Paul Vitz & the Psychology of Atheism

Here I've put together five things on the psychology of atheism, taken from NYU Prof. of Psychology Paul Vitz. In addition to the article cited below, see Vitz, Faith of the Fatherless; The Psychology of Atheism. 

Can there be a "psychology of atheism?" Of course there can. Atheists are human, and are not psychologically neutral. And, BTW, atheists are not really "freethinkers," if this means thought unencumbered by genetics and personal history. And further, "freethinking atheist" is likely a contradiction, since on atheism-as-naturalism "free thinking" does not exist. 

The Psychology of Atheism: Part I

In "The Psychology of Atheism," by Paul Vitz, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New York University. (In Dallas Willard, ed.; A Place for Truth) Vitz talks about the psychological reasons for unbelief. "Most psychologists view with some alarm an attempt to propose a psychology of atheism. At the very least, such a project puts many psychologists on the defensive and gives them at least a small taste of their own medicine. Psychologists are always observing and interpreting others, and it is time that some of them learn from their own experience what it is like to be put under the microscope of psychology theory and evidence." (136)

Vitz begins by giving two points that bear on his basic assumptions. First, Vitz assumes "that the major barriers to God are not rational but in a general sense can be called psychological... I am quite convinced that for every person strongly swayed by rational argument, there are countless others more affected by nonrational, psychological factors. The human heart: no one can truly fathom it or know all of its deceits, but at least it is the proper task of the psychologist to try." (Ib.) Psychological barriers to belief in God are both many and "of great importance." (Ib.) Further, "people vary greatly in the extent to which these factors have been present in their lives." (137)

Secondly, "in spite of serious psychological barriers to belief, all of us have a free choice to accept or reject God." (Ib.)

Vitz believes there is "a widespread assumption throughout much of the intellectual community that belief in God is based on all kids of irrational, immature needs and wishes, but that somehow or other skepticism or atheism is derived from a rational, non-nonsense appraisal of the way things really are." (137-138) 

Vitz then gives his own story of how he became an atheist as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in the 1950s. One of the major factors for this was "general socialization," though Vitz was unaware of it at the time. He was embarrassed about his upbringing in Cincinnati and "wanted to take part and be comfortable in the new, exciting, glamorous, secular world into which I was moving at that time at the University of Michigan as an undergraduate." (139) Such "socialization pressure" has pushed many people away from God-belief "and all that this belief is associated with for them." (Ib.)

Another kind of socialization matter for Vitz's atheistic turn was that he desired to "be accepted by powerful and influential psychologists in my field. In particular, I wanted to be accepted by the powerful and influential psychologists in my field." (139)

A final, superficial-but-very-strong-irrational-pressure to become an atheist, was "personal convenience." (139) Simply put, it is inconvenient "to be a serious believer in today's powerful neo-pagan world." Which meant, for Vitz, the world of academia. "It's not hard to imagine the pleasuresthat would have to be rejected if I became a serious believer." (140) And the time it would require.

For Vitz, his "decision" to become an atheist was more a matter of his will than his intellect. Because of his "personal needs for a convenient lifestyle," and his "professional needs to be accepted as part of academic psychology," "atheism was simply the best policy." (141) But there are deeper psychological reasons for atheism, to which Vitz then turns.

Vitz has sympathy with atheists who have deeper psychological reasons for being an atheist. They are often the most passionate of atheists, and not just unstudied Facebook atheists. Vitz begins by talking about Sigmund Freud's psychology of religious belief, because Vitz is going to use Freud in forming a psychology of atheism.

The Psychology of Atheism: Part II

Our front porch - a great place
for theological thinking.

Paul Vitz, in his presentation "The Psychology of Atheism," looks at deeper psychological reasons for atheism. (In Willard, A Place for Truth) And why not? Lots of psychological work has been done on religious belief and behavior, and lots of internet ad hominem "analysis" goes on by the village atheists among us. So why not a psychology of atheism, subjecting it to analysis? Atheists are no more immune or psychological "neutral" than are theists. Indeed, for most of the confessing atheists I have met I have concluded that their nonbelief is far more related to, e.g., emotional and psychological issues than being a result of "objective, rational thought." This is not a criticism of atheism as such. Theists suffer this, too. It is, however, a criticism of the myth of epistemic neutrality and objectivity. And this also cuts both ways, affecting theists who claim a neutral, fully objective and "rational" view of things.

Perhaps the most famous, and infamous, psychology of religion is Freud's The Future of an Illusion. It is to Freud that Vitz now turns.

