Going Back to Basics: A Return to the Cross

Rev. Dr. Michael J Nel D.Th.

October 2022

Foreword

The writing of this paper arose out of my concern for the Church which is facing numerous threats some which threaten its very future. As the anxious Church seeks to respond to these existential threats these responses can be more harmful than the threats itself. Some of these responses to be “relevant” and “authentic” cede the Church’s process of defining itself to society. Before the Church responds it needs to address a number of important questions. Who defines the Church? What does it mean to be a Christian? Who assigns the mission to the Church and what is that mission. Only when the Church is clear about itself, its definition, principles and values can the Church decide what is important for it to continue to be the Church in the world. It is the belief of the writer that these questions can only be answered by returning to the cross. These crises raise a further concern, namely what type of leadership is needed during this time of crisis?. It is the writer’s belief that given the intense anxiety in the Church and society that the Church needs leaders who are calm, thoughtful and clear about their principles i.e. differentiated leaders. To raise differentiated leaders means that theological education needs then to refocus on assisting students in their pursuit of greater differentiation. Bowen theory offers theological education and means of addressing the leadership issue.

 

Going back to basics

 

The Church in the Western world is facing an existential crisis. The abuse scandals that have rocked the Church have shaken the confidence of church members. Many have abandoned the church as a result. The Church has lost credibility in society. Congregations are facing a declining and aging membership. Many congregations have already closed or are on the brink of closing. The European and North American Churches are struggling with the rise of secularism and its many idolatries and have abandoned the Church to worship at these secular altars. The issue of credibility is intensified since there are many entrepreneurial people who have started their own independent churches as means to getting power and as a source of great wealth.

 

The rise of Christian Nationalism with its pursuit of power over people and governments and the Church has created its own mythology of a so called glorious Christian past. This is not a new movement. In more recent history it underpinned the racist apartheid policy in South Africa. But its rapid rise both in Europe and North America confronts democratic societies and the Church with a serious threat to its very existence This insidious movement threatens the understanding of who is a Christian.

 

Many have offered the Church band-aid solutions but at best these can only be temporary respite since none of these solutions have longevity. The fundamental problem for the Church is that it is stuck and is not sure how to get out. A person or organization that is stuck is highly anxious and is unable to ask new questions that may provide needed insights. Since it fails to ask new questions it cannot respond in new ways. It does not know how to address these problems that threaten its future existence and identity. Differentiated leaders becomes of crucial importance in such situations. The media turn to these fringe groups for opinions for their news reports. The question then is who speaks for the Christian Church? Church leaders are having difficulty clearly articulating and defining what constitutes the Church and above all who is a Christian. As the situation is becoming increasingly volatile some clergy who attempt to address these problems and aberrations often find themselves being threatened.

When a person or organization, including the Church, is emotionally stuck then it is important to return to basics. Facing both internal and external threats to its existence, the Church is becoming increasingly anxious about its future. The way forward for an anxious Church is to return back to basics, namely, to its roots, the cross. The cross is fundamental for the understanding of who is Christian. The cross is where Christians found salvation, freedom and where God gave them a particular identity. Only when it returns to the cross will it be able to differentiate itself from all those movements that threaten its existence. What it will then discover is that as with an individual, a differentiated person or church is rather attractive even if it is confusing to some and at times difficult to live with them. Differentiated people have clarity about their identity and a clear sense of responsibility for self in relationships.

The Church is not unique in facing what appear to be insurmountable difficulties, heightened anxiety, and becoming emotionally stuck. Other professions such as lawyers, writers and designers have also to deal with heightened anxiety which creates an emotional block. These other professions have discovered that the way to overcome the emotional block and move forward is to return to basics. This is how a writer, Bazzastorle, deals with being stuck.

 

So here are some thoughts about problem solving…

When you get the basics wrong, it causes problems.  So if you have a problem, there’s a good chance that you’ve got the basics wrong.

In almost any aspect of life, there are “experts” who have studied it and subsequently you can find oodles of information about it.

Getting lost amongst all that information is easy.  And focussing on finer points can become an obsession.

But I believe that never losing sight of the bigger picture and remembering the “kindergarten stuff” are really important. [1]

 

The Collins Dictionary defines going back to basics as: “stressing simplicity and adherence to fundamental principles.” [2]

 

The Centrality of the Cross

For the Church to to be able to move into a new future it needs to respond to all the issues with which it is confronted by going back to basics. Only if it goes back to basics can it move forward with new questions and new insights and with possibility of exploring new ways of being the Church in the world. If the Church fails to return to its source, the cross, it will continue to tread water. One can only tread water for so long before one is worn out and drowns. If the Church does not go back to its basics it will become increasingly irrelevant and its message of freedom of the Gospel will be co-opted and corrupted by cults and groups such as the Christian Nationalists.

The cross of Jesus the Christ is not only the source for the life of the Church; it is also its shape. For the Church the cross is celebrated not only as a historical event but more importantly as an historic event that transcends time. This means that the cross is not on the periphery of history but at its very core. Theologically it is understood to be at the apex of history shaping not just the past and the future of the Church but of the world as well. The cross reveals God’s care and concern for the world and not just for Christians.

The Gospels all lead up to the historical and historic event of the passion of Jesus the Christ. The writer Daniel Blake Hulsey writes:

The German New Testament scholar Martin Kähler once called the Gospel of Mark “a passion narrative with an extended introduction.”^[1] His description is apt because it is clear that Mark’s primary focus is on Jesus’s final week in Jerusalem leading up to his death and resurrection. The first ten chapters of Mark rush along at a breakneck speed and then the brakes are applied at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Mark 11. More details are worked into the narrative. Jesus’s teachings are more fully fleshed out. Seemingly minor details are included. For Mark, the events of the passion week are what make Jesus the Messiah. He needs the introductory material because it helps to establish Jesus’s authority (this will be discussed in a separate post). However, it is at the triumphal entry where the story begins to gain its ultimate meaning. There are a number of literary cues that Mark uses to maintain the reader’s momentum and propel them to this heart of the story. The literary features we will discuss here that builds this momentum are his use of grammar, language, and foreshadowing.[3]

 

This is not only the characteristic of Mark’s Gospel but of the other three Gospels as well.

If the passion of Jesus is of fundamental importance to the Gospels then it should be the place to which the Church returns time after time in order to reaffirm the basics of the faith. If it does not continually return to the cross for in depth understanding of the faith it will continue to drift into irrelevance. This means that the cross is essential to the identity of the church and its mission that arises out of that identity.

The cross is the defining place and therefore central to its proclamation. St. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 1:17 “¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.” [4] In this passage St. Paul refers the important paradoxical nature of the cross. One the one hand it is a display of weakness while on the other hand it embodies “power.”

What is disturbing to humankind is that the cross holds humans responsible not just for their behaviour but for the fact that they are sinners. The Church confesses that humankind sins in “thoughts, words and deeds.” In other words it reveals that to be a sinner is to confess that the very core of being human is corrupt. This claim triggered a violent response to Jesus and revealed the depth of that corruption: of human sinfulness. No one escapes the judgement of the cross. It is a historical event with historic cosmic implications. Its historical significance is that every human is present at the cross and crucifies “my Lord.”. This is reflected in the Afro-American hymn when it asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord.” The answer is implied, “Yes we were there when they crucified the Lord.”

