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WHY PSYCHOLOGY NEEDS THEOLOGY

Part 1: Introducing a contemplative psychology

Introduction

In the most literal of meanings, psychology is the study of the soul, which is psychos in Greek, while theology is the study of God or theos . At first glance one would expect that they are notionally related and that indeed psychology is born out of theology. The intriguing situation is that these two disciplines have never been further apart. This paper briefly explores why they have fallen out of favour with each other, why psychology needs theology to bring these two together, and how, by introducing a ‘contemplative psychology', these two disciplines could better merge.

100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World's Getting Worse

In J ames Hillman's book We've had a 100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World's Getting Worse (Hillman and Ventura 1993) , he laments the fact that despite a concerted effort to see the transformation of man via self analysis, the external world is no better for the effort. He lays the blame upon the fact that most of psychology and indeed psychotherapy seeks functional reformation and not transformation. Some of this reforming of the psyche has much to do with how we view what the psyche is. Rather than understand the psyche as soul, we see it as the mind (Hillman 1976) . With the emergence and dominance of ‘empirical psychology' over the past 200 years spurred on by Cartesian dualism (Tarnas 1991) , most modern Western people have come to view psychology as synonymous with the mind, an entity located almost exclusively in the brain. Reformation of the mind to produce functional human beings has become almost the primary raison d'etre of modern psychology. Although in itself there is no inherent problem with this approach, personhood has never been more restricted and hence psychology itself becomes limited, and limiting.

Part of the problem lies in how the self has been constituted in the West over the past 300 to 400 years. Psychotherapy has become interestingly an ‘iatrogenic narcissism or grandiosity, a narcissism that begins not in the patient but in therapy's grandiosity, to which the patient must adhere and within which the patient shall conform' (Hillman and Ventura 1993) . In the West's desire to understand everything, the solutions lie in radical self constitution modelled by responsible therapists who are always on time, responsible with their thoughts and emotionally controlled. The functional human being is devoid of contradiction, inner turmoil and doubt. Through empirical knowledge the therapist mirrors the paragon of human virtue; ‘self control through reason alone'. When it is seen as ‘all in the mind' the structural circumstances of the lived experience are ignored for poor cognitive evaluations of reality that require ‘reframing' for the tormented soul to re-align with ‘practical realities'.

Self Constitution: Rousseau's Bastard Child

Both St. Augustine and Rousseau wrote treatises entitled Confessions , the former in the 4 th century the later in the 16 th century. Although the titles are the same, the content could not be more starkly different in relation to how the authors address the notion of the self. The emphasis of St Augustine 's self is constituted in the other. God the ground of being, mystery itself, is the ultimate goal of which self-knowledge is constituted within. Augustine's famous proclamation that ‘we are restless oh Lord until we rest in thee' seeks the self in relation to mystery itself (Bailie 1997) . Indeed J ohn's gospel sees Christ in radical relationship with the Father to such an extent that self-hood falls away into the other. The individual becomes indivisible (Carroll 2001; Freeman 2002) . Rousseau by contrast begins his confessions on a different footing, stating, ‘ I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent which once complete will have no imitator. My purpose to display to my kind a portrait in every way true to nature and in every way the man I shall portray will be myself” (Bailie 1997) . This self constitution moves away from the other as indivisible but the self as unique and unlike any other. In many ways, Rousseau gives birth to the modern notion of the self, that is individual, self made, self understood, individual and complete; a perfect island of self understanding. Renee Gerard, a fine French Sociologist, argues that this was ‘like catnip to the European imagination', and so ushered in the seeking of the ‘individual self-constituted self'. What was born in fact was not an individual self but an imitation of the individual self. Gerard's work on mimetic desire argues that Rousseau's bastard children, which includes the majority of Western people, are swamped in a sea of imitating each other. If we no longer desire to look above and out, we look to others as a reference for selfhood. The way of becoming truly yourself in this constitution is to mimic other people who are also ‘individuals'. Instead of finding sanctuary in mystery and Godhead, we seek to find sanctuary in self constitution and self mastery, paradoxically by imitating each other. It is why Kopp (1972) warned in his famous book, If You Meet Buddha on the Road Kill Him!; we are always at the mercy of imitating some other being to become our own human being when we don't look to mystery as a reference. It is all about where you put your gaze, we either look upwards and inwards to mystery, or outwards to others seeking the same inner mysterious reference.

