The Glory of God Composed of Form and Splendor – part 2

Posted on December 28, 2009

[Eric Johnson is our guest blogger for December. Eric is the Director of the Society for Christian Psychology and professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is his fourth post].

Last week I began a discussion based on a distinction borrowed from the great 20th century Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, that glory is composed of both form and splendor. I will assume the reader has read that introduction as we explore this week the implications of that momentous distinction.

In art, physical form has to do with spatial arrangement of the features, say, of a statue. A beautiful statue looks good. But we are interested in psychological or spiritual form-something invisible-and therefore not something we can see with the physical eye, but something we arrive at by means of inference and wisdom.

God is the source and measure of glory; indeed, glory is the biblical term for the beauty of God. God’s glory is the “sum of his attributes,” his greatness and goodness, his meaningfulness. God is the essence of perfect, infinite form and splendor. So God’s form is the perfect configuration of psychological and spiritual features: God knows everything (including absolute self-awareness); always thinks clearly; is completely content,  but has emotional richness that corresponds to the rest of reality perfectly (including true empathy); acts determinedly and wisely; and (in the Trinity) consists of strong, loving persons-in-communion.

Last week we defined splendor as the depth dimension of a form, its inner radiance that “shines out” from the form. God is also the essence of perfect, infinite splendor, so he is the deepest of beings: he loves that which is lovely-himself supremely and all creatures, especially insofar as they resemble him-and he hates that which is ugly-sin; he regards all things in proportion to their true value with respect to himself; he always acts according to his preeminent values; and he “sees through” mere appearance and promotes depth in those made in his image.

Being the Son of God in human form, Jesus Christ is the perfect human representation of God’s form and splendor. The Gospels are important because they provide narrative descriptions of his glory, “glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). Jesus Christ shows the human race flawless human form and consummate depth of splendor. Being increasingly conformed to Christ (in his form and splendor) is the goal of human life (Ro 8:29; 2Co 3:18).

So it is God’s intention that humans made in his image are created to realize the greatest form and splendor of which they are capable as finite creatures. Having good form means having healthy thinking and emotions, well-functioning memory, the ability to freely act so as to realize one’s realistic goals, and good relationships. Modern psychology has explored many of these features.

Having a high degree of splendor means being deep, rather than superficial, being focused on the important things in life: supernatural reality more than natural, people more than things, being and doing good more than simply looking good; but also having regard for the weak, hurting, broken, and sinners, and all creatures in proportion to their actual value before God, yet hating sin. Obviously modern psychology has not focused much on splendor.

This doxological focus (doxa = glory, Gk) makes human development central to God’s purposes. Children obviously manifest God’s glory, but it is good to develop into increasingly well-formed creatures with greater splendor. Because of their limited formal capacities, children necessarily act with less splendor than adults, because adults can do what they do intentionally for the glory of God; children cannot, at least not as fully as adults.

Glory of course is not the possession of anyone except God. To be human is only to be a means of God’s glory; by grace God permits humans to participate in his glory. The more well-formed our souls and the more splendorous their form, the greater glory we are capable of receiving from God in worship, love, and gratitude and expressing in our voices, lives, and relationships.

This glory framework gives Christians a different way of viewing psychopathology.  Sin is the worst kind of psychopathology because it radically compromises our ability to participate in God’s glory. Sin’s essence is anti-glory.  Part of sin’s effects was the damage of the soul’s form evident in distorted thinking, inappropriate emotions, and personality disorders, so this kind of damage should be of concern to Christian counseling, since it can inhibit our ability to participate in God’s glory. However, sin’s effects are most evident in the compromise of splendor. The more sinful we are, the less devoted to God we are and the more focused we are on this creation as an end in itself (so it becomes an idol), so those who live lives distracted by the superficial (fame, fashion, power, possessions) lack splendor. Low levels of splendor, then, is a greater problem than poor form in Christian counseling. Interestingly, having damaged form leads to increased suffering, but suffering promotes our deepening and so our splendor.

