The Endless Spiral of Faith and Action (RJS)

Last updated on: May 6, 2014 at 5:42 am by RJS

The Endless Spiral of Faith and Action (RJS) 2014-05-06T05:42:23-05:00 RJS

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Most of the discussion of science and Christian faith focuses on the conflict or the supposed conflict between faith and science – the warfare narrative. We focus on naturalism and the threat this poses to the experience of God, on evolution and the peril this brings for the uniqueness of humans, on the age of the earth and the challenge this raises for the interpretation of scripture. This conflict motif is a shame because it too often keeps us from learning from science where appropriate. There is much we can learn from modern science, and not always because it challenges the interpretation of Scripture. In some cases it brings us back to Scripture with important new insight. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of social psychology which demolishes some of the more serious errors of modern Western individualism.

In my post last Thursday (God Guides and Directs) I referred to a book written by Malcolm A. Jeeves (Professor Emeritus of Psychology at St. Andrews) and David G. Myers (Professor of Psychology at Hope College), Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith. Social psychology has taught us much about the collective nature of human evil, and this has, or should have, important consequences for the church. As Myers and Jeeves put it:

If evil is a personal aberration, then its remedy must also be personal. … The way to deal with sin is to convert the individual.

But research clearly reveals that the human problem is also collective and that these individualistic remedies often deliver less than expected. (187-188)

…

Precisely because sin has a collective aspect, we must also make a collective response to it. … Since we are not self sufficient, we stand in need of the church’s corporate fellowship. Only in that context can we adequately struggle against the with the evil within and about us.

It is the whole believing people, not isolated believers, that is the body of Christ. To say that the church is Christ’s body reminds us that together we can admonish one another. Together we can enable each other to minister … To repeat, evil is collective as well as personal and so requires a collective as well as a personal response. (p. 191-192, emphasis added)

Social neuroscience takes this one step further. Who we interact with, what we do, what we think; these actions and attitudes affect us at the very material level of the brain. There is a cause and effect relationship between social isolation, social interaction, and brain structure. We think with our brains – but what we think also changes our brains. This leads quite naturally to a discussion of behavior and attitudes and from there to action and faith. Myers and Jeeves address this issue in the next chapter of their book.

[I]t is now a fundamental rule of social psychology that behavior and attitude generate one another in an endless spiral, like chicken and egg.

This principle affirms the biblical understanding of action and faith or what Bonhoeffer called obedience and belief. Depending on where we break into this spiraling chain, we will see faith as a source of action or as a consequence. Action and faith, like action and attitude, feed one another. (pp. 194-195)

Here is a place where Myers and Jeeves suggest that we need to bring the insights of social psychology into the church. In this case the science of social psychology is not a challenge to ancient interpretation of Scripture but a corrective return to the ancient understanding of faith in God and in Christ, an embodied and active faith.

How can we apply the faith-follows-action principle to leading a church, planning worship, and to nurturing personal faith? First, a top priority for churches must be to make their members active participants, not mere spectators. … If research on persuasion is any indication, this will be best accomplished by direct, personal calls to committed action, not merely by mass appeals and announcements.

In worship, too, people should be engaged as active participants, not mere spectators of religious theater. Research indicates that passively received spoken words have surprisingly little impact on listeners. Changes in attitude resulting from spoken persuasion are less likely to endure and influence subsequent behavior than attitude changes emerging from experience. (pp. 196-197)

Myers and Jeeves go on to give some ways in which worship is enacted rather than simply received – passing the peace, contributing prayers, reading Scripture responsively, kneeling and such. All of these can be quite valuable, although I don’t think that they alone are sufficient to move the church experience from spectator to active participant. To be a an active participant requires not just embodied actions at the direction of a leader, but meaningful contribution.

I’m a scientist and an educator. Although “faith” isn’t the goal in my classes, learning certainly is – and passively received spoken words have as little impact on learning as they have on behavior. A course design involving nothing more than entertaining lectures with some reading thrown in generally gives less than desired results. Problems, presentations, projects, papers, study groups, even tests, … our students won’t really learn much without these. We flip or partially flip classrooms, require participation and discussion to engage the students more deeply. We encourage questions and expect to defend our answers. The experience is structured with an end goal in mind – making peers (not clones or followers) out of students.

A church isn’t a classroom though – and the problems and solutions are different. It is dangerous to draw too many parallels. The question I’d like to pose today is simple although the answers are not so simple.

What is the purpose of the church – or your church?

How does the structure of the church achieve this purpose? Where could it use improvement?

The answers to these questions may be quite different if we take some of the concepts described by Myers and Jeeves seriously. The science of psychology, especially neuroscience and social psychology, has reminded us of the collective nature of evil (i.e. sin) and the need for a collective response. It has led to the insight that action and faith, like action and attitude, is a spiral where action and faith feed back on each other to reach the end result. It has taught us the importance of active participation. Neuroscience takes this one step further. Who we associate with, what we think, and what we do changes the very structures activated and grown in our brains giving deeper significance to the endless spiral of action and attitude.

Are there lessons we can and should learn from studies in social psychology?

If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail [at] att.net.

If interested you can subscribe to a full text feed of my posts at Musings on Science and Theology.

Science and Faith

Previous Post

May 5, 2014

Rescuing the Girls

Next Post

May 6, 2014 Dietary Experts on Dangerous Foods

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back at Sodom?

Select your answer to see how you score.

She turned into a pillar of salt She was swallowed by the earth She went blind She was struck by lightning