At the cross we are confronted by human perversity. Humankind’s sinfulness knows no bounds. The cross reveals the abusiveness of humankind. Jesus is humiliated, scorned and mocked in every possible way. He is scornfully asked:

You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. (Matthew 27:40)

Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also taunted him. (Mark 15:32)

The abuse of Jesus was not limited to psychological and emotional abuse, but was physical as well. He was whipped and then nailed to the cross. His side was pierced. The abuse led to his death on the cross. Every aspect of human suffering is revealed at the cross in the passion of Jesus the Christ.

The most profound aspect of the crucifixion of Jesus is humankind’s attempt to finally remove God from history. At the cross humankind colludes with Satan in seeking not just to dethrone God but to once and for all to get rid of God by killing God. Pilate picks up this theme from the Jewish leaders when he has a plaque with the inscription: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” (Matthew 27:37) The mocking tone of the robber who calls out:

He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. (Matthew 27:42)

When Jesus dies on the cross humankind appears to be victorious in their pursuit not just of sidelining God from society but of getting rid of God. For humankind His death on the cross was not sufficient. They had to make sure that they are finally rid of God by taking him down from the cross and burying him in a borrowed tomb. To be sure that he remains there they roll a stone across the entrance of the tomb. We confess this regularly in the words of the Apostles’ Creed: “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;…” Census figures, particularly on the West coasts of USA and Canada reflect this in that a growing number of people no longer claim to be atheists or agnostics they identify as “none.”[5] God is still in the tomb with the rock rolled over its entrance to keep God there. The apparent victory of the world over God even affects the thinking of the followers of Jesus. They run and hide behind locked doors fearful for their own lives. For humankind the promise is a world without God.

Humankind admires strength and power. This is what was expected of Jesus. The people looked for a liberator who was powerful. They looked for a ruler who would overcome the forces of subjection and exact revenge for their suffering. What they sought and what they saw in Jesus were two contradictory images of power. As a result Jesus was a disappointment since this was not the image he projected to the world. The cross is the ultimate picture of a powerless God. The crucifixion reveals a God who comes in weakness. This contradiction was even anathema to many of those who followed Jesus and still is to many today.

How can one worship a weak God? Surely God must be all powerful and not a God who submits to humiliation, abuse and death. What is the point of believing and following a God who cannot wreak vengeance on one’s enemies? Such a God must turn the cross into a sword that can smite those who oppose God’s followers. There can be no place for weakness in God if God is to be God.

This is the paradox of Christianity: God strength is revealed in weakness of the cross. A weak God is an offense and paradoxically this offense is what makes Christianity not only unique but powerful.

When St. Paul complains to God about the “thorn in his flesh” God’s response to St. Paul is reflected in the cross. It is the cross which defines St. Paul’s Christianity.

⁸ Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, ⁹ but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power^[c] is made perfect in weakness.” So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰ Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

It is this contradiction within Christianity that God’s strength is revealed in weakness that makes it not only difficult to grasp but also difficult to preach.

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. ²² For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³ but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

 

Humankind worships at the altar of power. The problem is that humankind only understands that power means power over in relationship to others.[6] Virtually every aspect of human relationships is shaped to some degree by the pursuit of power over others. The very governmental and administration structures of human society are crafted to allow for some to assert power over others. This is reflected in the prevalence and importance of hierarchical structures. In all organizations there are some whose opinions and statements carry more weight than the rest of the membership. Humans have the ability to shape these hierarchical structures anywhere along a continuum from highly authoritarian to egalitarian. Hierarchical structures, however, are not inherently bad since some type of structure is essential to protect and maintain some order in societies.

Every organization or community has rules or laws. These laws may be enacted by those in power or may be passed down through families and societies in terms of traditions. Depending on where the community or organization is on a hierarchical continuum these laws have a wide range of purposes. In more egalitarian societies laws and rules assist in maintaining the common good and protecting members of society from harm. In the more authoritarian societies rules are meant to exert power over people’s lives. Their purpose is to demand obedience and restrain the subjects from threatening those in power. The more authoritarian the society the more rules are enacted to manage and control people’s lives. These rules can be overt or covert. The covert rules can be as powerful as any of the overt rules. There are negative consequences for those who disobey or ignore these rules. Those with power over others respond to breach of the laws with a range of punitive actions that can range from shaming, shunning, fines, imprisonment and even death.

Families have a hierarchical structure which embodies processes for asserting power over others. This phenomenon can be observed in families. The more anxious the family the more the rules seek power over other family members requiring from them obedience and conformity. The overt rules can be identified by all family members. However, families also have powerful covert rules that may never be discussed but are identified and obeyed from infancy. The breach of these covert rules can elicit a serious and strong response. One of the powerful covert rules is associated with expectation. All social organizations are managed by overt and covert rules. Congregations have constitutions and Bylaws but also rules that everyone obeys without much thought. A visitor to a congregation may be totally confused as when to stand or sit during a worship service yet every member automatically obeys.  

Anxious societies seek powerful leaders who will promise them security and a future. These powerful leaders who promote themselves mask the fact that they have limited power since absolute security, affirmation and hope comes only from God. These leaders whether in a democracy or autocracy fear being exposed to criticism and removal from the position of power over. The response of these anxious leaders is to try to secure their position by using increasing power over the people. They resort to using overt as well as covert means to crush dissent. Such leaders confuse loyalty with obedience and agreement.

The Church has not been immune to seeking to have power over people. Ever since Emperor Constantine, the Church has experienced a confusing relationship with power. It has exerted power over royalty by affirming the king’s power by crowing kings or promoting the concept of the divine right of kings.[7] After the fall of the Roman Empire the Roman Catholic Church filled the leadership vacuum in the West. During the historical period referred to as the Holy Roman Empire the Pope, as the head of the Roman Catholic, claimed absolute power of over kings, emperors and princes. The Pope asserted that he alone had the power to enthrone or dethrone kings and princes. Vestige of this belief that the Church has power over kings is retained in England where the Church claims the right, the power over, to crown the kings and queens. The Reformation challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s claim that it had power over the German people. Martin Luther was disgusted with what he saw in Rome and to discover that the German people were being taxed by the Church to pay for the construction of St. Peter’s. On his return to Germany he encouraged the princes to rebel against and Roman Catholic Church and refuse to pay taxes to Rome. The reformation rejection of the Church having power over people did not stop Calvin and his followers from seeking to set up a strict religious regime in Geneva.

The Church at time has unfortunately not been any different than other social institutions seeking power over people. When the Church seeks power over people then it needs people to be obedient to its demands and laws. This was identified by the Reformers who rejected the Roman Catholic Church understanding of faith as assensus. What the Church was demanding was assent to its authority and obedience to its demands. The reformers insisted that faith in the New Testament was trust a relational word. This definition of faith as trust was viewed as a threat by the church. The response of the church was that of all authoritarian leaders and organizations. The church responded to resistance to its demands that its power be accepted with punitive action. For members to refuse to give assent was to disobey. This disobedience was a threat to the power of the Church over the people and was viewed as the cause of its anxiety.

 

Those who refused to accept the power of the church had to be removed in order to calm the anxiety in the church. The process of removing members meant that that the church had to divide the community into those who accepted it power and those who refused to accept its power. This division meant that the church viewed people as being with the Church or against it. The problem for the church was that an anxious Church cannot deal with differences. In order to manage its anxiety it pursues sameness of thinking, believing and bahaviour. Differences are perceived as the cause of the anxiety. Those who are different have then to be removed since the “rebels” threatens its power. This is no different than the values , beliefs and processes of society. The church in Spain treated the Jews who were different by killing and expelling them from the country. This was also the experience of the Jews in England where they fled or were killed. In the last century in Germany in particular the Jews were identified as different and a threat and needed to be removed.