"Freud was the first prominent psychologist to propose that people's belief in God could not be trusted because of its origins. In other words, what Freud did was take the ad hominem argument and make it a very popular and influential one." (141) Uh-oh. Ad hominem arguments, in logic, are a no-no, an epistemic non-event.

Freud argued that we can't trust the source of religious beliefs. Religion is neither true nor false, but "is a psychological illusion that arose from our primitive needs for protection. Our basic, infantile, unconscious needs for a father who would look after us, and therefore an illusion." (142) Because of this we cannot accept the truth value of theism.

But this is not convincing. Freud thought that all the contributions of civilization, including science and literature and even psychoanalysis, could be understood as due to infantile, unconscious needs. "So," Vitz says, "if the origins of a belief make us no longer accept its truth value, then according to Fried, we shouldn't accept the truth value of all the other accomplishments of civilization that he said arose from the same kind of motivation." (142)

Further, Freud claimed that among the oldest psychological needs of the human race is the need for a loving, all-powerful father. But that is unconvincing, because if it were true than most or all religions would project the idea of "God" as a loving, protecting, all-powerful "father." But this is not the case. "Many religions don't have that understanding of God at all, particularly many of the pre-Christian or pre-Jewish religions in the Mediterranean area. Some major religions either have no God or their understanding of God is quite different."

Vitz thinks Freud's assumption of a universal, human need of this type is unconvincing. Because were it true, then we'd find "the same kind of religion everywhere we looked." (142)

Next: Vitz looks at the Feuerbachian roots of Freud's atheism.

The Psychology of Atheism: Part III

NYU psychologist Paul Vitz, in his presentation "The Psychology of Atheism," looks at deeper psychological reasons for atheism. (In Willard, A Place for Truth)

See my two previous posts on this here and here.

Vitz looks at the atheism of the psychologist Freud. Freud's atheism comes from what has been called the "projection theory" of German philosopher-theologian Ludwig Feuerbach. Vitz writes: "When Freud was writing his Future of an Illusion in the 1920s, he was updating Feuerbach." (142)

Freud's atheism is not itself part of his psychoanalysis. Vitz writes: "The thing to keep in mind is this: Freud had very little experience, maybe none at all, with the psychological study of people who believed in God. (143) Freud published no case histories of people who believed in God at the time of their psychoanalysis. "So Freud was really not an expert on the unconscious psychology of people who believed in God." (Ib.) Freud, therefore, did not give us a good theory of religious belief since his idas are not psychoanalytically rooted and are not at all based on much personal experience with God-believers. Freud merely warmed up Feuerbach's projection theory. This is not good scholarship.

Feuerbach's theory is found in his The Essence of Christianity. Feuerbach wrote:

• What man misses - whether this be an articulate and therefore conscious, or an unconscious, need - that is his God. 
• Man projects his nature into the world outside himself before he finds it in himself.
• To live in projected dream-images is the essence of religion. Religion sacrifices reality to the projected dream. . .

Elsewhere Vitz explains: "What Freud did with this argument was to revive it in a more eloquent form, and publish it at a later time when the audience desiring to hear such a theory was much larger. And, of course, somehow the findings and theory of psychoanalysis were implied as giving the theory strong support."

"Strangely enough, however, Freud has inadvertently given us a basic theory for understanding why people would not believe in God, why people would be atheists!" (In Willard, op. cit., 143) The projection theory cuts both ways. To understand this Vitz looks at the one idea Freud is famous for, and which is central to his theory: the "Oedipus Complex."

Next Psychology of Atheism post: Freud's Oedipus Complex & atheism as an example of Oedipal wish fulfillment.

The Psychology of Atheism: Part IV

NYU psychologist Paul Vitz, in his presentation "The Psychology of Atheism," looks at deeper psychological reasons for atheism. (In Willard, A Place for Truth)

Atheists have a psyche. Let's look into it! (At least theists can affirm that atheists have psyches. On atheism-as-philosophical naturalism nobody has a "psyche." Hence there can be no "psychology" of anything. Neurobiological explanations may be used, which have their own philosophical problems.)

The "Oedipus complex" was central to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, even as he applied it to religious belief. Vitz writes: "The interesting thing about the Oedipus complx is that Freud said it's universal. There's no reason to believe this, but Freud argued that it is universal, that it is unconscious, and in the case of the male child, the unconscious desire is to reject or remove and kill his father and to have some kind of erotic possession of the mother." (143)

Say "whew"... and thank God that this is not common (says Vitz, who doesn't find this kind of thing in his own counseling work)!

