Christianity and the Shadow Side of Human Experience

Pastoral Psychology - In Jungian theory, every human being, including the Christian believer, has a shadow side to his or her personality. The shadow, then, like it or not, is a part of our common...     

Teach Your Students Well: The Seminary and a Hermeneutics of Suspicion

In Freud and Philosophy, Paul Ricoeur argues that religious believers must be willing to expose their faith to Freud's hermeneutics of suspicion. Believers will not, following the encounter, be the same people with the same faith, but, according to Ricoeur, the alternative of avoiding the encounter is not a viable option. However, a philosophy of total exposure to Freud, or anyone else issuing a challenge to religious faith, can be difficult for seminary faculty to apply, pedagogically. Indeed, seminaries are expected to graduate into ministry, not individuals experiencing a crisis of faith or meaning, but rather spiritually rock-solid men and women. The temptation, then, for seminary faculty is to go easy on their students, but this pedagogical strategy inevitably backfires. Seminarians who are sheltered from Ricoeur's challenge may be rock-solid at the persona or surface level of human personality, but this is not, necessarily, an indication that they are individuated or integrated people of faith.     

The Promise of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral Care and Counseling

This article continues the author’s exploration of the significance of recent neuroscientific research for pastoral care and counseling Bingaman (Pastoral Psychology 60:477–489, 2011), (Pastoral Psychology, 61:411-422, 2012) by focusing on the plasticity and malleability of the human brain. It makes the case for mindfulness meditation (e.g., Centering Prayer) as a means to lower activity in the amygdala and thereby calm the stress region of the brain. In light of evidence that such mindfulness practices are more effective in reducing anxiety than is a focus on right belief or correct doctrine the case is made for a paradigmatic turn (see Bingaman 2007, pp. 102–110; Bingaman (Pastoral Psychology, 61:411–422, 2012) toward neurotheology, which seeks to understand the relationship between the brain and theology. The article concludes that the revolutionary discoveries concerning neuroplasticity challenge the field of pastoral care and counseling to recognize the ability of contemplative-meditational practices to reduce anxiety and to produce long-term, possibly permanent changes in the neural pathways of the human brain.     

The New Narcissist and Pastoral Counseling

Pastoral Psychology - For some time now, psychiatrists and psychotherapists have recognized that they are working with a new individual, one who no longer seems capable of experiencing a sense of...     

A Pastoral Theological Approach to the New Anxiety

Noting that we live in anxious times, and that the question is not whether but to what extent are the persons with whom pastoral and spiritual caregivers work today are experiencing anxiety, the paper claims that a basic understanding of the nature of anxiety is required in order to practice pastoral care effectively. To this end, it focuses on the role an uncertain future plays in the development of anxiety; on the importance of determining whether the person with whom one is working has a degree of anxiety that is out of proportion to the threat that he or she is under; and on the fact that although anxiety is endemic to the modern condition, it is also the case that a more acute form of anxiety is a primary feature of the super-modern condition. This “new anxiety” is complex and multifaceted, but a fundamental feature of this new anxiety is that it has less to do with the loss and more to do with an excess of meaning. Resources from the Judeo–Christian tradition include the teachings of Jesus on anxiety and the importance it places on hope experientially grounded in the living presence of a loving God.     

Self-Appropriation between Social Mourning and Individuation: a Qualitative Study on Psychosocial Transition among Jehovah’s Witnesses

Pastoral Psychology - Loss and its associated grief are important elements of many adverse life events. The focus of this study is centred on a particular form of mourning: the affliction derived...     

Beyond Original Sin: A Paradigm Shift for the Age of Neuroscience

In this article I explore the implications of Jesus?? location of the kingdom of heaven in the lived experience of the individual and of the findings of neuroscientific research for a paradigm shift in Christian theology, one that moves us beyond the Adamic myth and belief in original sin. Support for a theological paradigm shift based on lived experience is provided by Capps (1993) and for this particular paradigm shift by Pagels (1989) and Ricoeur (2004). I point out that the doctrine of original sin supports and fosters the negativity bias of the brain and inhibits the resculpting of the brain. Drawing on Hanson??s (2009) evidence in support of the brain??s neuroplasticity (i.e., its capacity to change itself) and on Brach??s (2003) critique of the ??trance of unworthiness,?? I make the case for meditative and mindful awareness practices in Christianity and other religious traditions as proven methods for the resculpting of the brain in order that individuals may experience greater joy, contentment, and awareness of the goodness of life and of God??s creation. A longitudinal neuroscientific research study of Roman Catholic nuns (Newberg and Waldman 2009) provides evidence in support of the role of contemplative prayer and meditation in generating the joy and serenity that Jesus?? allusion to the hidden treasure envisions.     

The Art of Contemplative and Mindfulness Practice: Incorporating the Findings of Neuroscience into Pastoral Care and Counseling

This article draws on recent neuroscientific research evidence that demonstrates the plasticity and malleability of the human brain to make the case for greater use of contemplative and mindfulness practices in pastoral care and counseling. It explores the negativity bias of the brain as it has evolved and argues that mindful awareness practices have the ability to work against this bias in favor of less fearful and anxious perspectives on life, including interpersonal relationships. Contending for a higher evaluation of Christian practices than beliefs, it specifically targets the doctrine of original sin as a contributor to this negativity bias, and advocates the use of Christian meditative practices, especially the Centering Prayer, as a means to foster brain resculpting that is integral to the experience of becoming aware of oneself as a new creation.