 

The Church is often confused between power and authority. Power is generally defined as the ability to get others to do what one wants. The failure of the Church to return to the cross has led to the belief that it has power over. At the cross the Church reaffirms that it has an alien authority given by God. At the cross the Church learns that it, like God, does not have power over. The cross reveals how God gives up God’s power over the cosmos and instead shows the world the way of love. This is the message of St. Paul that the “emptying of self” is not just the life of Jesus but the essence of the life of the Christian.

⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. ⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was^[a] in Christ Jesus,

 

⁶ who, though he existed in the form of God,
  did not regard equality with God
  as something to be grasped,
⁷ but emptied himself,
  taking the form of a slave,
  assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
⁸ he humbled himself
  and became obedient to the point of death—
  even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:4-8)

 

A return to basics for the Church is to come face to face again with the offense of the cross. Firstly, the offense of the cross is that God does not come to exert power over but comes in weakness to redeem humankind. Secondly the cross challenges all human attempts to make distinctions between people. In fact the cross condemns any attempt to make distinctions as St. Paul states:

For there is no distinction, ²³ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴ they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement^[f] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶ it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus. (Romans 3:21-25)

 

At the cross the Church is given authority to proclaim the Gospel but not to rule over people. To seek to rule over is to deny the cross. This distinction was already made by Jethro, a Midianite priest and father-in-law of Moses. He pointed out to Moses that Moses needed to relinquish trying to govern the people and to focus on what was essential, the people’s relationship to God.(Exodus 19:13-27) This lesson Moses had to learn from his father-in-law is one the Church has to continually affirm. It means that the Church needs to go back to basics, namely return to the cross. At the cross the church rediscovers its uniqueness and peculiarity. Returning to the cross is not a onetime event but a daily process. At the cross the Church learns anew each day that God comes in weakness not power and that salvation is by grace, a gift. Returning to the cross daily means affirming that the weakness of God is God’s expression of love and mercy to all people without distinctions.

The proclamation that “God loves you” needs to be understood as “God loves all sinners.” Going back to basics, returning to the cross of Jesus the Christ, the Church faces the questions of human sinfulness and God’s sacrificial response. The problem of human sinfulness includes the Church. At the cross sinful humankind hears a powerful word of forgiveness from God. Archbishop Tutu has written, “There is no freedom without forgiveness,” the forgiveness at the cross is experienced as an act of liberation from the law and condemnation. There is no escape for the Christian from the cross since all Christians are marked with the indelible cross. Being marked with the cross shapes the Christian’s life as a cruciform life.

Forgiveness of sin is more than excusing the acts of human nature and of human frailty. Sin is more than wrong acts of a person. Sin is an attitude to God as well as to all of God’s creation. Sin is the breaking or the first commandment by not fearing, loving and trusting God above everything else. Sin is seeking to live life without God. Sin is trying to remove God from history. Sin is not living out of the promises of God. Given the serious concern for the environment and climate change sin needs to be understood as the denial of God’s future for the cosmos. This aspect of sin as the denial of God’s future for the cosmos is expressed in the confessional prayer of the Chicago Folk Mass “Our Father, we have not fulfilled the hope in which you created us. …” Sin is the denial of God’s promised future for the cosmos. Sin is therefore not just some inappropriate action but is first and foremost against God and God’s promises for humankind. Forgiveness of sin is then a profound action by God which requires not an apology to God but the confession of the heart.

To stand before the cross of Jesus the Christ is to acknowledge that sinful humankind is under the judgement of God. Without an acknowledgement of God’s judgement on sin there is no need for the cross. All humankind would need is some psychological and educational panacea. The danger is that not only humankind, but also the church, would prefer to ignore God’s judgement especially from its proclamation.[8] The only cure for sinfulness, the only way to escape God’s judgement, is the cross. Only at the cross can humankind experience the freedom of God’s grace, love, mercy and forgiveness of sin.

To come to the cross means to take full responsibility for self. Taking full responsibility for self does not require apologies but confessions. To confess at the cross is to admit one’s emptiness, weakness and vulnerability. This goes against the grain. Humankind resists confessing its sinfulness and refuses to recognize that it cannot remove, overcome, hide or deny its sinfulness. To come to the cross of Christ is to come as beggars with nothing in our hands to ameliorate God’s judgement on our sin. To come to the cross is to acknowledge that humankind does not have any power over over others. To come to the cross is to acknowledge that only God can forgive sins and that true freedom only comes from God.

To come to the cross is come seeking the new life of redemption. The cross is where the great transfer takes place. At the cross Jesus takes upon himself our sinfulness. But this redemption is costly since it cost the life of the Son of God.

²¹ For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

 

The Gospel of John offers a different view of redemption, as an act of creation. He highlights the paradox of redemption when the writer informs that the Creator, the Word, sacrifices Himself and dies for the cosmos. This is an act grace, a gift from God to humankind.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

 

Redemption, according to the Gospel of John is “From the fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John1:16) Since sinners cannot redeem themselves and sin is a condition and not simply a matter of behaviour then according the Gospel of John for humankind to be redeemed there needs to be an act of creation. This is what Jesus says to Nicodemus :

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus^[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”^{[b] 4} Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.(John 3:1-5)

 

The cosmic dimension of redemption is seen in that in order for humankind to be redeemed it needs the Creator of the cosmos to act, to continue the acts of creation. This is the explicit proclamation of John that only the Creator can save humankind from sinfulness. This act of creation means to be “born anew” to be recreated by the Creator. This act of recreation is as powerful and meaningful as the creation of the world. Jesus reminds Nicodemus that to be forgiven sin is an act of creation arising out of God’s love, grace and mercy. At the cross the Church is reminded that it has no power since God is the initiator of redemption and not humankind or the Church.

The cross is both a historical and a historic event. It stands in the middle of history with ongoing implications. No matter from which angle one comes there is no escaping the cross. The cross then is central and essential to what it means to be a Christian. The cross has been at the heart of the Church’s proclamation from its very beginning. This centrality of the cross is affirmed when everyone who is baptized is marked with the sign of the cross. The cross is not something one visits once a year on Good Friday but where Christians live their whole lives.

We sing:

Jesus, keep me near the cross,

there’s a precious fountain, free to all,

a healing stream flows from Calvary’s mountain.

 

In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever

till my ransomed soul shall find rest beyond the river.(ELW 335)[9]

 

The cross is then not simply a historical event but an event that has profound historic importance. It is where the lives of sinners of every place and time are transformed, reshaped and recreated into the form of the cross. Jesus makes it abundantly clear when he declares that to be his follower is not a once in a lifetime event but the taking up of the cross daily: “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

 

On Becoming and Being a Christian

Becoming a Christian is God’s creative act. To become a Christian is to stand daily at the foot of the cross and to hear and experience daily God’s Word of forgiveness, healing and freedom. It is entirely God’s act working through the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther in his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed confesses this as follows:

 

I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith.

In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.[10]

 

If the cross is essential to being a Christian, then the Church dare not leave the cross and treat it simply as an historical event. It is the place of God’s redemption for humankind but also the place where Christians are given their new identity and together with new identity, new values, principles that inform the solid self of the Christian.

 

St Paul describes the transition of redemption as going from the old Adam to the new Adam. He writes:

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— ¹³ for sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam, who is a pattern of the one who was to come.