But what does this have to do with God? Freud took his Oedipus theory and said people link their own fathers with God. God, said Freud, is a "father figure and our attitude toward God and our father are very similar." (144)

Freud thought this explained God-belief. Vitz says it is not universal, as Freud thought. But, ironically, if Freud's eccentric Oedipus theory explains anything, it explains atheism. Vitz says:

"Since Freud proposed that God is a father figure, this suggests that we should all have an unconscious desire to kill God, to be independent of God, to have the world the way we want it. In a sense, what he's saying is that an atheist has an unresolved Oedipus complex because normally the father is too big to kill and the child can't get away with it. And so, instead of killing his father, the child identifies with the aggressor, his father, and represses these aggressive and sexual desires, which then remain unconscious." (144)

Freud thinks all of us have a desire to kill God. Vitz thinks Freud is on to something here. Vitz: "I would propose that atheism is an example of Oedipal wish fulfillment. That is, it's an unresolved Oedipus complex in the person." OK. But Vitz does not think "Oedipal wish fulfillment" is anywhere near "universal." So Vitz thinks we need to go deeper. This brings us to the "theory of the defective father."

I'll explain this in my next post. For now I cannot begin to tell you how many atheists I have met who seem to me to especially be reacting to their fathers.

The Psychology of Atheism: Part V

NYU psychologist Paul Vitz, in his presentation "The Psychology of Atheism," looks at deeper psychological reasons for atheism. (In Willard, A Place for Truth)

See my four previous posts on this here, here, here, and here.

Freud said:

"Psychoanalysis, which has taught us the intimate connection between the father complex and belief in God, has shown us that the personal God is logically nothing but an exalted father and daily demonstrates to us how youthful persons lose their religious belief as soon as the authority of their father has broken down." (144)

Vitz calls this "the theory of the defective father." The claim here is that "once a child is disappointed in
and loses his or her respect for the earthly father, then belief in a heavenly father becomes impossible." Fathers can and do lose their authority and disappoint their children. This is what happened to Freud himself.

Freud's father, Jacob, was a great disappointment, even worse. His father was weak, unable to support his own family, and a wimp in his non-response to anti-Semitism. One time an anti-Semite called Jacob a "dirty Jew" and knocked his hat off. Jacob refused to respond, and young Sigmund was disgusted when he heard about this. Vitz catalogues other reasons for Freud's antipathy towards his father.

Vitz cites other famous atheists who had "defective fathers, to include Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, and Madeleine Murray O'Hare. O'Hare's own son has written, e.g., about the hatred her mother had for his grandmother. Once she tried to kill her dad with a ten-inch butcher knife!

Vitz writes quite a bit about the atheist psychologist Albert Ellis, who may have been in denial of his hatred towards his father. And then there's orphaned child Baron d'Holbach, Bertrand Russell, Nietzsche (whose "life fits the theory about as well as any"), Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. And Gene Roddenberry ("Star Trek") and Russell Baker and...  on and on...

Vitz adds, "for those whose atheism has been conditioned by a father who rejected, denied, hated, manipulated or physically or sexually abused them, there must be understanding." (151)

One more personal point. Whenever I see a father who is a religious "Christian fundamentalist" I am concerned for their children. I met, in my 11 years at Michigan State University, many kids of fundamentalist dads who had rejected "Christianity." They did not know that the so-called "Christianity" of their fathers was not the actual thing, and that the meaning of "fundamentalism" is: 1) no "fun," 2) too much "damn," and 3) not enough "mental." No wonder they rejected this!

(For Vitz's full work on the psychology of atheism, see his book Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism.)

Change Is Dangerous/Hard Because It Always Involves Loss

 

I'm enjoying reading Walter Fluker's Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility, and Community. Fluker has written before on the spiritual and social relationship connecting Martin Luther King, Jr. and Howard Thurman (See They Looked for a City: A Comparative Analysis of the Ideal of Community in the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.) 

In Ethical Leadership Fluker deepens and strengthens the King-Thurman connection and its importance to ground social ethics in individual and community spiritual formation and transformation.

This means, among other things, that we need to change, individually and in community. Our selves and our communities must walk in ongoing renewal and transformation, lest we die and perpetuate the cultural nihilism of this dark world.

Change Is dangerous to the human heart because it always involves loss.

Fluker quotes Ronald Heifetz and Martin Linsky:

"You appear dangerous to people when you question their values, beliefs, or habits of a lifetime. You place yourself on the line when you tell people what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. Although you may see with clarity and passion a promising future of progress and gain, people will see with equal passions the losses you are asking them to sustain." (Fluker, Kindle Locations 237-239)

Spiritual change threatens a person’s comfort zone.

