Like the manager, the therapist is a specialist in mobilizing resources for effective action, only here the resources are largely internal to the individual and the measure of effectiveness is the elusive criterion of personal satisfaction. . . . Indeed, the very term therapeutic suggests a life focused on the need for a cure. But a cure of what?The implications for ministry, preaching, liturgy (inculturation, anyone?) and evangelism are tremendous and far-reaching. I look forward to reading your comments after you read the whole thing!
07 April 2010
The Church in Bondage to Therapy?
A recent “On the Square” web-exlusive at First Things makes for phenomenal reading. Not too long ago, Rod Dreher pointed out the findings of the University of North Carolina’s National Study of Youth and Religion. It summarized the general tone of American religious belief in three words: moralistic therapeutic Deism. The article linked below takes up just what is meant by the term “therapeutic,” something I’d guessed at intuitively before, but probably couldn't have pinned down precisely. John Buri makes it a little more specific. A sample:
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2 comments:
I enjoyed the essay - thanks for posting Nick. You will feel the pressures of the 'consumers' of the Church who are not particularly interested in evangelization but will give you advice often on who you are not serving in the parish. It is a pastoral and spiritual battle.
I can see why a priest operating on a primarily Christian "schema" (to borrow the vocab of the essay) would really rub up against those thoroughly (though unwittingly) operating on a therapeutic one. What really blew me away about the essay was that it provided us with the foundations for a bridge between the two--conversation begins with a common language, right? How useful would it be just to be able to point out the suppositions that most people approach religion with--and then point out the suppositions on which we operate?
This abstract perspective won't necessarily interest everyone, but for those who really don't feel as if the Church is "speaking to me" or "addressing my needs" may suddenly find themselves with their hearts burning within them as they gain additional perspective into the cultural milieu of psychology.
Buri strikes a nice balance, I think, between the two; psychology has legitimate insight even as it presents an essentially limited perspective. The essay serves as a warrant for the Church (and the individual Christian) to accept the deliverances of psychology without being enslaved to them.
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