A recent article in the Vancouver Sun (August 27, 2010) is causing debate about American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous “pyramid of needs.” Many of us have taken a psych course somewhere along the line that introduced us to Maslow’s pyramid of needs which has held sway since 1943. Maslow’s theory suggests that the search for “self-actualization” is the top of the pyramid. This is a person’s highest goal.
But recent research printed in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Sciences by UBC researcher Prof. Mark Schaller and colleagues suggests that “the pursuit of self-realization, and the self-absorption that can often go with it, are not nearly as important to humans as the need to find and keep a supportive partner and raise healthy children.” The “researchers are suggesting humans are much more likely to find well-being by giving to others — including kids, partners and other loved ones — than by narrowly focusing on their own happiness.”
The Vancouver Sun article goes on to point out that, even as the research is debated and questioned, these researchers have done a great service by challenging the idea that the way to human happiness lies in seeking self-actualization. After all, the search for self-actualization often becomes nothing more than an addiction to consumption, fleeting pleasure and narcissism. What might happen if a new generation of psych students were taught that the way to human happiness lies in loving a spouse, caring for children, and having empathy for others?
I just finished re-reading Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. What an amazing book! It is hard to descibe what an effect this book has on a person but let me leave you with three quotes.
The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from . . . . my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back. – p. 83, 84
“Are the gods not just?” “Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were?” – p. 308
When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the centre of your soul for years, which you have, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces? – p. 305
Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. Glasgow: William Collons Sons and Co. Ltd, 1985.
I had a dream last night that prompted me to think about the word “character.” More specifically, I have been thinking about “good character.” What does it mean to be a person of good character? In this dream I was asked for my opinion of a definition of character. The definition I was given was, “the ability to ask good questions.” I considered the definition and said, “yes, it is the ability to ask good questions but also the ability to make good choices.” Good character is about asking good questions and making good choices whether or not anyone will ever see our good questions and good choices. J. C. Watts said,
Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.
May each of us seek to be a person who lives in such a way that our secret choices might be shouted from the roof-tops without fear or fault.
Persuasive speech is very much in vogue. One person pronounces that they have the final answer on a subject and three others refute what has just been said and state that they have the truth on that subject. Politicians, philosophers, cosmologists, scientists, and theologians all tend to get caught up in the shouting.
As a leader in a community of faith, it can be tempting to jump into the fray and make bold pronouncements myself. After all, the church down the road has made some bold statements about gender issues; and the one beside it suggests that they have the final answer on community and caring for the poor; the creation scientist church and the evolutionary theist church may be arguing it out but neither one lacks any confidence in the truth of which they speak. Maybe I should come out with some bold statements and put them up on our website to separate truth from error. But then I realize that it is alright to say, “I don’t understand it all . . . but I am trying to.”
Last Sunday evening our church community studied a difficult passage in the Gospel of John (John 6: 35-71). This passage follows soon after Jesus has demonstrated his power by feeding 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish and by walking on water. In verses 35 to 71 Jesus says some very difficult things. In John 6:37 (NIV*), Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” These words and others like them have kept John Calvin, Jacobus Arminius, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and their followers busy for hundreds of years of debate. Not too surprisingly, our community of faith did not come up with a final explanation of these words either.
Jesus follows these words with other difficult words such as those found in John 6:53-58. After Jesus said such shocking words several of his followers left him and would no longer follow his teachings. Jesus asked his closest followers if they were going to leave as well. Their answer was “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69; NIV). These close disciples did not have all of the answers. They could not understand these difficult words any better than the others who heard them or we who hear them today. Yet, they knew enough about this Jesus to keep following him. They knew that he had “words of eternal life.”
John Stackhouse has said, “I think the Christian religion, the Christian Church and, especially, the Christian God help me to know things much better than I ever would on my own. But they don’t make me other than human or lift me out of my humanness. They don’t make me certain.”#
Living in faith without certainty is possible. In fact, it is necessary.