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification. ¹⁷ If, because of the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. ¹⁹ For just as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:12-21)

 

At the cross the old Adam dies and God creates out of the dust a new Adam. Through the death of Christ the new Adam receives an “abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness” (Romans 5;17) Sin is forgiven and the relationship with God is established in a radically new way not through power but weakness. There is no longer any judgement since Jesus has fulfilled the law for humankind. ¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) This means that the law no longer condemns because of human failure, sin.

Because of what Christ has done on the cross the Christian is assured For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14) This freedom from condemnation of the law is the experience of life, a life with future rooted in the promises of God.

Being free does not bestow on Christians or the Church the ability to have power over others. The weakness of God is to be reflected in the lives of Christians since it is the life lived at and out fo the cross. St. Paul describes the life of the cross as:

but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

The new identity of the Christian has a cruciform shape which means that everything in the Christian’s life reflects the cross.[11]

 

The Christian is clothed with Christ’s righteousness and is fully righteous.

 

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

 

The centrality and importance of the cross is seen in the sacraments. For St. Paul the cross is at the core of baptism. In the new birth of baptism the baptized die with Christ and are given the promise that they will rise with Christ.

³ Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For whoever has died is freed^[a] from sin. ⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:2-11)

This same message about baptism and the cross is repeated in

 

… when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.  (Colossians 2:12)

The Lord’s Supper takes the Christians back to the cross. It was the night before Jesus was betrayed that Jesus institutes the sacrament of the altar. In this meal Jesus shares himself, his body and blood. There is no Sacrament of the Altar without the cross. This meal is for “all” and Jesus graciously declares to all who eat and drink the forgiveness of sins.

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for^[f] you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)[12]

 

Neither the Church nor the pastor is the host at the altar but the crucified Jesus. It is He who extends the invitation to come to the table to eat and drink. It is Jesus who feeds those who respond to the invitation. Eating and drinking at the table of the Lord is to be at the cross and be fed with the food of life for the journey of faith. 

 

At the cross the Christian is declared to be fully righteous in Christ: an alien righteousness. Baptism is an act of recreation. It is where the old Adam is drowned. But as Luther pointed out the old Adam can swim. This is the paradox of the Christian life. While the Christian is fully righteous the Christian is still fully a sinner. The Christian St. Paul was aware of this dilemma of the Christian life as being fully righteous in Christ yet fully a sinner.

 

¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:15-20)

 

It is for the reason of the paradox of the Christian life that the Christian cannot and dare not distance from the cross of Christ. Baptism is not a once in a lifetime event but we need to be baptized daily since as sinners we need the grace and mercy of God daily. As sinners we need the food of redemption and dare not neglect going to the Lord’s Table. The sacrament is not for the righteous but for sinners. The old Adam of the Church in its pursuit of power over continually seeks to control who may come to the table. The Church wrapped both baptism and the Lord’s Supper with both overt and covert rules thereby making both sacraments exclusive to a certain group of people. Some in the Church have used the sacraments for power over people by limiting its availability. When the Church wraps the sacraments with rules and laws then it has denied the cross which is open to receiving all people.

 

It is at the cross that Christians receive their new identity, a new self. This new self seeks to live a Christ like life, a live that embodies new values and principles that inform all decisions. ¹¹ But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.(1 Timothy 11) It is at the cross that the Church finds its mission to bring justice to the world. But this mission does not make demands as if it has power even over governments. It is proclaimed with authority associated with the weakness of the cross and not out of a sense of power. Like its Lord the Church functions in the world out of weakness with only its proclamation to fulfill its mission.

 

 

Back to Basics: Returning to the cross the pathway to renewal.

 

It is easy for the Church to claim that its problems of lack of youth and middle class, its aging membership and closing of congregations is due to the changes in society. The problem is that the Church has failed to acknowledge its own part in its decline. This failure to accept responsibility for its own functioning has contributed in part to rise of Christian Nationalism. It is a fact that society has become more secular with attracted people to distance from the church. It is also fact that the Church has contributed to this trend. When a system is stuck and becomes increasingly anxious about its future it looks outside of itself for the cause. It seeks to blame others rather than taking responsibility for itself. This is a process that is familiar to humankind as it anxiously seeks to exonerate itself from responsibility. The Church is no different.

 

In a system every part that contributes to its own problems. If there is to be any changes it is important that each part of the system takes full responsibility for its own functioning. This same process applies to the Church. It needs to take responsibility for its functioning remembering that at the cross it finds forgiveness and new life. As being fully righteous, it acknowledges that it is also fully sinful and stands in need of forgiveness. The Church can longer hide from its sinfulness since every action of the Church is being broadcast over social media. This became evident with the disclosure of sexual abuse in the Church.

 

By focusing on the unjust actions of others and not those of itself, the Church has in many ways lost its authenticity in society. Its desire for power over has led to it being judged as hypocritical and its message as empty. This was the experience in South Africa when the dominant Church, the Dutch Reformed Church supported apartheid. Their action spawned a multitude of separatist religions and cults. Similarly in North America there has been the rise of cults and the emergence of Christian Nationalism from the shadows. Society is confused by the plethora of messages claiming to be Christian. How is society to identify just who is a Christian? These groups have co-opted the identity of the Church which is leaving the Church struggling to define itself. This failure of the Church to clearly define itself has led to many people seeing the Church as being irrelevant.

 

The Church has focused on issues of social justice. These issues of social justice are extremely important. The question is whether the Church’s response to injustice arises out of the law or out of the Gospel. The responses may appear to be the same but they arise from two very different places. At times it sounds no different than other agencies who are working for justice in society. The most profound proclaimers of the law are the environmental groups and the most influential preacher of the law is Greta Thumberg. To some it appears that the message of social justice of the Church is informed by the law and not the Gospel. This may be appropriate for social agencies but not for the Church where it finds its mission and authority at the cross. At the cross the Church identifies with one who is abuse, tortured and killed. The cross is where the Church is commissioned to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel of liberation. But is proclamation of justice arises not out of a belief that it has power over, but out of weakness. It is important to remember and not ignore the concluding part of the quote from Micah:

 

He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

 

For Micah the work for social justice is undertaken as an act of loving kindness. It is the pursuit of justice by walking “humbly with your God.” This is the way of the cross. For the Christian the cross is the source of understanding for social justice. Jesus experiences many forms of injustice even to being killed. His response reveals that God works through weakness and not power. This is to be the way of the people of the cross. Social injustices are a sin and sinners, even the powerful, are invited through the proclamation of the Gospel by the church to the cross of Jesus the Christ. The law focuses on changing behaviour but God is not interested in simply changing behaviour but in changing the heart. As the Psalmist prays: “Create in me a clean heart O God.”(Psalm 51:10) At the cross the powerful, the abusers, the perpetrators of injustice are invited to take responsibility for themselves and confess their sin to God. This is not a process rooted in power over others, but in the weakness of the cross. Since the Church is also sinful, it too needs to come to the cross and confess its need for a clean heart.

