The whole concept of "transformation" has fascinated me for a while now. To transform is to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of something. The field of personal development is focused on personal transformation and many Christians speak about transformation: of people, of society and of the planet.
In addition Christians believe that G-d transforms human lives when He is invited to co-habit "inside" someone.
I'm not so much interested in the fact of transformation as I am in the process and in the "how". How does somebody get transformed? Does it happen very quickly or much slower? Should we count on instant transformation of lives as something to be expected of God (and call it "faith") or is there some kind of "working with" G-d which happens - and if so, how does that "working with" G-d work? What sorts of things should we expect to happen, and how will we know once they have? Can we ask G-d to work specific things in us, or is the outcome completely determined by Him and Him only?
In particular, I'm interested in Christian approaches to specific issues in people who've requested transformation. Like, "I want to stop being an alcoholic," or "I want to stop my addiction to porn," or "I want to stop emotionally abusing my wife."
These are things which are specific enough to be measurable, which means we know when any sort of intervention has worked, which gives us a good way to assess the effectiveness of different approaches.
The Christian approach to these which I have experienced is twofold. The first is to attempt prayer, Bible-reading and an appeal to willpower (masquerading as "faith"). The second is to send the person for some sort of counseling (which is sometimes seen as a failure of the first option). Some Christians view any kind of psychology as non-Christian, and since lightness and the dark have no fellowship together, Christians therefore have no business going to psychologists (and "Christian psychologists" are oxymorons).
After all, if we believe that "only G-d transforms people" then why bother with any other approaches? It's like a guy I heard about some years back who said that if he's in a terrible car accident, everyone should gather around and pray for him to recover, rather than trying to get him to hospital. A marvelous demonstration of faith, right? The first approach puts faith in G-d (through prayer, the Church and the Bible) and the second approach puts faith in man (through human interventions like counseling and psychology).
The "how" of the first approach mystifies me. It seems to be saying, "Read your Bible, pray every day, and somehow G-d will transform you. You will somehow start having the mind of Christ." The "somehow"'s in there bother me because I'd like to understand those more than simply sticking them in a box of "We don't know" and leaving it at that. The "somehow" isn't very comforting when someone is looking for a specific transformative intervention (i.e. "Help me to stop smoking") and a Christian says, "Well, I know that G-d transforms people but He does it in His own time, and you just need to be close to Him and (barring an instant miracle) at some unspecified point in the future which may or may not occur, He might transform you."
If I asked someone about a specific counselor and they told me that about them, I'd look for someone else!
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You Can Change!
Hey Roger, can I recommend a book? "You can change" by Tim Chester (http://www.ivpbooks.com/9781844743032). It offers something of a third way on the two approaches you shared above (not a half-way point between the two).
Thanks Stephen - I'll check
Thanks Stephen - I'll check it out. This post is only the first of a series, I think - I'll be fleshing out some concepts and models and seeing where it goes :) I've been doing some studies in Neuro Linguistic Programming recently and will bring some of that in.
I had a quick look at the
I had a quick look at the book, Stephen - looks good, although it does look like a 1/2 way point between the two. The questions he asks are much closer to what I've been thinking too, particularly the question, "How are you going to change?"
He also talks about "strategies" which I like a lot (I'm sure I'll write more on that later).
Still seems to me that the emphasis is on "us" and what we want, and the decisions we make, with G-d supporting that, which leads me to think that G-d is more the passive spectator than involved directly.
"Transformation"
The word "Transformation" has been very much part of my thinking too lately. Especially for some of the theological papers I've been writing on in relation to Church, World and Gospel.
That sounds quite
That sounds quite interesting, Sivin - are you going to post those papers online? So far I've only treated transformation from an individual perspective, but I'll soon blog about it when talking about society and structures.
What worries me is the Law of Unintended Consequences (which is only much reduced once we take a systems thinking approach as a community) and also the picture Christians have of what a transformed society means.
That's actually quite hard. Last year some friends of mine visited Church Square in Pretoria to imagine what it might look like if the kingdom of God were to be fully present there. They came up with wonderful words like "justice" and "peace" and "intimacy"...but when I asked, "What does that look like on the ground in that place, specifically?" no-one could even begin to formulate an answer.
Phrases like "The kingdom of God is the realm of right relationships" and "The glory of the Lord will cover the earth like the waters cover the seas" and "We will all worship in spirit and in truth" sound wonderful - but what do they look like in a specific context?