Theology beacon dictionary of theology

The books included in the pseudepigrapha are: Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Psalms of Solo­mon, Lives of the Prophets, Jubilees, Testament of Job, Enoch, Martyrdom of Isaiah, Paralipomena of Jeremiah, The Life of Adam and Eve, The Assump­tion of Moses, Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, Apoca­lypse of Abraham, Letter of Aristeas, Sibylline Oracles 3-5, 3 and 4 Maccabees, Slavonic Enoch (2 Enoch), Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch). At Qumran, the following books were found and should be included in the pseudepigrapha: Apoc-ryphon of Genesis, Pseudo-Jeremianic work, War Scroll, Description of the New Jerusalem, Liturgy of Three Tongues of Fire, Book of Mysteries, Hodayoth, Psalms of Joshua. Besides these writings there are numerous manuscripts or fragments with com­mentaries on biblical books, works on liturgical and legal matters, and wisdom pieces.

Categorization of these books, most of which exist in fragmentary form, is extremely difficult. They can be grouped, somewhat superficially, into Hebrew-Aramaic Palestinian and Greek Al­exandrian writings, with language being the basic determinant. However, literary genre pro­vides a more helpful classification, such as apoc­alypses, legendary histories, testaments, liturgies, and wisdom works.

The value of these writings lies in the insight they provide into the thought life of the Jews during the intertestamental period, and in the light they shed on the Jewish background of the

NT. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are dated in the first and second centuries B.c., information concerning the period immedi­ately preceding the Christian era has been radi­cally increased.

See apocrypha, hagiographa, canon.

Some of the basic assumptions for psycho­analysis are: (1) all behavior is determined; (2) all behavior is meaningful behavior; (3) there is an interpenetration of biological and psychological dimensions of personality at the conscious, sub­conscious, and unconscious levels; (4) psychic energies are either locked or cathected by need objects of the person through drives, desires, or defenses; (5) there is psychodynamic growth from infancy to maturity, but this growth may be hampered or halted at any stage. Therefore, analysis attempts to take into account all per­sonal history including origins, antecedent-subsequent behaviors and relationships, and repetitions; (6) the role of the analyst includes: listening, associating, and interpreting as a participant-observer; and (7) the purpose of psy­choanalysis is to discover, define, and interpret psychodynamic processes of growth (descrip­tively, organizationally, and analytically) in all their uniqueness in order to facilitate more per­sonally and/or socially acceptable behavior.

As in other fields, the term psychoanalysis has been broadened to include variant basic assump­tions and consequent systems and procedures. Freudian psychoanalysis was antithetical to evangelical Christian theology. Any psycho­analysis should be investigated to determine its theological presuppositions before Christians seek to engage in it either as patients or analysts.

See reality therapy rogerian counseling, pas­toral counseling, development (theories of).

To explain behavior is to relate it to motive; the "why" of personal conduct. It is important to un­derstand motive, since problem behavior will not be changed until causative factors are identified. Those factors generally include a combination of heredity, environment, and experience. However, one should not expect a given set of factors to produce the same behavior in all instances. That would be the kind of determinism which holds that certain parents are likely to produce children with criminal tendencies, that some environ­ments foster problem conduct, that many people act wrongly because they do not know better. The problem here is an abject surrender to ex­trinsic and uncontrollable factors, a surrender which makes redemption unlikely if not, in fact, unnecessary.

To evaluate behavior is to relate it to values; judgments must be made about the acceptability of conduct in a prescribed context. Obviously, a moral order depends upon a discernible system of absolutes. Similarly, an ordered society sur­vives by the definition and communication of behavioral standards whereby membership and acceptance are achieved in that society. And each individual must achieve that level of conduct where he gains self-esteem. "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth" (Rom. 14:22). This "triad of morality," so described by David Belgum (Guilt, Where Psy­chology and Religion Meet, 17-34) is jeopardized by psychology's eagerness to replace God's im­mutable values with society's transient ones. Karl Menninger perceived this tendency in asking, "Whatever became of sin?"

Rejecting the biblical concept of sin, sinners have denied the wrongness of their deeds. Em­boldened by false security of numbers, they have next pronounced their behavior normative and have accepted new justificatory terms for their conduct. So sin has evolved into situationism and hierarchalism. The former refuses to pro­nounce any evaluative judgment upon behavior apart from the situation in which the act oc­curred. It is left to the individual to defend as "right" his response to the demands of the situ­ation. Hierarchalism goes one step further by supposing situations in which a traditionally "right" act could actually be the wrong thing to do.