In Canada the Church has been confronted by the abuse it perpetrated in the residential schools. These schools for First Nation people were funded by the Federal Government of Canada and were operated by a number of denominations. There have been a significant number of lawsuits which has resulted in at least one Anglican Diocese essentially going bankrupt and certain parts of the Roman Catholic Church having to sell churches and other properties to pay compensation to people who were abused. Canadians were shocked at the discovery of 215 graves of children who were buried on the school property. The Truth and Reconciliation commission in Canada funded by the First nations and chaired by members of their community revealed not just the abuse but the ongoing suffering of people who were in these schools. Leaders in the First Nations community demanded that the Pope come to Canada and face their people. The Pope did travel to Canada this year and apologized for the abuse suffered by First Nation children in the Residential Schools. This apology did not satisfy everyone. It is a lot easier to apologize for the abuse than to confess that the Church and not just some of its members sinned. The Church needs to confess that it became the agents of the Government and implemented their policy of stripping the First Nation people of their language and culture and that this unjust process led to the separation of family members. The Church has not confessed that it exercised abusive power over the First Nation people. The Church has not confessed that it ignored the cross and assumed that it had power expressed as power over. This was the denial of the cross. Furthermore, the Church failed to appreciate that at the cross there is no distinction between people no matter what their ethnicity or culture. This is sin and sin does not need an apology but the examination of self and a confession to God. The confession of sin is the seeking of a “clean heart.” Tragically the Pope failed to confess since God desires our confession and not our apologies. The failure of the Church to confess its sin has reinforced people’s perception of the Church as part of abusive power structure in society and not to be trusted. If the Church is to regain some authenticity then it has to return to the cross to rediscover who God is and who God has called the Church to be.

 

Christian Nationalism confronts the Church in North America with a existential threat to its identity and its very existence. Christian Nationalism is promoting itself in society as reflecting the essence of what it means to be Christian and American.

 

Listening to American Christian Nationalist being interviewed by the news media reminds me of my experience growing up in South Africa. The National Party that came into power in 1948 and institutionalized apartheid as government policy. The National Party had deep roots in the Dutch Reformed Church and had that churches full support by convention resolution. Christian Nationalists in South Africa claimed to be God’s elected people and which was theologically underpinned and expressed in terms of being the covenant people of God.

 

When Christianity is tightly bound together with a political movement then the loser will always be the Church. Nationalism promotes its own mythology to support its claims that it is part of a suppressed minority and the only solution is to become the government. In the USA this nationalism has supported its position by claiming that the USA was from its beginning a Christian nation in spite of there being no evidence for this claim. They see their task as reestablishing this fictitious Christian nation.

The movement claims to be Christian but it is not. There is no place in their theology and ideology for the cross. Their pursuit of power over the whole society and their followers unashamedly attend meetings and give interviews to the media armed to the teeth. There is no cross in their theology which is a betrayal of the Gospel. They believe i n power over and reject the idea of a weak God who sends out Christians in weakness of the cross. A weak God has no place in their thinking.

 

Their betrayal of the cross is reflected in how Christian Nationalism fundamentally divisive. Where the cross is inclusive of all of humankind, they thrive on promoting divisions. In South Africa the National Party was highly effective in arousing anxiety in the white population. They used the cold war and the threat of communism with great effect and success. The promotion of anxiety was used as a weapon. They sought to force the white population to accept their division of the world into being western and Christian or communism. To be opposed to apartheid was therefore to be accused of being a communist. Christian Nationalism no matter where it is found divides society according to who they believed were Christians and the “others.” There is no place in Christian Nationalism for people who disagree with them or who are unlike them, such as non-Christians. They, and not God, decide who is a Christian. Their division of society is complex since they only accept those who accept their ideology as being Christian. The problem is that once the process of dividing society into groups starts there is not end. Who is to be excluded? It is no surprise that people of other races, ethnic groups and people of colour are excluded in their movement. At its core Christian Nationalism is racists since they only whites are accepted as being Christian. As in South Africa whites are understood to be God’s chosen people who are to save white society and which then provides a rationalization for their suppression and discrimination against others.

 

The appeal of Christian Nationalism increases as society become increasingly more anxious. Western societies are experiencing major changes which are triggering the intensification of anxiety. These changes are perceived a threatening people’s traditional values and beliefs as well as the safety and security of their members. Christian Nationalism offers very anxious people not the promises of God but the promise of a return to a mythological past. This past they promise to reestablish has never existed. The appeal of Christian Nationalism cuts across all segments of society and relates more to the level of differentiation of the followers than their intelligence or educational level. [13]

 

Dr. Murray Bowen and Dr. Michael Kerr have given a description of the characteristics at the different levels on the scale of differentiation. This provides some insight into how an organization  such as the Christian Nationalist function. Bowen describes those at the lower end of the Scale of Differentiation as:

 

 

 

 Those at the lower end of the scale:

 

-Live in a “feeling “ world, if they are not so miserable that they have lost the
 capacity to “feel.”

-They are dependent on the feelings of those around them.

-So much of life energy goes into maintaining the relationship system about them
  into “loving” and “being loved” or reaction against the failure to get love, or
  into getting more comfortable – that there is not life energy for anything else.

-They cannot differentiate between a “feeling” system and an “intellectual”
 system.

-Their use of “I” is confined to the narcissistic “I want – I am hurt – I want my
 rights’.”

-They grew up as dependent appendages of their parental ego masses and in
 their life course they attempt to find other dependent attachments from which
 they can borrow enough strength to function.

-They are easily stressed into emotional disequilibrium. (FTCP 162)

-The lower a person on the scale the more he (sic) holds onto religious dogma,
 cultural values, superstition, and outmoded beliefs and the less able to discard
 rigidly held ideas.

-The lower the person is on the scale the more he (sic) makes a “federal case,”
 rejection, lack of love, and injustice, and the more he (sic) demands recompense
 for his (sic) hurts.

-The lower the level the more he (sic) holds the other responsible for his self and
 happiness. (FTCP 165)

 

Groups such as Christian Nationalist exploit the fact that those at the lower end are more prone to be influenced by emotions and feeling.  (See the attached documents that record what Bowen and Kerr have written about the characteristics of the levels of the scale of differentiation.)

 

Conclusion

 

The concept of Differentiation of Self in Bowen theory provides insight not only into those who join groups such as Christian Nationalists but also into possible direction for the Church. Differentiation means defining oneself within relations to other. Michael Kerr defined differentiation as:

 

Being self focused without being selfish.

Being other focused without the loss of self.

 

This means that the definition of self is not over against others, especially with those with whom one disagrees, or an attempt to change their attitudes, principles and behaviour. It means being clear about oneself, taking responsibility for one’s thinking, feeling and behaviour while staying connected. This means that the Church rejects any attempt at exerting power over but rather defines itself to the other while staying connected. The influence of the Church is through proclaiming with God’s authority God’s promise of justice. The attempt to change others by exerting power of them is usually strenuously resisted. Christians know that change, or salvation, does not come through the law but by invitation to all to come to the cross. This is the way of “weakness” that is essential to the cruciform life.

 

Differentiation is a relational concept and is an important concept in relation to the question of leadership. The church needs leaders who are able to clearly articulate and live by their principles. This means taking full responsibility for oneself in relationships. It means constantly seeking clarity about one’s principles and having those principles inform one’s decisions. It means managing one’s own emotionality and anxiety and being as factual as possible. With a more differentiated leadership the church just may become more attractive again. It is interesting that a person who is working on their level of differentiation may disturb the balance in a system but on the other hand is attractive to many.

 

If the Church is going to have leaders that can articulate their beliefs and able to manage themselves in tense situations it will have to change theological education. This will mean that the Church and its leaders go back to basics by returning to the cross. Theological education will also have to focus on the self of its leaders. This will mean that practical theological education will assist theological students to gain greater clarity about their own functioning and self management. Bowen theory will be an important resource to achieve this goal.