The implication of self-constitution is profound and permeates every aspect of modern psychology. Without seeking mystery of the Godhead, as St Augustine proclaims, we seek self mastery in self knowledge by proclaiming, like Rousseau, that the self is all there is. Gerald May's excellent work in Will and Spirit (May 1982) goes to the heart of this problem of self constitution and examines the dangers of solipsism. Like many other authors, May warns that self constitution may be too much for the human condition to bear (Hillman 1976; Hillman 1989; Keating 1995; Freeman 1998; Pennington 2000) . Self mastery via the individual self can be damaging to the person's mental health, and indeed their soul life, and as such may be damaging to the very external world we live in. Many modern psychospiritual movements in the West seek a strange condition called ‘self actualisation' where the person is known to themselves via analysis. The problem here of course is that it does not look like the proclamation of ‘I and the Father are one' in J ohn's Gospel but rather, I am all there is to know through thinking about it – Descartes famous axiom of self discovery ‘cogito ergo sum'. But without radical engagement with the structural world, an incarnational reality exemplified in the life of J esus, the self constitutes an isolated bubble of feel good positive affirmations. May warns that such an approach may contain a ‘characteristic of certain pop psychologies that maintain that one creates one's own world and can thus learn to create it in such a way that one's desires are satisfied. This combination of solipsism and spiritual narcissism can produce an uncommonly destructive way of flailing about in life; yet it has become one of the more popular “psycho-religions”. The very legitimate spiritual aspiration to be “in the world but not of it” is twisted by these distortions into an attempt to be “of the world but not in it”' (May 1982) .

Solipsism: if you have failed it is because you are just not trying hard enough

Most of the philosophy of self-constitution and self-mastery has at its axis of being, will and effort. Self-constitution argues that when one meets life's limitations, one's own internal resources and will are enough to overcome one's problems. Central to this approach is a distorted Nietzscherian proclamation of the human will triumphing over adversity. The issue for the likes of May and others is not the effort itself, but the intention behind the effort. For St Augustine the triumph of limitation is the resting in mystery and God as God or mystery itself (willingness), while for Rousseau and other Enlightenment thinkers, one becomes oneself through effort of self mastery without reference to the divine (Voltaire's bastards as Saul likes to name them). The main tool of Rousseau and most moderns is reason. When the humanist project proclaimed “God is dead”, something had to replace revelation: the handmaiden of God's way of communicating to humankind. That something was reason. According to some writers, all of modern Western society is founded exclusively on a 500 year old experiment without God (Carroll 2001; Carroll 2003) . Like Holbein's famous painting of The Ambassadors in 1533, even at its formative stages the question was asked, could humanism and reason stand on its own two feet? Could the Western world go it alone without God, armed with reason as the only arbiter of being? Some writers argue that humanism is failing us and its failure is due to the failure of reason and self constitution to fulfil the desire for living the good life (Carroll 2001; North 2002; Carroll 2003) . If, as humanism states, the self is all there is, then if one fails in the endeavour of being oneself, the ultimate conclusion is that one is not trying hard enough. More will and effort is required not greater willingness, since willingness leads to letting go of self-reliance and hence self-constitution, a bed rock of Rousseauistic proclamations. If mystery, awe and wonder are seen simply as acts of superstition, self delusion and archaic immaturity, then the only option is to imitate each other and rely solely on the self through the effort of reason. The universe both interior and exterior is cold, devoid of intimacy and stares back at us much like the Ambassadors of reason in Holbein's painting. When Western people say to each other ‘you have got to let it go' do they know what they are letting go to? Is their cosmology constituted in the pursuit of pleasure over the seeking of truth or beauty? In this world, reason, comfort, convenience and technology becomes the guiding mythos.