In either case, the absolutes of God have been replaced by the judgments of man. And so there is no way to know God's approval, society's ap­probation, or a positive self-acceptance. To con­trol behavior is to change it, caused by the introduction of prophylactic or therapeutic pro­cedures intended to produce acceptable behav­ior. Most of us have faced the need to change our behavior in order to function in society. Func­tionality is always relational; the way we live un­avoidably involves people. And the need to function in all three of the worlds Belgum describes—cosmic, social, and personal—re­quires a right relationship with God as well as our fellowman.

This concept of mental health is, however, one of bilateral relationships. Any technique which proposes to control behavior unilaterally is dan­gerous and immoral. Manipulation of this sort is common in totalitarian states, e.g., exercises in brainwashing and even some attempts to propa­gandize.

The biblical teaching on behavioral control is well stated in Rom. 12:2 where the Christian's surrender of his will to that of God produces a reciprocal and inestimable benefit—a total trans­formation (change) in life-style.

Psychology can be constructive in helping us identify the many causes which contribute to our behavior. It is helpful in requiring qualitative measures of conduct. It is useful in demanding functionality. But to change all that psychology may reveal as needing to be changed is the spe­cial province of the grace of God (2 Cor. 5:17; Phil. 1:6).

See MAN, HUMAN NATURE, GRACE, COUNSELING, PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION, PSYCHOANALYSIS, PSYCHO­THERAPY.

For Further Reading: Belgum, Guilt, Where Psychology

Often these studies have resulted in human­izing religious ideas, and making the super­natural to be only secular statements of distinctly personal interpretations of religion. Harold Kuhn sees most of the writers on psychology of religion at the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century to be philosophers rather than true psychologists; "their systems elaborate deeply embedded assumptions." In them the ob-

Psychology in religion is the study of the be­havior and experiences of religious people. It is used in the two major subdivisions of psychol­ogy, namely, experimental and applied. "Ap­plied" becomes pastoral psychology, while "experimental" is psychology of religion. The values of psychology in recent years are more readily seen. Some of the hostility felt earlier is disappearing (Baker's DT, 427-30).

Wayne Oates sees psychology of religion as "a concerted effort to bring these sacred and secular definitions of human life into dialogue with each other and to speak of God in both a sacred and secular manner." He further writes, "As such, the Psychology of Religion is a combined effort to appreciate the idea of the holy in human life and to keep the experiences of religious conscious­ness down to earth" (The Psychology of Religion, 15).

Great strides have been made in understand­ing the human mind, the emotions, and the reac­tions of persons under stress and when in real religious experiences. If the psychologists can keep an open mind, be faithful to the empir­ical method without assuming preconceived po­sitions, and give critical evaluation of evidences discovered, then helpful conditions do result in such studies.

It is well to remember that observations of out­ward behavior of a person may be studied, cata­logued, and analyzed. But it may be impossible to determine whether that outward action is prompted by the supernatural or arises only from human nature. A true biblical view will hold that the Holy Spirit does have a special place in touching the human heart in a distinct way.

See PSYCHOLOGY, SIN, REDEMPTION, GOSPEL, PAS­TORAL COUNSELING.

The field of psychotherapy has expanded to include such approaches as rational or cognitive, existential, perceptual, social-learning, and be­havior modification in addition to the earlier psy­choanalytic approach. Despite the approach employed or the basic assumptions held by the practitioner, there seem to be certain common elements involved which help to identify psy­chotherapy. Some of these elements are: (1) ther­apist has had some medical and/or clinical training; (2) the patient or client seeks relief from real or perceived disorder through the assistance of a therapist via interpersonal communication; (3) the disorder involved is perceived to be psy­chic rather than physical in both source and pre­sentation; (4) there is a series of specified and circumscribed contacts between the sufferer and therapist; (5) there is at least one goal which re­sults in enduring modification of assumption or behavior agreed upon and sought by both ther­apist and patient or client; (6) all behavior is meaningful behavior; (7) there is an undeniable respect for persons.

There appears to be general agreement that psychotherapy is one dimension of, or one ap­proach to, the broader field of counseling. Psy­chotherapy is not necessarily antithetical to the Christian faith. However, for the Christian ther­apist there must be harmony between the basic assumptions underlying his/her theory and practice of psychotherapy and his/her theology of Christian ministry.

See COUNSELING, PASTORAL COUNSELING, MAN, RE­ALITY THERAPY, PSYCHOLOGY.