 

There is no other way for the Church to move forward than to return back to the cross of Jesus the Christ. It is at the cross where God graciously forgives sin and where God give a radically new life with new principles and values an act of creation. This new life is radically different to the old life. It does not seek power over anyone but reaches out with grace and mercy to all. The Church is sent out into the world to proclaim as invitation the Gospel to all not with power but with authority, God’s authority. The Church will share God’s vision for the future of the world. A vision for the world that is inclusive of all people no matter their race, ethnicity or colour. It is important that living this new life, the Church, daily returns to the cross It is at the cross the Church receives the forgiveness of sins, and hears God’s word of grace, love and mercy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Billing, Einar. (1947). Our Calling. Philadelphia, Fortress Press,

 

Bowen, Murray. (1985). Family therapy in clinical practice. (Original work published 1978).

Kerr, Michael E. and Bowen, Murray. (1988). Family evaluation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Prenter, Regin. (1971). Luther’s Theology of the Cross. Philadelphia, Fortress Press

 

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first appendix contains excerpts from Family Therapy in Clinical Practice by Dr. Murray Bowen. I have extracted comments he made about the characteristics of the various levels of differentiation. Appendix two lists the characteristic of the various levels of differentiation from Family Evaluation by Dr. Michael Kerr and Dr. Murray Bowen. These characteristics are meant to be descriptive and not diagnostic.

 

 

Appendix 1

 

SCALE OF DIFFERENTIATION

BOWEN THEORY

Family Therapy in Clinical Practice - Murray Bowen

 

 

````````````````````````````````````````````                                                           ``0 - 25

Page         

                   

p. 162        Live in a "feeling" world", if they are not so miserable that they have lost The capacity to "feel"

                    Dependent on the feelings of those around them

   So much of life energy goes into maintaining the relationship system about them - into "loving" or "being loved or
   reaction against the failure to get love, or into getting more comfortable - that there is not life energy for anything
  else.

                    They cannot differentiate between a "feeling" system and an "intellectual" system

                    Their use of "I" is confined to the narcissistic, "I want - I am hurt - I want my rights"

   They grew up as  dependent appendages of their parental ego masses and in their life course they attempt to find
   other dependent attachments from which they can borrow enough strength to function.

                    Some are able to maintain a sufficient system of dependent attachments to function through life without  symptoms

                    All in this group have tenuous adjustments

                    They are easily stressed into emotional disequilibrium

                    Dysfunction can be long or permanent

                    "No-self" position and may be sufficiently adept at pleasing others, a boss

                    At the extreme lower end are those who cannot exist outside the protective walls of an institution

                    Includes the "dead enders" of society

                    Many of the lower socioeconomic group

                    May not be able to attain a higher level of "basic" differentiation.

                    Many attain reasonable alleviation of symptoms but life energy goes into getting comfortable

p. 165       The lower a person on the scale the more: he holds onto religious dogma, cultural values, superstition, and

                  outmoded beliefs and the less able to discard the rigidly held ideas.

p. 165       The lower the person is on the scale the more he makes a "federal case" or rejection, lack of love, and injustice, and
   the more he demands recompense for his hurts.

                    The lower the level the more he holds the other responsible for his self and happiness

                    The lower the level the more intense the ego fusions, and the more extreme the mechanisms such as emotional
                    distance, isolation, conflict, violence, and physical illness to control the emotion of "too much closeness."

                    The more intense the ego fusions, the higher the incidence of being in touch with the intrapsychic of the other, and
                  the greater the chance that he can intuitively know what the other thinks and feels.

                    In general, the lower the person on the scale, the more the impairment in meaningful communication.

p. 201        Low scale people - live in a feeling world in which they cannot distinguish feeling from fact

   Low scale people - so much energy goes into seeking love or approval or in attacking the other for not providing it
  that there is no energy for developing a self or for goal-directed activity.

                    Low scale people - lives are totally relationship-oriented

                    Low scale person - whose life is in reasonable asymptomatic adjustment is one who is able to keep the feeling
                  system
                    in equilibrium by giving and receiving love and by the sharing of self with others.

   Low scale people do so much borrowing and trading of self and show such wide fluctuations in their functioning
 levels of self that it is difficult to estimate their basic levels of self except over long periods of time.

                    Low scale people as a group have a high incidence of human problems

                    Low scale people - relationships are tenuous

                    Low scale people - a new problem can arise in an unsuspected area even while they are trying to deal with the
                    previous problem.

   Low scale people - while the relationship equilibrium fails, the family goes into functional collapse, with illness or
   other problems.  They can be too numb to feel, and there is no longer any energy to seek love and approval.

                    At the lowest point on the scale are those too impaired to live outside an institution.

p. 223        Therapy with low-scale people - Some families are so low on the differentiation scale that a higher level of
                    differentiation is beyond expectation.

                     Some families are so fragmented that there are not enough motivated members to form a single viable triangle

   In these situations the group therapy methods directed at symptom relief and support have much more to offer that 
  does any other king of psychotherapy.

                    A major problem in these families is the lack of motivation for any kind of psychotherapy.

p. 362       At the low extreme are those whose emotions and intellect as so fused that their lives are dominated by the
  automatic emotional system.

                     They are people who are less flexible, less adaptable and more emotionally dependent on those about them.

                    They are easily stressed into dysfunction and difficult for them to recover from dysfunction.

p. 363       At the fusion end of the spectrum the intellect is so flooded by emotionality that the total life course is determined
  by the emotional process and by what "feels right" rather than by beliefs or opinions

                    The intellect exists as an appendage of the feeling system.

                    The more life is governed by the emotional system, the more it follows the course of all instinctual behavior in spite
                  of the intellectualized explanations to the contrary.

                    A poorly differentiated person is trapped within a feeling world.

p. 364        Lifelong effort to gain comfort of emotional closeness can increase the fusion and increase his alienation from
                  others.

p. 366        0 - 25 - Emotional fusion is so intense that the variables extend beyond the undifferentiated family ego mass into
                        the undifferentiated societal ego mass.

p. 367          - Live in a feeling dominated world in which it is impossible to distinguish feeling from fact.

                       - They are totally relationship oriented.

                       - Much energy goes into seeking love and approval and keeping the relationship in some kind of harmony.

                       - No energy for life-directed goals.

      - Failing to receive approval they can spend their lives in withdrawal or fighting the relationship system from
       which they fail to win approval.

      - Intellectual functioning is so submerged that they cannot say, "I think that…" or "I believe…" instead they
        say "I feel that…" when it would be more accurate to express an opinion or belief.

     - They grow up as dependent appendages of their parents following which they seek other equally dependent
       relationships in which they can borrow enough strength to function.

                        This group is made up of people preoccupied with keeping their dependent relationships in harmony, people who
                      have failed and who go from one symptomatic crisis to another, people who have given up in The futile effort to
                     adapt.

                       At the lowest level are those who cannot live outside the protective walls of an institution.

                       This group inherits a major portion of the world's serious health, financial, and social problems.

                       Life adjustments are tenuous at best, and when they fall into dysfunction, the illness or "bad luck" can be chronic
                    or permanent.

                      Satisfied if therapy brings a modicum of comfort.

p. 442    At the lower end on - has a well functioning intellect but intellect is intimately fused with his emotional
                system, and a relatively small part of his intellect is operationally differentiated from his emotional
               system.

               At the lower level does not commonly have a clearly formed notion of fact, or differences between truth
                and fact, or fact and feeling, or theory and philosophy, or rights and responsibility, or other critical
                differentiations between intellectual and emotional functioning

                  Personal and social philosophies are based on the truth of subjectivity and life decisions are based more on feelings
                 and maintaining The subjective harmony.

                    A high percentage of the population, probably the majority, are in various subgroups of this broad
                category.

                    At the lower end are those whose intellect is so submerged in the emotional system that intellect operates more in
                 the  service of the emotions than separately.

                    They come nearer "experiencing" the world through the emotional side of their fused intellectual-emotional system
                 than "knowing" through their intellect.

                    They learn best by "experiencing" new situations.

                    They are probably more accurate when they say, "I feel that.." about an intellectual opinion or conviction than if
                  they used "I believe that.."

                    They live in subjective worlds in which lives are vulnerable to symptoms when anxiety is high.

                    A high percentage of the population, probably over one-third, is in sub-groups of this category.

p. 473        People in the lower half of the scale live in a "feeling" controlled world in which feelings and subjectivity are
                 dominant of the objective reasoning process most of the time.

p. 474        They do not distinguish feeling from fact and major life decisions are based on what "feels" right.

                    Primary life goals are oriented around love, happiness, comfort, and security; these goals come closest to fulfillment
                 when relationships with others are in equilibrium.

                 So much life energy goes into seeking love and approval or attacking the other for not providing it, that there is little
                 energy left for self-determined, goal-directed activity.

                 They do not distinguish between "truth" and "fact" and the inner feeling state is the most accurate possible  
                 expression of truth.

                    A sincere person is regarded as one who freely communicates the feeling process.

                    An important life principle is "giving and receiving" love, attention, and approval.

                    Life can stay in symptom-free adjustment as long as the relationship system is in comfortable equilibrium.

                    Discomfort and anxiety occur with events that disrupt or threaten the relationship equilibrium.

                    Chronic disruption of the relationship system results in dysfunction and a high incidence of human problems,
                  including physical and emotional illness and social dysfunction.

p. 475        Low-scale people whose life is a pawn of the ebb and flow of the emotional process.

                    May avoid relationships lest they slip automatically into an uncomfortable fusion, or have no choice but continued
                  pursuit of a close relationship for gratification of emotional "needs."

                    Evaluation of self is either far above or far below reality.

                   

25 - 50

 

p. 162  - At level of 30 person may have characteristics of "lower scale" people

               A level between 40 and 50 have more characteristics of a higher scale.

               From 50 down it is increasingly a feeling world except for those at The extreme lower end who can be too miserable to
               feel