SPIRITUAL FORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION: MY METHOD

 

1. Assumption: God is the agent of personal/spiritual transformation. 

2. Point People to God's Presence: Lecturing to people or assigning books to read won't transform the human heart. But God can. Therefore: I assign people to pray. I can point people to the presence of the One who does the transforming. 

3. Share with Others What God Is Doing In You: Transformation has a corporate dimension. This is realized as we return from our solitary prayer times with God and share with others what God has spoken to us. Here we arrive at the center of biblical koinonia ("fellowship") which is, literally, sharing what we have in common; viz., Christ in me, the hope of glory.

The method God has given me to do this is:

Give people Psalm 23 and send them out to pray for an hour. Or sometimes I send them out to pray for 30 minutes. For pastors I use 60 minutes; for non-pastors I use 30 minutes.

Here's the paper I give them. I read the instructions aloud. 

I use this document when teaching seminary classes and doing spiritual formation retreats for churches.

WARNING: If you are a pastor who wants to do this kind of thing with your people, you must be engaging in it yourself. 

***

60 MINUTES with Psalm 23 and God

- John Piippo, PhD

Take 5 minutes to go alone to a quiet place to meet with God. When I dismiss you, go quietly – don’t talk with anyone.

Don’t take anything with you except for this piece of paper. Leave your cell phone in the room.

When you find your quiet place, stay there for 60 minutes.

During this time, keep a spiritual journal. A spiritual journal is a record of God’s voice and activity in your life. When God speaks to you about you, write it down.

Use Psalm 23 for your meditation. Biblically, to meditate is to ponder something. Meditation is repetitive. Your purpose is not to exegete Psalm 23. Instead, be exegeted yourself by the Holy Spirit.

If your mind wanders, write down where it wanders to.

After the hour, return to our meeting place.

PSALM 23

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil, My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

African-American Spirituality: A Select Bibliography

(One of my Spiritual Formation classes at Payne Theological Seminary)

What a blessing it is for me to be an Adjunct Faculty member at Payne Theological Seminary! 

My class is Spiritual Formation. I'll teach this again, at Payne, beginning July 27.

I've been teaching this class for many years at a number of theological seminaries, seminars, workshops, both in the U.S. and in places around the world. Through the years it has been my privilege to instruct many pastoral leaders from Africa, and many African-American pastoral leaders.

My Payne teaching began (around 2007, I think) when Dr. Leah Fitchue, Payne's president, asked me to teach part of a weeklong class on Transformational Leadership. Parts one and two were taught by James Cone and Deotis Roberts. I did part three, and led the Payne students in an entire-day experience on spiritual transformation.

Here are books that line my bookshelf, and populate my Kindle, on African and African-American spirituality. 

Michelle Alexander

• The New Jim Crow: Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Must reading for anyone desiring to understand racism in America.)

James Baldwin

• Notes of a Native Son

Lewis Baldwin 

• Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King Jr. (This is the book to read about King's praying life, a life entirely ignored by the secular media.)
• Revives My Soul Again: The Spirituality of Martin Luther King Jr. (This is the book to read on King's spiritual life, a life entirely ignored by the secular media.)
• The Arc of Truth: The Thinking of Martin Luther King
• "Thou, Dear God": Prayers that Open Hearts and Spirits

Michael Battle

• The Quest for Liberation and Reconciliation: Essays in Honor of J. Deotis Roberts 

Taylor Branch

• America in the King Years

Flora Wilson Bridges

• Resurrection Song: African-American Spirituality

Lewis Brogdon

• Hope on the Brink: Understanding the Emergence of Nihilism in Black America

Clayborne Carson

• The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr

James Cone (It was my privilege to be one of three teachers at a Transformation Leadership week-long conference. Dr Cone taught, Deotis Roberts taught, and I was given Friday morning and afternoon to wrap the week up. [Thank you Dr Leah Fitchue!])

• God of the Oppressed
• A Black Theology of Liberation
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree 

Melva Wilson Costen

• African American Christian Worship

Frederick Douglass

• Slave Narratives Collection

W.E.B. Dubois

• The Souls of Black Folk

Stephen Ellis and Gerrie Ter Haar

• World of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa

Cain Hope Felder

• Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation 

Walter Fluker

• They Looked for a City: A Comparative Analysis of the Ideal of Community in the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Obery Hendricks (Hendricks is former President of Payne Theological Seminary and currently Prof. of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary)

• The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted

Johnny Bernard Hill

• Prophetic Rage: A Postcolonial Theology of Liberation

Diana Hayes

• Forged in the Fiery Furnace: African American Spirituality

Dwight Hopkins

• Introducing Black Theology of Liberation
• Heart and Head: Black Theology Past, Present and Future