Why Psychology Needs Theology

Humanism and its handmaiden modern psychology argues that reason and self constitution are the tool and goal of the human endeavour. A plethora of therapies are devised to deal with all manner of ailments, in a landscape of increasing claims of psychopathology and illness. The problem here stems from a dualistic notion that the self exists as an isolated entity that through effort can be fixed. The fact that something in the psyche exists as a discrete entity in its own right (eg. depression), means that we can thus colonise the interior landscape with proclamations of cure and fixes. The question, however, still arises, the radical notion that maybe there is nothing to fix, nothing to be cured, only to be accepted and loved (May 1993) . Psychology needs theology because without theology, psychology is not grounded in a cosmology large enough to contain the human condition. Psychology shrinks into ever smaller circles of fractured problems and solutions where eventually nothing is normal, and nothing is connected to a greater larger story.

Good theology like good psychology should essentially be about emptying the false self or a process of ‘kenosis' in the original Greek. The first beatitude of Christ speaks of the happiness or the blessedness of the poor in spirit (Mathew 5:3). This beatitude is the cardinal beatitude from which all others hinge. Poor in spirit does not mean ‘having a low mood' but rather, being notionally free of self delusion or self inflation without the need for certainties created by a fixed self construction. A self can't be fixed or manipulated by using ‘psychological tools', in ways similar to how an engine in your car can be fixed by using mechanical tools. Poor in spirit allows for the poverty of unknowing as the ground and construction of being.

While psychology may seek the pursuit of happiness, theology states that happiness, or fulfilment, can only be achieved through the pursuit of truth. Truth in this context means the apprehension of what is – the ‘ I am who am' of the Hebrew God. In theological terms, happiness cannot exist without truth while truth can exist without happiness and as such truth holds primacy. Seeking truth is to seek ‘what is as it is', where happiness arises from the apprehension of ultimate reality without grasping or holding, which includes the notion of the self itself. The losing of life to gain life that Christ speaks of (Mathew 10:39,) may require the dying of false premises that the psyche holds about itself, namely, of radical self constitution and the primary act of being (Freeman 1998; Pennington 2000) . Cognitive Psychology has long since understood that schemas, core belief systems and the like may constitute filters by which we view the world. These can be elements of the false self system. Where psychology and theology may differ on the notion of the false self is the origin from which it comes from and the mechanisms by which to confront and ultimately transcend the false self. Theology is helpful when it directs psychology as to the intention of self-knowledge and self transcendence. Good theology should point to the intention beyond self mastery for self sake. For example meditation to reduce anxiety may be good for the person but ultimately not good for mediation. In modern terms every activity sacred or profane is used to secure the self rather than to point towards a transcendent truth. Theology can point towards the intention behind the act and ask to whom the act is serving. In this way psychology and theology can mutually find helpful ways to perform as healing agents for the human condition.