Christ came to earth and died and was raised to heal our form and deepen our splendor. Some healing in our form is possible in this life, but its complete healing is reserved for heaven. However, in light of the foregoing, we might expect more healing on earth in our capacity for splendor, as we grow through suffering in worship, wisdom, faith, hope, and love. Christian psychotherapy and counseling is doxological as it participates in the glory of Christ’s salvation by helping to bring healing to the human form and increase human splendor through the resources of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

The Glory of God Composed of Form and Splendor

Posted on December 20, 2009

[Eric Johnson is our guest blogger for December. Eric is the Director of the Society for Christian Psychology and professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is his third post].

Thanks to wonderful teaching I received early on in my Christian life (at Toronto Baptist Seminary, Calvin College, and Bethlehem Baptist Church with John Piper), I have been drawn to think often about how God’s glory is related to psychology and counseling. In an early article, “Self-Esteem in the Presence of God” (1989), I argued that God alone is of infinite worth and that whatever value humans possess has to be vastly secondary and completely derived from God’s worth, since he is the source of whatever worth there is in his creatures. Christian thinking on the psychology of self-esteem needed to factor such a perspective into its theories and counseling. Needless to say, I hadn’t come up with this on my own. I had simply read Jonathan Edward’s classic essay, “The End for Which God Created the World,” which may the best concise discussion of God’s glory ever written (though it is not easy!)[i].

Sometime during the past decade I came across the massive 7-volume work of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1982-1989) on God’s glory (Balthasar is arguably one of the greatest Catholic theologians since Aquinas), called “The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics.” Though daunting in size and erudition, I have learned more about glory in this work. Balthasar there makes makes an important distinction (which he learned from Aquinas) that glory is composed of two dimensions: form and splendor. I would like to spend the rest of this blog explaining this distinction, and next week apply it to psychology and counseling.

Balthasar equates glory with beauty, and he wrote that the form of something is a certain arrangement of its elements, which altogether have a certain complexity, harmony, and proportionality, which constitutes its beauty (consider the form of a strong, healthy horse or Michelangelo’s David) (Edwards, 1989, defined beauty similarly in “The Nature of True Virtue”). The form of the triune God is the most beautiful of all forms, because God is infinitely the greatest being there is, particularly since God consists of the most awesome and amazing arrangement of characteristics and moral virtues that can be. The form of a creature can be no more than a miniscule replica (or image or representation or sign) of the beauty of its infinite Creator, and the ultimate standard of comparison for the replica must always be the original form upon which it is based.

However, an object’s splendor, according to Balthasar, is the depth dimension of its form and refers to the form’s inner radiance and luminescence, we might say, the form’s genuine value that lies, as it were, within it and that shines forth from it. It is what we might call the density of its full beauty. And again, the triune God possesses the greatest degree of splendor imaginable, because God has infinite depth and density of glory, and all creaturely splendor must be measured most truly by the degree of its depth resemblance to the beauty of God.

Form, we might say then, is the beauty evident on the surface of something, whereas splendor is the beauty that lies within. Therefore only the omniscient God fully knows the splendor of something. Splendor is always something of a mystery to humans; we can recognize it generally, but not fathom its depths. Also, while intelligence understands form, it takes wisdom to perceive splendor. Grasping something’s form seems to be mostly a mental or cognitive enterprise, while grasping something’s splendor is more a heart activity, which engages our emotions and entails an appraisal of its worth (in the case of God, love and worship!). But both form and splendor are involved and interrelated in an object’s full beauty.

To illustrate the difference between form and splendor, think of a statue of a living human being. It may be a statue that has great form, identical to the person it represents, but the internal glory or beauty of the human being far exceeds the statue. The human has obvious depth that the statue lacks: the former is alive and has far greater value! For another illustration, consider two siblings who are taking care of their dying mother, one, in order to guarantee a large inheritance, and the other, out of loving devotion. Their actions may have the same form, but their moral splendor is considerably different. Balthasar said that form and splendor are inseparable, and a thing’s splendor is dependent on its form.

I’m sure readers are already sensing the potential here for Christian psychology and counseling. Please respond with your insights this week, and next week I’ll offer a few of my own.[ii]

 

References

 

Balthasar, H. U. (1982-1989). The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. San Francisco: Ignatius.