Rufus Matthew Jones, Kerry Walters (Note: the Quaker-mystical theology of Rufus Jones deeply influenced the spirituality of Howard Thurman)

• Rufus Jones: Essential Writings

Robert W. Kellemen, Karole A. Edwards

• Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

Eric Lincoln

• The Black Church in the African American Experience

Malcolm X

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X

John Mbiti

• African Religions & Philosophy
• Introduction to African Religion

Esau McCauley

• Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
• How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

Latasha Morrison

• Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation

Peter Paris

• The Spirituality of African Peoples
• Religion and Poverty: Pan-African Perspectives

James W. Perkinson

• White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity

Anthony Pinn

• Varieties of African American Religious Experience

Samuel Proctor

• My Moral Odyssey (Dr. Charles Brown of Payne Seminary recommended this to me.)

Albert Raboteau

• Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South

Luther E. Smith

• Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet

Katrina Dyonne Thompson

• Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery

Howard Thurman (Thurman, in my mind, is the leading African-American figure in contemporary spirituality, not only writing so profoundly in this area but living out a contemplative and active life of Jesus-following)

• Jesus and the Disinherited
• Howard Thurman: Essential Writings
• Meditations of the Heart
• For the Inward Journey
• With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman

Ngugi Wa Thiongo

• Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature

Nat Turner

• The Confessions of Nat Turner

Cornel West, Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

• African American Religious Thought: An Anthology

Gayraud Wilmore

• Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans 

Vincent Wimbush

• Bible and African Americans

THANK YOU, again, Dr Leah Fitchue, for the privilege of teaching under your leadership in the D. Min. Program at Palmer Theological Seminary, and the M. Div. Program at Payne Theological Seminary.

The Peace that Transcends All Circumstances

 

                                                                    (Flowers, in our front yard.)

A few years ago Linda and I vacationed in Cape May, New Jersey. It's a beautiful area, with a great beach on the ocean. We stayed in a very cool, old Victorian Bed & Breakfast. Cape May has wonderful restaurants and places to see and shop. All was well except... the weather. It was cold and rainy. The circumstances were not what we wanted, because what we really like is sitting under the sun on the beach, and reading and talkin,g and listening to the sound of the crashing waves.

Such is life. Circumstances often do not go one's way. In spite of the conditions, Linda and I enjoyed Cape May, and had inner peace.

The good news is that the "fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23 is not circumstance-dependent. Part of that fruit is "peace." There is an inner well-being available to all who live the Jesus-connected life. This inner well-being does not rise and fall with the external environment. It's more like a thermostat than a thermometer; it is non-reactive and consistent. 

When I abide in Christ, my inner thermostat is set to "peace," even though my outer thermometer is reading "cold."

Howard Thurman writes:

"Here we come upon the most interesting aspect of personal freedom - the living of one's life with confidence that transcends discouragement and despair. This means that one does not have to depend upon the favorable circumstances, the fortuitous "break," the applause, approval, and felicitation of friends, as important as these are...
"Seek ye first the rule of God," the Master says. And after that? The key that one needs for one's peace is in the heart. There can be no personal freedom where there is not an initial inner surrender."
- 40-Day Journey with Howard Thurman, 64

Surrender your entire being to the rule of Christ today, and discover the peace that transcends all circumstances.

The Presence Driven Church - Video Teaching

This video was made on 10/30/21.

For more see my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Calling for Perseverance

                                                             (Cross, in our backyard)

Linda and I have several friends who became followers of Jesus in the Jesus Revolution, and have stayed with Him. 

I'm one of those. I am 77 years old. I became a Jesus-follower in 1970, when I was twenty-one. I have been following Jesus for fifty-six years!

There are many like me. We have persevered. Through many dangers, toils, and snares. 

We are not perfect. We continue to grow into greater and greater Christlikeness. 

I am more convinced today than ever that Jesus is the Way. And that there is, as Eugene Peterson calls it, The Jesus Way.

For my devotional times I am re-reading Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship In an Instant Society. Although Peterson does not self-refer as a prophet, I think he is. His words and thoughts and insights are prescient. To me, Peterson remains more a prophet than some who think they are prophets, and some who love to be seen as a 'prophet'.

Peterson begins his book by quoting the atheist Nietzsche. {FYI - In his recent book Carl Trueman builds on Nietzsche's famous "Parable of the Madman.")

Nietzsche says, "The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." 

Peterson adds, "It is this "long obedience in the same direction" which the mood of the world does so much to discourage."

