Different human disciplines, while serving humanity through specialization, unfortunately convey the idea that the human being can be divided into parts. Heart, Mind, and Spirit, while all indivisible parts of the same person, are not only examined separately but, at times, even find themselves at odds with each other. Where is there Common Ground? Psychology and Spirituality find common ground in the Liberation Movement. I was educated as a theologian, with degrees in philosophy, divinity, and ministry. I also have a degree in counseling and, for the past twenty years, have been practicing in the field of mental health. It is natural, then, that I seek to find common ground where psychology and spirituality can meet. Educated in the early sixties in a Catholic seminary, I recall that, early on, Freud was introduced to us students as an evil and sexually preoccupied character. At the same time, psychology was progressively freeing the human psyche from sin and guilt and reducing our highest aspirations to complex brain functioning. Religion and psychology were far from bedfellows. In a large part, we have left or are leaving all that behind us. Most balanced religions embrace the findings of psychology, and psychology easily admits the role of faith, spirituality and religion. Jung's theory of the collective unconscious broke through the individualistic preoccupation of psychology; enlightened scripture study made room for the acceptance of the theory of evolution, putting an end to the antagonism of religion towards science. Even though we now were friends, the scientist and the theologian in me still could not carry on a decent conversation. There was very little common ground. At the same time, I involved myself in the social justice movement and discovered and became impassioned by liberation theology. This is where the heart comes in. My earlier experiences in the Oakland flatlands, where I was ministering at the time, and my later exposure to poverty in Mexico were continuing to create a sense of moral outrage in me. I became aware that the inequities of society, causing suffering for so many, were not simply an inevitable social condition but were the result of oppression. Our involvement in El Salvador made it clearer to me that the United States was finding itself on the side of the oppressor. Moral outrage is not necessarily love; but when I visited my family in the Philippines, and saw the conditions they lived under, it did become personal and wholly entrapped my heart. "Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause – the cause of liberation. ...If I do not love the world – if I do not love life – if I do not love people – I cannot enter into dialogue." Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, <30th Anniversary Edition>, The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., New York, NY, 89&90) . "Love binds all the rest together and keeps them perfect." Paul of Tarsus The Liberation Movement is the place where, for me, psychology and spirituality find common ground. Dualism – The Enemy of Reverence We have fallen heir to a system of dualism. The spirituality of many – except the few who have wandered from the center – is permeated with dualism. Dualism establishes what has become a chasm between soul and body, the spiritual and the physical, that can only be bridged by grace. The Church in its earliest days turned away from the more integrated Hebrew world view to adopt the Greek notions of the world. Thus the stage was set early on for a rupture between religion and science. Other world views have also managed to sidestep this duality. Native philosophies see God and nature as one. Hence, reverence is a natural response to the world around them. A group of people entrapped in a world of dualism has a hard time with reverence. It is either a lost virtue or a forced response. Pornography has entered our homes of everyone who has the internet. A child can be more readily abused where natural reverence is missing. And the environment is an object of exploitation for the the greedy and wasteful. I am working on an upcoming book I will entitle "Finding Common Ground". If anyone wants to share experiences I can include in my book please e-mail me at krysallis_1@yahoo.com. Thank you. |