The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Perspective from Family Systems Theory

Over the centuries Christians have used various ideas to try to explain their belief that the crucifixion of Jesus had consequences that were far-reaching and beneficial. I think it is helpful to think freshly about this, and to come up with new ideas that can go along side the traditional ones. In a previous blog I suggested an analogy with photosynthesis, i.e. between what a plant does to heal an injured atmosphere and what Jesus does to heal the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which humanity lives.

Read the article in full on my Blog.

Social Brain Theory and the Size of Churches

I have recently become aware of an intriguing convergence between the Social Brain theory of Professor Robin Dunbar at Oxford, and the Congregation Size theory that has been developed largely in the USA.

Dunbar is best known for ‘Dunbar’s number’, 150, the number of people with whom we can maintain stable social relationships. However, Dunbar actually recognizes a series of numbers such as 5, 15, 50, 150, 500 etc. Each number represents a barrier. If you want to go beyond it, you need different bonding strategies that are more time-efficient, and the nature of your relationships changes.

Read Social Brain Theory and the Size of Churches in full on my website.

Why Should Christians Do Good?

Most people (Christians and otherwise) think that Christians should do good in the world, and I agree with them. But I think it makes a lot of difference why they should do that. For some time I have noticed that some of the reasons Christians give for doing good inspire me, while others leave me cold. I have been thinking over why that should be.

I grew up in Coventry, and those who know me well know how excited I was by the opening of the new Cathedral when I was 16, an excitement that has never left me. The new cathedral arose from the ashes of the old one, bombed by Germany in WWII. From the outset the new Cathedral ommitted itself to building a more reconciled world, at first working for improved Anglo-German relations but increasingly working with partners across the globe for a more reconciled world everywhere. That inspired me.

Read the article in full on my website.

Why Feeling Good About Ourselves is Good for Those Around Us

How do your feelings about yourself affect how you treat others? I think there are two very different views about this, and people can feel quite strongly about it.

Some people assume that feeling good about yourself makes you self-centred and arrogant, and leads to treating other people badly. Others assume that feeling good about yourself makes you less defensive and threatened and leads to treating other people better.

This is an empirical matter, and one that can be settled by psychological research, and I think the answer is very clear: feeling good about yourself leads to treating other people well.

There are many studies showing a positive correlation between self-esteem and helping behaviour (and positive attitudes to other people). But there is now experimental evidence to back this up, in a recent British research summarised in Psychology Today.

Some participants (teenagers) gave themselves mini self-affirmations. They were asked whether they had forgiven someone else, or been concerned about their happiness, etc. If they said ‘Yes’, they were asked to give examples. They were compared with people who were asked neutral questions about the weather, etc.

A month later, the people who had recalled acts of kindness to other people were more likely to have engaged in more such acts. The researchers thought that was because the questions had led to self-affirmations, which in turn had made the teenagers less defensive and more outgoing. That interpretation fits a large body of other research.

I think this has broad social implications. Society seems to be getting more cynical and less inclined to treat each other well.  This is evidenced a lot on social media and especially true of those who feel under threat. For example, it is those who feel most insecure about their own employment or personal circumstances who are most concerned to stop immigrants ‘taking their jobs’. That can lead on to all sorts of hostility.

If society is not to fall apart we need to find ways in which people feel affirmed and supported and supportive rather than threatened. Only then will we be able to feel good about ourselves and treat each other well. 

This article was originally posted on www.frasernwatts.com 

Living Deeply – the inner personal journey

For the last two months I have been very focused on completing my latest book, ‘Living Deeply’. It is always exciting, and a relief, to complete a book, and I will be celebrating.

Some years ago my colleagues in the University of Cambridge Psychology and Religion Research Group produced the ‘Beta Course’. It was a psychologically oriented introduction to Christianity, with a focus on ‘Being Christian, Becoming Whole and Building Community’. We tried to bring psychology and Christianity together to help people with personal growth and pastoral care.

Read the article in full on my website.

The Christian significance of psychology

I am currently preparing to lead a workshop on ‘The Christian Significance of Psychology’ for the British Association of Christians in Psychology. As I explain in a blog on the BACIP website, the original interest was in what difference being a Christian makes in psychology. However, I thought I needed to come at that through the more basic question of the Christian significance of psychology itself.

https://www.bacip.org.uk/blog

My starting point is the belief that Christ made a significant difference to the direction of human evolution, especially to how human consciousness and experience have developed. In the first part of the morning I will try to set out that view, leaning heavily on Owen Barfield and others influenced by Rudolf Steiner (though Barfield is best known as close friend of C S Lewis). I propose that Christ changed the direction of human evolution. Had it not been for that, humanity would hardly have been in a position to develop psychology, or at least it would have looked very different.