How does our culture discourage persevering in Christ? Peterson writes:

"There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness." (Long Obedience, 12)

"In" and "With" as Keys to Living the Jesus-Life

 

(Monroe County Community College)

 

A key to living the Jesus Life is found in two little words - "in," and "with."

Paul, in his letters to the various Jesus-communities, uses the phrases "in Christ" and "with Christ," and their variations, over 200 times (e.g. "in him," Christ "in us," and so on).

"In" is a container metaphor. When I am "in" the room, I share in the room's environment. When "out" of the room, I do not experience what is happening in the room.

Every Jesus-follower is "in Christ." This means union with Christ. I am in Christ and Christ is in me. Just as the resources of a vine flow into its branches, so do Trinitarian resources flow into every branch who abides in Jesus. 

Consider "with Christ." 

• Jesus-followers have died with Christ, 
• have risen with Christ, 
• and will appear in glory with Christ on his return. 
• When Christ died sin was defeated; 
• Therefore I, in Christ, am dead to the rule and reign of sin. 
• Sin has, for Christ and therefore for me, lost its power. 
• When Christ was raised death was defeated; 
• therefore, because he lives, I also live and am alive in Christ. 
• Where he moves I move; 
• where he goes I go. 
• I am a new creation, living out of a new ontological status. 

Sadly, the default, flesh-system of "religion," is to ignore this core Gospel reality, and instead preach the Moral Code and the utilization of human flesh-power to keep it (what Richard Foster has called "will worship"). Craig Keener says the best imitations of Christ are just “flesh.”" (Keener, here)

"In," and "with," tell us that living the Jesus life is not about trying harder. N.T. Wright writes:

“One aspect of Christian maturity, and certainly one of the road signs on the road to Christian holiness, is that the mind must grasp the truth: ‘you died, and your life has been hidden with the king, in God!” Once the mind has grasped it, the heart and will start to come on board. And once that happens the way lies open to joyful Christian holiness. Don’t settle for short cuts.” (NTW, C for E, 176; emphasis mine)

It's not imitating Christ, but union with Christ that makes the difference. It's about Christ, living in me and doing his transforming work in me, and I in him, rather than striving to copy him by using will power. (Think of the guilt and shame this produces in the church.)

Wright says: 

"The possibility is staggering: that I, a creature, might have my life linked—actually, organically, eternally linked—to the Son of God himself. Like a freight car coupled with an engine, where Jesus goes, I go. What happens to him, happens to me. I follow him and share his life, his character, his suffering, his future, his inheritance, even his reign with the Father.

While this reality, known as the doctrine of "union with Christ," has received a lot of attention throughout Christian history, it is often ignored in the modern church. But it is incredibly good news for those of us who wrestle with the uncertainty and disappointment of life on earth. Because we are "in Christ," because his life is ours, our fundamental life story has already been written."

Orient your heart and mind to things above, to Christ. Set your hearts and minds on who you are, by faith and through grace, in Christ.

In.

With.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. The actuality is staggering.

***

For more, check out former Fuller Theological Seminary professor Lewis Smedes, Union with Christ: A Biblical View of the New Life in Christ.

Biblical Metaphors of Spiritual Transformation

Only God can transform us into increasing Christlikeness. 

To be transformed by God we must enter and live in his
presence. 

But what is it in us that gets transformed? 

The biblical answer is: “spirit.” (Or “heart.”) 

I will present an understanding of “spirit” by using some
of the biblical metaphors of spiritual transformation.

          

If persons are essentially soul + body spiritual creations, what is "spirit"? The Bible provides us with many "metaphors of spirit." These metaphors do not give definitions, or point-for-point descriptions of "spirit," but rather gesture towards the nature of persons as spiritual creations. 

A "metaphor" is the use of a word, phrase, image, or object to create a framework through which we express or view some aspect of reality or experience.[1] Metaphorical description is necessary because most, if not all, of our common experience cannot be captured in the steel nets of literal language.[2]

          To refer to spiritual experience we must often speak metaphorically. Consider, as an example, this metaphorical description of the spiritual life from Thomas Merton: “I consider that the spiritual life is the life of man's real self, the life of that interior self whose flame is so often allowed to be smothered under the ashes of anxiety and futile concern.”[3]

          Here Merton uses three biblical metaphors:

          1) The spiritual life is that which is most real about persons.

          2) The spiritual life is something interior ("below the surface"; "deep inside"; see, e.g., Proverbs 20:5).

          3) Spirit is "energy," "fire." Thus it can be "smothered" or "quenched."

This brief metaphorical description of the spiritual life issues an invitation to consider viewing one's life through its lens.