*NIV = New International Version of the Bible
#www.stackblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/im-certain-that-there-are-two-kinds-of-certainty/
Sometimes I am frustrated by all of the things I don’t understand. Why is there evil, pain and suffering in the world? How does God answer prayer and which ones will He answer with a “yes?” Why does God not make Himself more plain? These are some of my greatest mysteries. Dreamers and poets have always had more questions than answers. Perhaps I need to listen to these dreamers and poets.
Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand. –Neil Armstrong
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. –Albert Einstein
Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes – The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. –Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We wake, if ever at all, to mystery. –Annie Dillard
As I work on a graduate course at Regent College I have been reading the works of Teresa of Avila. She was a remarkable person and one who always analyzed her experiences to see if they could be from God or from her own mind. This quote is from her and speaks to using all of our faculties for God.
God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.* – Teresa of Avila
*Fourth Mansions, Ch. 3: Prayer of Quiet, as translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook (1911), revised and edited by Fr. Benedict Zimmerman
Sometimes we have a friend with whom we are comfortable. We can call them up and talk about nothing. We can sit with them and not have any words at all. I want to be the kind of friend that others would call at the end of the day just to talk about nothing. I want that kind of friendship with Jesus. Wouldn’t that be something.
Wouldn’t That Be Something
(Words and music by Wayne Watson)I had this dream and You were in it
There was this party and You were there
Simple evening with just a few close friends
People were pressing for Your attention
You were patient, everybody could see
But all the time You were lookin’ round the room for me
But hey, after all, it’s my dreamI wanna be the kind of friend that Jesus would call
Yeah, you know if He had a telephone
At the end of the day
Just to talk about nothin’, nothing’
Yeah, I wanna be the kind of friend He’d wanna be around
You know without a word, without a sound
Wouldn’t that be somethin’, somethin’, yeahIs that so hard to imagine
The Lord Jesus as a friend like that
Spending time in the pleasure of your company
True companion like no other
You never had a friend like this
If you’re havin’ a little trouble believing
Come on, put yourself in my dreamI wanna be the kind of friend that Jesus would call
Yeah, you know if He had a telephone
At the end of the day
Just to talk about nothin’, nothing’
Yeah, I wanna be the kind of friend He’d wanna be around
You know without a word, without a sound
Wouldn’t that be somethin’, somethin’, yeahWouldn’t that be somethin’, somethin’, yeah*
John 15:15 (NLT)
I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
*Copyright 1998 Material Music (Admin. by WORD MUSIC) / Word Music (A div. of WORD MUSIC) / ASCAP
Augustine (354 – 430 AD) had this to say regarding truth and our understanding of the Bible.
If it happens that the authority of Sacred Scripture is set in opposition to clear and certain reasoning, this must mean that the person who interprets Scripture does not understand it correctly. It is not the meaning of Scripture which is opposed to the truth but the meaning which he has wanted to give to it. That which is opposed to Scripture is not what is in Scripture but what he has placed there himself, believing that this is what Scripture meant. – Saint Augustine, Espitula 143, n. 7 PL33, col. 588.*
*Pojman, Louis P. and Rea, Michael. Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology. Belmont: Thomson Higher Education, 2008, p. 442.
As someone who holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and a Bachelor of Religious Education as well as several years of seminary training, I appreciate people who recognize the importance of both fields of study. I like this quote from Karol Jozef Wojtyla (also known as Pope John Paul II).
It is a duty for theologians to keep themselves regularly informed of scientific advances in order to examine if such be necessary, whether or not there are reasons for taking them into account in their reflection or for introducing changes in their teaching.*
– Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)
I still find myself reading widely in the areas of science and philosophy of religion. It keeps my life in balance and reminds me that “all truth is God’s truth.”
*Pojman, Louis P. and Rea, Michael. Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology. Belmont: Thomson Higher Education, 2008, p. 439, 440.
“Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.” – Plato