It is here that we can look to doctors of the Catholic Church and other traditions who provide an uncanny psychology within their theology. Writers like St. J ohn of the Cross (Cross 1935) , St. Theresa of Avila (Avila 2003) , the author of The Cloud of Unknowing (Griffin 1981) , and J ohn Cassian (Cassian 1985) describe systematically and often poetically the process of transformation of the self through God or mystery. Psychologists could well benefit from examining these many treatises to help them to understand that self knowledge is the journey towards God, as St Theresa of Avila argues. Although the language may sound archaic and somewhat florid to modern sensibilities, there is little doubt that such writers provide a road map showing how loss of self ultimately comes to finding of self in the truest of Christological terms characterised in the Bible (Mathew 10:39). The renewal of theology and psychology in this context is the endeavour of contemporary scholars of all disciplines, but notably theologians, psychologists and social and cultural theorists who attempt to bridge the gap between classical texts on spiritual transformation and modern empirical psychology. Many modern writers such as May (May 1982; May 1982; May 1988; May 1993) , Keating (Keating 1986; Keating 1995; Keating 2005) , Freeman (Freeman 1998; Freeman 2002) , and Main (1998) are trying to bridge these gaps, where self discovery or self knowledge is essentially ‘not about you', nor about chemicals in the brain or a neo-Darwinistic trick of survival, but rather a self constituted in and from mystery. Those writers cited here particularly come from the Benedictine tradition of spirituality. Benedictine spirituality is the progenitor of Western monasticism and contemplative spirituality. Silence, prayer, work, meditation and seeking the divine in the ordinariness of life are the cornerstones of Benedictine contemplative spirituality (de Waal 1989; de Waal 2001) . It is from this 1500-year-old tradition that I propose the development of a ‘contemplative psychology'. A way by which theology and psychology can merge to lead the human to reverence away from rancour, to willingness from wilfulness, and to mystery from control. Indeed this contemporary work has been amongst us since at least the mid 1950s with the inspiration and brilliance of Thomas Merton (Merton 1956; Merton 1961; Merton 1998) , a Trappist monk of exceptional vision and breadth who wrote clearly on what it is to be human in the modern world.

Contemplative Psychology: an introduction to authenticity

Although the pursuit of happiness is an ever-increasing drive in modern Western people, another more ancient and profound pursuit still pervades the Western psyche, namely, authenticity. Some modern thinkers may believe that the pursuit of authentic being culminates in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, but one suspects that since the Adelphi oracle proclaimed ‘know thy-self' this pursuit likely has far more ancient origins. The question arises as to whether authenticity is an act of wilful self mastery, or an emergence of becoming one self into a much broader cosmology. The limitations we meet in our lives may lead not to a deterioration of our sense of self, although our ability to function in our lives may deteriorate, but actually to a greater knowing or becoming of the self. Contemplative psychology is simply the person's consent to this knowing of self brought about by an emergence into the mystery of a wider cosmology beyond self-constitution.

From a Christological point of view, contemplative psychology is best exemplified in the story of Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38-42). The ‘human doing' of Martha is rejected for the ‘human being' of Mary who ‘has chosen the good part and it will not be taken away from her' (Lk 10:41-42). It was Mary afterall who chose to sit at the feet of the master and listen. For most moderns this would be too passive an action, too lowly in its position since the self in this parable is relegated to pointing or gazing up to a higher cosmology. Martha, who runs around on her own two feet claiming self mastery, the authority on practicalities such as food and water (maybe even her Curriculum Vitae), and the right to rebuke Mary's supposed passivity, is full of rancour not reverence. While we may admire achievement, activity, and movement in our modern times, these are all in a sense corporeal and so in their nature transitory and reliant on the body. The act of becoming is a far more passive activity of allowance, receptivity and consent. Christ does not reject Martha's activity as much as relegates the activity to a lower level of privilege and warns of its transitory nature. Self knowledge and a growing awareness of the mystery of God can never be taken away. It is a gift, freely given without conditions, whether revealed during the peak of our physical lives or at death's door. However, at the same time, Christ does not reject acts of good works since a passive stance to all things leads to quietism, gnosticism and hatred of the body. Action in contemplation is required to be authentically human (Merton 1961).

While a contemplative psychology may appear rather passive compared to those psychologies where human will is centre stage, nothing could be further from the truth. Contemplative practices such as regular meditation, lectio divina, and sitting in silence can be more active than one thinks. Often modern Western people understand meditation as a passive, blissful act, repleat with constant consolations of wholeness and well being. Indeed, secular examples of meditation in popular literature prescribe meditation as a way of managing stress so one can become more effective at work. The technique of becoming quiet is co-opted inside the intent to be more effective, rather than just to be. Modern Western people appear to judge all activities by their essential utility. However, any serious practitioner of meditation will know that, after a time, quiet consolation gives way to confrontation with the false self. Thomas Keating, a proponent of the meditative practice of Centering Prayer, describes this as ‘all hell breaking lose within the psyche' (Keating 1995) . A consent to Mary's gaze leads to a growing realisation of what the Buddhists call ‘the monkey mind', a chatting self constantly clamouring for any thought or sensation that will provide it consolation, amusement, power or esteem. In meditation, emotions and images once buried in the psyche from the vicissitudes of life are now given permission to come to the surface, sometimes erupting in uncontrollable negative feelings, jerkings of the body or as Keating likes to call it, ‘an evacuation of the junk of the emotional programs for happiness', these notably being power and control, affection and esteem, and safety and security (Keating 1986; Keating 1995; Keating 2005).