          The biblical metaphors of spirit, while not providing exact definitions, gesture towards the life of the spirit and invite us to participate in this life. They are all grounded in a common understanding of spirituality, which is: To be "spiritual" is to be in God's presence; to be "unspiritual" is to be apart from God.[4]

          The biblical metaphors of spirit into types. Our first example is a type of volitional metaphor and is found in Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God." To "be still" means, literally, to "cease struggling." This means that if we are to be transformed we must stop struggling and resisting God and surrender to God. Therefore, spirit is something that can either surrender to God or resist God. 

When we are surrendered to God then we are, in the best sense, “spiritual.” To be wholly surrendered to God is a way of being in the presence of God. It is in the place of non-striving that we know God. And “knowing God” is not, for the psalmist, theoretical knowledge where God is the object of knowledge, but rather experiential knowledge. Because knowing God is experiential it is transformational. To know God truly is to be changed.

          Our second metaphor of the spiritual life is a type of activity metaphor: "Rest in the Lord, O my soul." As Hebrews 6:19 says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." To be in God's presence means to cease from certain activities so our spirit, like a ship, might be anchored to God who is the dock. To be spiritual is to live securely anchored to God's Holy Spirit. Conversely, our spirit is lost when it becomes a "restless, drifting, wandering soul." This is spiritual insecurity. Therefore,  spirit is something that can be either securely anchored or drift. To be anchored to God is a way of being in God’s presence. And it is in God’s presence that we are transformed.

          Our third metaphorical description is a type of part/whole metaphor, and speaks of having an "undivided heart" or a "whole heart" (Psalm 86:11). The implication is that we cannot both be in God's presence and simultaneously attend to someone or something else. One can’t multi-task the God-relationship.

          Henri Nouwen has said that the basic question of the spiritual life is: Who do we belong to? To live out of God's presence is to be, as James 1:8 says, dipsuchos. It is to have "two psyches," or be "two-hearted." In such a condition the spirit is divided regarding its allegiance, and is said to be "fragmented." In such a state of spiritual dipsuchos the human spirit has two lovers. I have found it often happens that when we go alone to a quiet place to pray we are shown how divided our spirits are. Therefore, spirit is something that can be either whole or divided into parts. To be in God’s presence is to be whole-hearted towards God.

          Our fourth metaphor of spirit is the central biblical one of energy. "Spirit" is fire. When in God's presence there may come "tongues of flame." We can be "on fire" towards God. Nouwen often speaks of our need, therefore, to "tend the fire within." Conversely, spirit can be "quenched," or it can "burn out."[5] A colleague in ministry, speaking of his need for spiritual renewal, once said to me, "What I feel I now need in my life is a burning bush." Spirit burns, therefore we must tend it to keep it from burning out and guard it so it will not be quenched. To be in the presence of God is to have the fire burning inside one’s heart.

          Our fifth example is a type of cathartic (cleansing) metaphor: "Create in me a clean heart, O God." "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."[6] The implication is that we truly dwell in God's presence only with pure hearts. To have a pure heart, as Kierkegaard wrote, is "to will one thing." Conversely, our hearts can be "stained," "blemished, " and covered with "blots," thus "impure." The central biblical image of sin is "stain." Many agree that the first step to spiritual renewal always involves confession, repentance, and receiving forgiveness. Clean hands and pure hearts are necessary preconditions for loving God. Therefore, spirit is something that can be spotless or stained, clean or unclean, acceptable or unacceptable to God. If you want to ascend the hill of the Lord to stand in God’s holy presence clean hands and a pure heart are needed.[7]

          Our sixth and seventh examples are both types of dwelling metaphors. The first speaks of "remaining in" or "abiding in" Jesus: "Remain in me, and I will remain in you."[8] We can be said to dwell with Jesus if we are branches, connected to the True Vine. To be out of Jesus' influence is to become "disconnected" from the vine, possibly to attach oneself to other sources for sustenance. Therefore, spirit can attach itself to God or be detached from God. To be in the presence of God is to be attached to him and get one’s life-resources from him.

          Another dwelling metaphor speaks of God as "our fortress and strength." When we live within the walls of God's protective fortress, "what shall we fear?" Thus Nouwen asks the question, "Do you live in the house of God or the house of fear?"[9] It is in God's house that our spirits find comfort, encouragement, and strength for the journey. But when we dwell outside these protective walls and life's attacks come, fear and anxiety predominate. It is in this light that Nouwen offers his "proof" that prayer works. We know that prayer works because when we do not pray our lives are more filled with fears and anxieties.[10] Therefore, spirit has a home, and is endangered when it makes its home anything but God. To enter into the presence of God is to live in God’s fortress.