``````       Feelings can soar to heights with praise or approval or be dashed to nothingness by disapproval

               Success in business or professional pursuits is determined more by approval from superiors and from the relationship
               system than the inherent value of their work.

              People in this group do have some awareness of opinions and beliefs form the intellectual system

             However the budding "self" is usually so fused with feelings that it is expressed in dogmatic authoritativeness, in the
             compliance of a disciple, or in the opposition of a rebel

             A conviction can be so fused with feeling that it becomes a "cause"

             In the lower part of this group  are some fairly typical "no-selfs."

            The "no-selfs" are transient personalities lacking beliefs and convictions of their own, adapt quickly to the prevailing
            ideology

            They usually go along with a system that best complements their emotional system.

           They may use cultural values, religion, philosophy, the law, rule books, science, the physicians, or other sources of
           authority

           Instead of using the "I believe" of the more differentiated person, they may say "Science has shown…"

           People at the lower end of the scale, under stress, will develop transient psychotic episodes, delinquency problems, and
           other symptoms of that intensity.

           Most in this range will lose motivation when the emotional equilibrium is restored and symptoms disappear.

           The probability for differentiation is much higher in the 35 to 50 range

        - Both can function relatively well as long as they keep relationships distant and casual

        - Both are vulnerable to the closeness of an intense relationship

        - Both long for closeness but both are "allergic" to it.

        - The marriage for each duplicates essential characteristics of former ego masses

        - They fuse together into a "new family ego mass" with obliteration of boundaries and incorporation of the two
          "pseudo-selfs" into a "common self"

        - Each uses mechanisms, previously used in their families of origin, in dealing with the other.

        - The one who ran away from his own family will tend to run away in the marriage.

        - The most common mechanism is the use of sufficient emotional distance for each to function with a reasonable
           level of "pseudo-self."

        - The future course of this new family ego mass will depend on a spectrum of mechanisms that operate within
           the family ego mass and others that operate outside in their relationships within the extended family systems.

p.201  25 - 50  - also live in a feeling-dominated world but the fusion of selfs is less intense

         - An increasing capacity to differentiated a self

        - Major decisions are based on what feels right rather than on principle

        - Much of life energy into seeking love and approval

        - Little life energy for goal-directed activity

p.201  35 - 40  - Present some of the best examples of the feeling-oriented life.

       - They are removed from the impairment and life paralysis that characterize the lower-scale people, and the
          feeling orientation is more clearly seen.

       - They are apt students of facial expressions, gestures, tones of voice, and actions that may mean approval or
          disapproval.

        - Success in school or at work is determined more by approval from important others than by the basic value of
          the work.

       - Their spirits can soar with expressions of love and approval or be dashed by the lack of it.

       - These are people with low levels of solid self but reasonable levels of pseudo-self which is obtained from and is
         negotiable in the relationship system.

p.201 40 - 50 - Have some awareness of intellectual principles, but the system is so fused with feeling that the budding self is
          expressed in dogmatic authoritativeness, in the compliance of a disciple, or in the opposition of a rebel

       - Some of this group use intellect in the service of the relationship system.

       - As children their academic prowess won them approval.

       - They lack their own convictions and beliefs, but they are quick to know the thoughts and feelings of others, and
          their knowledge provides them with a facile pseudo-self.

  -       If the relationship system approves they can be brilliant students and disciples.

        - If their expectations are not met, they assemble a pseudo-self in point by point opposition to the established
         order.

p. 367  25 - 50  - Some beginnings of differentiation between emotional and intellectual systems with most of self expressed as
  pseudo-self.

       - Life still guided by emotional system but life styles are more flexible.

      - When anxiety is low, functioning can resemble good levels of differentiation.  When anxiety is high,
         functioning can resemble that of low levels of differentiation.

      - Lives are relationally oriented and major energy goes into being loved and loving, seeking approval.

      - Feelings are more openly expressed than in lower-level people.

      - Life energy is directed more to what others think and to winning friends approval than to goal-directed activity.

p. 368 - Self-esteem is dependent on others and can soar to heights with a compliment or be crushed by criticism.

      - Success in school is more oriented to learning the system and to pleasing the teacher than to the primary
        goal of learning.

      -  Success in business or in social life depends more on pleasing the boss or the social leader, and more
         on who one knows and gaining relationship status than in the inherent value of their work.

      - Their pseudo-selves are assembled from an assortment of discrepant principles, beliefs, philosophies,
         and ideologies that are used in pretend postures to blend with different relationship systems.

 -      Lacking solid self, they habitually use, "I feel that…" when expressing their pseudo-self philosophies;

      - They avoid "I think," or "I believe" positions by using another person or body of knowledge as their
        authority when making statements.

  -     Lacking a solid self-conviction about the world's knowledge, they use pseudo-self statements, such as
        "The rule says.." or "Science has proved…" taking information out of context to make their points.

      - They may have enough free-functioning intellect to have mastered academic knowledge about
        impersonal things which they use in relationship systems.

 -      The pseudo-self may be a conforming disciple who pretends to be in harmony with a particular
        philosophy or set of principles

     - When frustrated they can assume the opposite posture as a rebel or revolutionary person.

     - The rebel is lacking a self of his own.  His pseudo-self posture  is merely the exact opposite of the
        majority point of view.

  -    The revolutionary person is against the prevailing system and has nothing to offer in its place.