Edwards, J. (1989). Ethical Writings (Vol. 8). (P. Ramsey, Ed.) New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Johnson, E. L. (2007). Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal. Downers Grove, IL:       InterVarsity.

Johnson, E. L. (1989). Self-Esteem in the Presence of God. Journal of Psychology and Theology , 226- 235.

Piper, J. (1998). God’s Passion for His Glory. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

 

[i] John Piper (1998) republished Edward’s essay with a great introduction and some helpful footnotes. It is also available in volume 8 of the Yale edition of Edward’s works (1989)

[ii] Most of this discussion is derived from Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal (Johnson, 2007, pp. 312-313)

The Beauty of God’s Glory in the Cross

Posted on December 13, 2009

[Eric Johnson is our guest blogger for December. Eric is the Director of the Society for Christian Psychology and professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is his second post].

I know it’s Christmas time, but I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the therapeutic benefits of the cross (for a chapter of a book I’m working on with Phil Monroe), so for this week’s blog I’d like to consider how the cross glorifies God and how appreciating that benefits our souls. (I might add that Christ’s work on the cross began with his incarnation, and Christmas, that is, the gift of Christ, ended in the crucifixion). The first thing to notice is that God gets glory by taking away in the cross that which robs him of glory, that is, the shame and guilt of people’s sin. Sin is essentially “anti‑glory,” like a black hole to glory, and its capacity to negate glory was destroyed in the cross. Consequently Christ’s death allows God’s glory to be manifested in ways it would not have otherwise, turning bad people (lives, minds, hearts, and relationships) into good vehicles of glory. We now really can act in ways that glorify God-knowing this makes our lives meaningful and brings healing to our souls.

But more importantly, the cross itself profoundly demonstrated God’s glory, more so than anything God ever did with reference to this creation. Christians know the story, but let’s consider it here as a revelation of glory. The infinitely pure triune God, who could justly condemn his image‑bearers (those made to be like him, who have revolted hatefully against him), himself overcame our resistance to his glory. In love God the Father sent his Son to die for us; in love God the Son obeyed and left heaven, laying aside his infinite perfections and glorified existence to become a human being. Christ became subject to all that human creatures experience (e.g. pain [physical and mental], sorrow, rejection, and misunderstanding), but also to much, much worse: his very own creatures, even his specially chosen people, rejected him and mocked him and put him to death. Those to whom he was giving life took his own life. All this in order to give sinners forgiveness and holiness and love, for pieces of dust (in comparison with him), for rebels who have lived secretly despising him. He pursued us to give us the infinite gift of himself!

Think for a moment about some of the most popular movies in recent decades (e.g. the Titanic, the Matrix, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Schindler’s List). All of them have some element of self‑sacrifice as a main feature of their plot. We humans are touched deeply when someone transcends his or her own self‑interest for the sake of another. It is a beautiful thing, and we were built to see such beauty and admire it. And nowhere in all the creation is there any example of self‑sacrifice that can even come close to matching the supreme, infinitely beautiful gift of Jesus, the Son of God (and his sacrifice is matched by the sacrifice of his loving Father’s surrender of him for our benefit). God’s beauty is supremely on display at the cross. 

It is good for our souls to admire the beauty of God revealed in the cross. To regularly step back and meditate on Christ’s tremendous deed of love is good for our souls. “One thing I have asked from the Lord…: to behold the beauty of the Lord.” (Ps. 27:4a,c)  It is good to think about good; it ennobles our character when we reflect on the nobility of others. But this is extraordinary nobility. Christ’s death is supremely beautiful; because of the combination of his infinite greatness and the corresponding immensity of his humility and self-giving, the beauty of the cross is truly inexhaustible. And our souls, when anointed by the Holy Spirit, benefit from such admiration. Many people spend weeks of vacation driving thousands of miles to see beautiful mountains and canyons and animals. We enjoy it; and it feels good! But the beauty of the God of the gospel is beyond compare. For our best recreation, for the re‑creation of our souls, we need regularly to take “meditation vacations” to the cross, in order to forget for a while about our busy life and our problems and our sins, and get lost-get caught up-in the glory of our beautiful friend who laid down his life for us (Jo. 15:13). In heaven we will admire and worship forever the lamb that was slain (Rev 5:6,12), and there we will be filled with overflowing joy and gratitude-so now there is no purer blessing to our souls down here than to soak up some of that bittersweet bread of life, which heals and strengthens us and enables us to be more like Christ with others.