          Our last three metaphors of spiritual transformation are spatial, and indicate the "location" of spirit. The first concerns "creating a space in your heart" for God. Jesus said, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen" (Matt. 6:6). This "upper room" or "secret place" is a heart where Jesus is allowed to live. Our heart is allowed to be Christ's home. As an old hymn asks, "Have You Any Room for Jesus?" But our "rooms" can be "cluttered," with no space for God.  Therefore, spirit is a roomy space that can be cluttered with so many distractions that God has no opportunity to enter in. The heart has a resting place, a hiding place. Enter in, for God’s presence is there.

         A second spatial metaphor is found in the Quaker expression "to center down." In both the Old and New Testaments the heart is the "center" or "seat" of all that is unique to persons, to include the will, the passions, thought, and the religious center to which God turns.[11] We are to "love the Lord with all our heart." God, Who seeks out all things, "knows our hearts."[12] The movement of our spiritual life should be "centrifugal," proceeding from the center of our being, rather than a "centripetal" movement that begins with the surface things of life and attempts to move through them to the heart of life. Because we so easily stray from center it is no wonder we often find little meaning in our activity. Therefore, spirit concerns the central reality of persons, and determines all activity and desire. It is the source of being which, in the spiritual life, precedes doing. To live centered on God is to live in God’s presence.

          Our final metaphor of the spiritual life is also spatial, and speaks of there being "a temple within." Paul tells the Corinthians that, individually and corporately, they are temples of God's Holy Spirit.[13] Paul Tournier refers to this inner temple as "the holy sepulchre within." Tournier refers to this by asking, "What is there then within this sepulchre where all the repressed rubbish of all humanity as well as our own is rotting?"[14] One worship song says “Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary.” Another says “purify my heart.” Conversely, Jesus said we can "whitewash" this sanctuary. This would be to live a life of facade, pretense, what Merton called the "false self." Therefore, spirit is a holy place where God's Spirit dwells. To be "spiritual" is to allow God to reign in one's spirit, which is God's rightful dwelling place. To be "unspiritual" is to occupy that dwelling place with our own ego as king, while painting the outside so as to appear to be spiritual.

          There are many metaphors of spiritual transformation.[15] They figuratively define what it means to be in the presence of God, and tell us that spiritual transformation comes as we:

                   - Surrender to God.

                   - Anchor ourselves to God.

                   - Are whole-hearted towards God.

                   - Tend the fire within.

                   - Remain clean before God.

                   - Attach ourselves to God.

                   - Dwell in God's fortress.

                   - Make room in our heart for God.

                   - Center our life on God.

                   - Walk in holiness.[16]

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[1] See Piippo, John Paul, Metaphor and Theology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, 1986. Here the nature of metaphor and its use in expressing and describing religious aspects of experience and reality is more fully explained.

[2] Much of our language is metaphorical in origin. For example, when we speak of the "leg" of the table we have forgotten that at some point somebody used the human "figure" to speak of the table's leg. Paul Ricoeur has shown in The Rule of Metaphor that "figurative language" is language which uses the human "figure" to speak of experience.

[3] Merton,

[4] See especially Gordon Fee’s commentary on 1 Corinthians. Fee says that Paul’s basic question for the Corinthian church is, “What does it mean to be “spiritual” or pneumatikos.”

[5] On spiritual "burnout" and ways to rekindle the flame, see Louis Savary and Patricia Berne, Prayerways.

[6] Psalm 51:7, 10.

[7] Psalm 24:3

[8]

[9] See Nouwen, Lifesigns; A Cry for Mercy. No one is better in articulating the emotion and spirit of fear than Henri Nouwen.

[10] See Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal, p. 44.

[11] See Geoffrey W. Bromily, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), p. 416.

[12] Luke 16:15.

[13]

[14] Tournier, Paul,

[15] Another metaphor is: To be in God's presence one must have a "quiet heart." To be out of God's presence is to "have ears, but not really hear." When the human heart is filled with many voices and noises it is difficult to hear the single voice of God. Heart-stillness is the condition where only God's voice is attended to. "Spirit," therefore, is something that can be either quieted or chaotic.

[16] When we reverse the positive biblical metaphors of the spiritual life we see those spiritual conditions which will render prayer-as-relationship-with-God less effective. Relationship with God is blocked  when our spirits are...

                        ...noisy

                        ...restless

                        ...fragmented/divided

                        ...focused on life's peripheral issues

                        ...cluttered

                        ...white-washed

                        ...stained (by sin)

                        ...disconnected from the Vine

                        ...dwelling out God's fortress.

            ...and so on...