Author: Maddox, Randy L.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(2), Sum 2004, pp. 101-109

Abstract:

Psychology began to emerge as a distinct discipline at about the same time that John Wesley was developing his mature understanding of the dynamics of Christian life. This essay opens with an account of Wesley’s engagement with this emergent psychology and its impact on his understanding of Christian spirituality, including his distinctive conception of Christian perfection. Attention then turns to tracing the continuing engagement of Wesleyan theologians with psychology, noting both where they resisted developments in the discipline and where their appropriation of psychological models reshaped their own assumptions about spirituality The essay closes with some proposals For exploration in the recent renewal of explicit engagement between Wesleyan theology and psychology.

Author: Brown, Warren S.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(2), Sum 2004, pp. 110-120

Abstract:

It is often difficult to be clear about either the processes to engage in, or the final outcomes to be expected, when attempting to relate science and religion, or psychology and faith. This article presents the Resonance Model as a metaphoric way to think about the processes and outcomes of these dialogues. The Resonance Model has the advantage of (a) specifying a larger number of domains of relevant information that must be taken into account; (b) suggesting what sort of interrelationships can be expected; and (c) providing a formulation that is dynamic and suggestive of how to proceed. One example of a search for resonance is described—an attempt to relate a Christian anthropology to a neuroscientific view of human nature.

Authors: Strawn, Brad D.; Brown, Warren S.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(2), Sum 2004, pp. 121-129

Abstract:

The present ankle attempts to explore a non-dualist position regarding human nature in relationship to both Wesleyan rheology and modern psychoanalytic theory. We wail first explore the resonance between the current understanding of human thought and behavior taken from cognitive science as it can be related to a Wesleyan model of growth into holiness. Specifically, we will argue that a Wesleyan view of the person resonates with the concepts of procedural knowledge, affect memories, somatic markers, and automaticity as found within cognitive science. In the end, we will suggest how these ideas come together with modern psychoanalytic theory, and particularly with what is known of transference and of the therapeutic process. Taken together, these three areas resonate around (he ideas that human behavior and character are largely unconscious and difficult to change, and that time change must come through gradual and relationally mediated experiences that alter both conscious and unconscious cognitive processes.

Author: Leffel, G. Michael

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(2), Sum 2004, pp. 130-139

Abstract:

This article outlines four theological principles of John Wesley’s therapeutic and creational vision of Christian spirituality. It first sketches alternative theological models of the relationship between nature and grace, suggesting that models of the God-world relationship that emphasize Gods transcendence to the exclusion of immanence tend to perpetuate a bifurcation of psychological and spiritual processes of change, contributing to a continuing “disenchantment of nature.” Wesleys concept of Prevenient Grace is discussed as an alternative model of the God-world relationship. Some of Wesley’s lesser known passages concerning the therapeutic and cosmological features of Prevenient Grace are discussed, and implications for a more integrated view of psychotherapy and spiritual formation are considered

Author: Strawn, Brad D.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23 (2), Sum 2004, pp. 140-148

Abstract:

The present article suggests three sins of omission in the clinical integration literature and illustrates an alternative approach with a Wesleyan, theology-directed clinical integration. A Wesleyan informed psychotherapy will include six presuppositions. First, it will take seriously the immanence of God. Second, its focus will be healing and not just cure. Third, it will take a holistic approach to the brain and body. Fourth, it will direct its interventions at the core motivational dispositions of persons. Fifth, it will emphasize the relational embeddedness of humanity, and finally, it will personify a telos of love. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy will be presented as a form of therapy that encompasses these six presuppositions and clinical material will be used to illustrate the therapeutic process.

Author: Adams, Christopher J.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23 (2), Sum 2004, pp. 149-154

Abstract:

This article is an attempt to begin a conversation via comparative analysis of Wesleyan theology, family systems theory, and psychoanalytic theory. The article also seeks to extend relevant concepts in the service of understanding how sin and grace are transmitted from one generation to the next. The article begins by defining collective tempers as emergent phenomena in family systems. Then, utilizing the Wesleyan Quadrilateral as a framework, processes of intergenerational transmission are shown to function via entitlement hidden within collective tempers, which are potentially either constructive or destructive. Finally, the article discusses potential implications for family therapy as well as for congregational life.

Authors: Wright, Ronald W.; Diamond, Greg; Budd, Philip.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23 (2), Sum 2004, pp. 155-164

Abstract:

A psychodynamic psychohistory of John Wesley is offered that assumes a connection between his most crucial Formative experiences and his theological convictions. In particular, the role of new relational and affective experiences around the time of Wesley’s “Aldersgate experience” are viewed as initiating a shift in his unconscious organizing principles and, consequently, his theological emphasis on humanity’s need to experience God’s love. Wesley’s journal entries and letters through 1738 serve as the primary sources utilized to examine Wesley’s life and theology. An examination of Wesley’s life and unconscious organizing principles not only provides a helpful hermeneutic for understanding Wesleys theology, but also provides a case study for which to apply the concepts developed in the other ankles in this issue.