The Manhattan Declaration

Posted on December 7, 2009

[Eric Johnson is our guest blogger for December. Eric is the Director of the Society for Christian Psychology and professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is his first post].

In this week’s blog I want to call attention to an outstanding document that was recently released called the Manhattan Declaration (http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/). It is a very well-crafted statement on issues of contemporary cultural importance to those committed to historic Christianity, and it is signed by an impressive cross-section of evangelicals, Catholics, and Orthodox leaders. As such, it provides inspiration to us in the Society for Christian Psychology to pursue some of our aims. Let’s briefly consider the three main themes of the declaration.
Life
The Declaration begins with a section affirming human life and actions that support the sanctity and care of all human life, including unborn or abused children, racial minorities, victims of war, and the disabled and elderly. Psychologists and counselors might add to this list those with mental illness, particularly those who are homeless. The authors also criticize governmental policies that advance a culture of death, by increasing the number of abortions or deaths by euthanasia or promoting the destruction of embryos. Christian psychologists can support these goals by working with disadvantaged people and in pro-life clinics and doing research on such topics as war trauma, child abuse, abortion effects, and minority experience.
Marriage
Marriage is defined as a union of one man and one woman, and it is argued that marriage is an objective reality that ought not to be redefined according to personal preferences. The statement insightfully addresses the role of the body in human life. Humans are not mere centers of subjectivity, it is suggested, but embodied beings, and bodies constitute an important part of human reality. Consequently, the one-flesh union of man and woman seals, completes, and actualizes the covenantal union of human marriage. There cannot therefore be “a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage.” The value and dignity of those disposed to same-sex attraction is made clear, and the Declaration rightly acknowledges the church’s sins of judgmentalism as well as complicity in the weakening of marriage through sexual immortality and increased rates of illegitimate divorce among Christians.
Religious Liberty
The authors of the Declaration decry the contemporary promotion of intolerance under the guise of tolerance, and express concern that religious freedom is being increasingly threatened as Christian organizations and individuals are being forced either to violate their own convictions regarding issues of life and marriage in their vocations or ministries or to vacate the public square.

The Declaration concludes with a statement of support for governmental authorities, but also an acknowledgment that Christians must be prepared to obey God rather than comply with injustice.

There are other issues of importance in our day that were not addressed by this Declaration. However, these are among the most momentous. The Society similarly brings together Christians of different faith traditions, but in order to promote distinctly Christian psychological theory, research, and practice. Psychology in our day is a cultural institution and set of practices, as well as a body of literature, shaped by the dominant worldviews of its participants. Mainstream psychology today is a leader in the cultural revolution that the Manhattan Declaration is seeking to address and resist (e.g., see the APA’s resolution this past summer critical of sexual orientation change efforts; http://www.apa.org/releases/therapeutic.html). As a result, the Declaration serves the Society well as a model of the kind of reasoned, principled, and gracious discourse we too need to engage in regarding relevant psychological matters in the public square. There is already tremendous cultural pressure on Christians in psychology and counseling in America to conform to the dominant values in the field. (Someone has quipped that Christians in the field have been heading into the closet, while others have been coming out.) We cannot be silent about these matters, or we may soon find Christian academics, therapists, and counselors being forbidden to express their convictions which are unpopular or risk exclusion from public university faculties, grant awards, public mental health facilities, and licensure. Those in psychology and counseling who are committed to historic Christianity have a voice, and they must use it wisely, but courageously, for they too should have the right to be participants in the field of psychology, regardless of their worldview beliefs and minority status. The Society is committed to such participation.

I added my name to the over 250,000 people who have signed the Manhattan Declaration.

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