In the second half of the morning I will turn to the significance of the development of something explicitly called ‘psychology’. Various strands contributed to that, including the implicit cognitivism of Enlightenment philosophy, the Protestant concern with self-examination, and the scientism of Auguste Comte and others. From a Christian point of view it is a somewhat mixed inheritance.

I will try to locate it within the Christocentric view of the evolution of consciousness that I will set out in the first session. I will take as a particular case study how the development of psychology affected our understanding of  emotion, following the work of Professor Thomas Dixon, my former PhD student, who directs the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary in the University of London.

http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/profile/4525-dr-thomas-dixon

After lunch I will explore whether, and in what sense, psychology is a quasi-religion, and the range of attitudes to psychology to be found among religious commentators. I will steer a path between those who are strongly pro and anti psychology, suggesting that psychology can go either way when interpreted from the perspective of the purposes of God.

However, on balance, I am more enthusiastic about the potential of psychology than I am anxious about it becoming misdirected. I hope that will yield a Christian evaluation of psychology, which will have pointers for how Christians would want to steer psychology. Roger Bretherton will lead a workshop in the final part of the day to explore that further.

This BACIP day will be held in Sutton Coldfield on Saturday 18th November. Everyone is welcome. For both information and to book see

https://www.bacip.org.uk/events

I look forward to seeing a number of old friend there and to meeting new ones.

What Christians can contribute to Mental Health

Mental Health has been much in the news recently, partly as a result of the initiative of the young Royals. This raises the question of what contribution Churches and other religious organisations can make to mental health.

Theos, the admirable think tank on Church and Society, recently published a report on Christianity and Mental Health, written by Ben Ryan.

I recently contributed a blog myself on the Theos site, on spiritual aspects of depression. While I would never wish depression on anyone, I suggest that a spiritual perspective is better able to see that, despite the misery, depression can have some value. It can give people more honesty, depth and resilience. This is what Christianity is typically about. It never welcomes adversity, but it is committed to bringing good out of it, and has resources to help to do that.

Read the full article on my website.

The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality

The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality is an interdisciplinary reference for a rapidly emerging approach to contemporary science. It reflects the recent broadening of the field of psychology of religion to include the psychology of spirituality, and engages with some of the post-materialistic assumptions associated with contemporary spirituality. The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality codifies the leading empirical evidence in this emerging field This overarching work provides both a foundation and a roadmap for what is truly a new ideological age.

Read about the book in full on my website.

Was Jesus God?

The claim made by Christians that Jesus was God has become problematic for many people, and deters many people who might otherwise think of themselves as Christians. I think Christians have become over-dogmatic about what Christians have to believe about Jesus, in a way that has become an obstacle to people following him.

Read 'Was Jesus God?' in full on my website.

Handbook of Memory Disorders

An international panel of renowned scientists and clinicians offers an accessible and practical review of the key research and latest clinical developments in the field.

This handbook describes theoretical concepts, assessment processes, clinical management and therapy, to produce results of considerable relevance to clinical practice and rehabilitation.

Read 'Handbook of Memory Disorders' in full on my website.

Christians and Bioethics

An examination of issues in bioethics from the perspective of Christianity. The contemporary world is facing some very difficult ethical issues in regulating the possibilities resulting from bioethical research – cloning, genetic engineering of food, organ transplantation, reproductive medicine and euthanasia.

Read about a book in which edited that covers the relationship between Christianity and the work in bioethics.

Pentecost: A Human Sciences Perspective

Next Sunday is Pentecost (Whitsun), the annual commemoration of how Jesus’ disciples experienced the Holy Spirit in a new and powerful way. In this blog I want to suggest how the significance of that event can be understood from the perspective of the human sciences.

In doing this, I find the mature reflections about the coming of the Spirit in the ‘farewell discourses’ in John’s gospel more helpful than the narrative report by Luke in is Acts of the Apostles. For John, the key point is that the Spirit will dwell within the disciples in a new way, making his ‘home’ within them, guiding them into truth, comforting them, empowering them, helping them to find the right words etc.

Read Pentecost: A Human Sciences Perspective full article on my website.

Why We Should Stop Talking about ‘Religion’

Religion seems to have changed massively in the course of evolution. There is a widespread misconception, popularised by the so-called ‘cognitive science of religion’, that religion has always been primarily a matter of beliefs about gods.

I get increasingly impatient with the way people talk about ‘religion’, as though all religion was essentially the same. It is such a broad category, and different forms of religion are so different from one another, that it really makes no sense to talk about ‘religion’ at all.

Read my article 'Why We Should Stop Talking about ‘Religion’ to see why I think the way we discuss religion and faith should change.