The question is what is one to do with all these eruptions of the false or undiscovered self? Does one need to be thrust into intensive analytic psychotherapy, psychiatric medication and the like? While all of these ‘treatments' may be necessary from time to time (May 1982) , at the end of the day, a time shall come when a person must accept who they are as they are where they are . Contemplative psychology can become a discipline by which this acceptance of becoming can be explored and understood. Contemplative psychology should not describe how healing works, since healing is essentially a mystery; rather, contemplative psychology should explore what conditions are necessary for healing to take place. This moves psychology and theology further together, not seeking a cure, which is a willful act of self-determination, but healing, a willing act of becoming.

Healing in the Christological sense is an act of faith. In the healing ministry of J esus, it isn't J esus that heals the man with a skin disease (Mk 1:40-45), or the blind man (Mt 9: 28); it is their faith in Christ that leads to healing. Healing is a co-creational act between the human and the divine, requiring receptivity towards grace, as well as an act of faith. Both the reception and the action are gifts. However, there is an extra step in Christian theology that is often forgotten. Lawrence Freeman recognises that when the disciples question the origin of the blind man's affliction, they want to know whether such illness is a karmic debt created by the man himself or his parents ( J n 9: 2). J esus' response is somewhat unusual since the disease is described to show the glory of God ( J n 9: 3). The issue here is what type of glory is shown. The parable suggests that the illness is where God resides which can bring us to a greater understanding of ourselves. Our limitations and illnesses can be the very way that God manifests his glory. Instead of the disease seen as a karmic debt, Freeman recognises that love breaks karma, love is a higher law than karma (Freeman 2002) . In this context love in all its glory including illness extends the self beyond good feelings and healthy bodies and minds. Healing is the loving attention given to our human condition and a contemplative psychology can seek this as an intellectual discipline.

There have been notable improvements in psychology in this area, particularly in the research into attachment theory and acceptance and commitment therapy. Both theories have enormous overlap with theology and can assist in explaining our relationship with the divine in terms of early childhood attachment to parents and significant others, and our ability to accept and forgive what has happened to us in life as a way of healing. Both these theories reflect a Christological flavour both within their epistemological and ontological structure. It is possible that this is because it is almost impossible to escape the contribution of Christ consciousness on western psychological theory, whether consciously or culturally understood or not (Bailie 1997; Carroll 2001; Carroll 2003, Carroll 2007).

A contemplative psychology does not seek mastery but willingness, not control but repose, regardless of the tempest of life's ill winds. It also seeks self-knowledge through activities of contemplation and meditation, not so much to manipulate what is understood, but to listen to or apprehend what is being said. Action leading out from such a psychology examines intention over effectiveness, ethics over productivity. Such a psychology is unlikely to succeed without understanding the ancient traditions of the Western culture, both culturally and theologically. Restoration and healing of the self in the context of contemplative psychology are understood as acts within a context of willingness, not wilfulness, sought through the communal nature of being rather than an isolated radical self constitution. Such a psychology would seek a much gentler approach to the human condition than those proposed solely by empirical science, with their proclamations of certainty by ‘brute facts' alone. Rather, a contemplative psychology would explore what it is to be authentically human, not just happily human. Healing in this context is not sought solely within the self but in relation to the community, to develop a ‘gemeinschaftsgefuhl', or communal feeling, as an anecdote from a relentless pursuit of radical self-constitution.

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