theme in contemporary Eastern simply part of the psychotherapeutic process;
Orthodox theology. Unlike the “individual” it is essential to our whole life. Whether we are
who exists in isolate from others, a “person” suffering from mental illness or not, we are all
is one who lives life in communion with God, of us struggling to discover and become who
neighbour and self. God has created us to be.

Because of sin, we live lives that are fragmented. Restoration, however, is always only tempora-
We are divided psychologically, socially and ry. This isn’t simply because we are sinners. It is
spiritually. Through created for a life of commu- also because we are creatures and so, by nature,
nion, I live estranged from God, my neighbour transitory. This means that our perfection, our
and myself. My primordial suffering is this: restoration, requires that we change and change
Though created by God to be a “person,” I live frequently, as St Gregory of Nyssa says. It is only

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