     - The sameness of polarized opposites in emotional situations has led me to define revolution as a
       convulsion that prevents change.

     - Revolution is relationship energy that goes back and forth on the same points the issue on each side
       being determined by the position of the other, neither is capable of a position not determined by the
       other.

 -    Moderate range of differentiation have the most intense versions of overt feeling.

 - The relationship orientation makes them sensitive to others and to the direct action expression of
    feelings.

 - They are in a lifelong quest for the ideal relationship with emotional closeness to others and direct,
    open communication of feelings.

 - In their overt emotional dependence on others, they are sensitized to reading the moods,
   expressions, and postures of the other and to responding openly with direct expression of feeling or
   impulsive action.

 - When closeness is achieved it increases the emotional fusion to which they react with distance and
   alienation which can then stimulate another closeness cycle.

 - Failing to achieve closeness they may go to withdrawal and depression or to pursuit of closeness in
   another relationship.

  - Symptoms and human problems erupt when the relationship system is unbalanced.

  - They develop a high percentage of human problems in including the full range of physical illness,
    emotional illness, and social dysfunctions.

  - Emotional illness includes neurotic-level internalized problems, depression and behaviour and
    character disorder type problems

  - They are increasingly involved in use of alcohol and drugs to relieve anxiety of the moment.

  - Their social disorders include all levels if impulsive and irresponsible behavior.

p.369  - The emotional system tells the intellectual system what to think and say and which decisions to
     make in critical situations.

  - The intellect is a pretend intellect.

  - The emotional system permits the intellect to go off into a corner and think about distant things as
    long as it does not interfere in joint decisions that affect the total life course.

 

50 - 75

 

p. 162 -  They can have fairly well-defined opinions and beliefs.

       They often remain silent and avoid stating opinions that might put them our of step with The crowd and disturb the
       emotional equilibrium

       They have more energy for goal-directed activity and less energy tied up in keeping the emotional system in
       equilibrium

        Under stress they can develop fairly severe emotional or physical symptoms, but the symptoms are more episodic
        and recovery is much faster

p. 202  50 - 60  - Are aware of the difference between feelings and intellectual principle but they are still responsive to the
        relationship system that they hesitate to say what they believe, lest it offend  the listener.

p. 369 - People with enough basic differentiation between the emotional and intellectual systems for the two systems to
        function alongside each other as a cooperative team.

     - The intellectual system is sufficiently developed so that it can hold its own and function autonomously without being
       dominated by the emotional system when anxiety increases.

    - Above 50 - The intellectual system is sufficiently developed to begin making a few decisions of its own.

 -    The intellectual system has learned that the emotional system runs an effective life course in most areas of
      functioning, but  in critical situations the automatic emotional decisions create long-term complications for the total
      organism.

   - The intellect learns that it requires a bit of discipline to overrule the emotional system, but the long-term gain is
      worth the effort. - People over 50 have developed a reasonable level of solid self on most essential issues in life.

 -   Differentiation between the emotions and intellect exists in subtle gradations.

  -  People at the lower part of this group are those who know there is a better way; but intellect is poorly formed and
     they end up following life courses similar to those below 50. - People in the upper part of this group are those in which there
     is more solid self.

p.370  - In periods of laxness in which they permit the automatic pilot of the emotional system to have full control, but
      when trouble develops they can take over, calm the anxiety and avoid a life crisis.

   - People with better levels of differentiation are less relationship directed and more able to follow independent life
     goals.

  - They marry spouses with equal levels of differentiation.  The lifestyle of a spouse at another level would be
     sufficiently different to be considered emotionally incompatible.

   - The marriage is a functioning partnership

  -  They can enjoy a full range of emotional intimacy without either being de-selfed by the other.

 -   They can be autonomous selfs together or alone. The wife can function more fully as a female and the husband as
     a male without either having to debate the advantages or disadvantages of biological and social roles.

   - They can permit their children to grow and develop their own autonomous selfs without undue anxiety or without
     trying to fashion their children in their own images.  - The spouses and children are each more responsible for themselves,
     and  do not have to blame others for failures or credit anyone else for their successes

   - People with better levels of differentiation are able to function well with other people, or alone, as the situation
     requires.

 -   Their lives are more orderly, they are able to cope successfully with a broader range of human situations, and are
      remarkably free from the full range of human problems.

p. 474 - People in the upper half of the scale have an increasingly defined level of basic self and less pseudo-self.

    - there is less emotional fusion in close relationships, less energy is needed to maintain self in the fusions, more
       energy is available for goal-directed activity, and more satisfaction is derived from directed activity.

     - Increasing capacity to differentiate between feelings and objective reality.

     - Increasingly defined convictions and opinions on the most essential issues but they are still sensitive to opinions of
       those about them and some decisions are based on feelings in order not to risk the disapproval of important people.

       Characteristic high-scale people convey an important aspect of the concept in that they are operationally clear about
       the difference between feeling and thinking and as a routing make decisions on the basis of thinking.

p. 475  -  life much more under the control of deliberate thoughts

    - free to engage in goal-directed activity, or to lose "self" in the intimacy of a close relationship

  -   less reactive to praise or criticism and has a more realistic evaluation of his own self

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix 2

 

Scale of Differentiation

Family Evaluation – Michael Kerr and Murray Bowen

 

0 - 25

197        Complete undifferentiation exists in a person who has achieved no emotional separation from his
             family.

               He is a "no-self" incapable of being an individual in the group. This level of functioning is arbitrarily
              assigned a scale value of 0.

100        People in the lower end of the scale live in a feeling world although at the lower part they are so
              sensitized to the world around them that they have lost the capacity to feel - they are numb.

101        They are emotionally needy and reactive to others

               Very difficult for them to maintain long-term relationships

               Most of life energy goes into "loving" and "being loved"

               Little energy left for goal-directed pursuits.

                 Main focus is trying to achieve comfort

               Have a high level of chronic anxiety and so difficult for them to find situations in which they are truly comfortable.

               One basic criterion for assigning a person a basic level of 25 or below is the inability to differentiate between thoughts
              and feelings.

               So immersed in a feeling world that they are mostly unaware of an alternative.

               Major life decisions based on what feels right.

               They are so responsive to other's opinions and to what others want them to do that their functioning is almost totally
              governed by their emotional reactions to the environment.

               Responses can range from automatic compliance to extreme oppositional behavior.

               The "self" is so poorly developed that the use of "I" is confined to narcissistic pronouncements such as "I want, I hurt,
              I want my rights"

               Lack of self usually manifested in being a complete emotional appendages of relationship system to which they are
              attached.

               Reflexively adapt to alleviate other's discomfort.

               If stressed sufficiently may murderously strike out at others, particularly at those on whom they are most dependent.

               Lives characterized by continual searching for relationships that might replicate the original dependent attachment to
              family.

               Some at the upper part of range may be able to maintain a sufficient system of dependent relationships to function in
              life without symptoms.

               Upper level of range - Adjustments are tenuous  when stressed into emotional disequilibrium The dysfunction tends to
              be chronic and severe - dysfunction may be physical, emotional or social.

               At extreme lower end of scale people have given up on relationships.

               Extreme lower end - hard-core schizophrenics people come from 0 - 10 range

               Chronic schizophrenics lead somewhat productive lives and have a little more differentiation.

               Skid row alcoholics and incorrigible drug addicts usually have basic level below 25.

102        The extremes of all types of dysfunction are most likely to occur in the lower portions of the scale - obesity is strongly
              influenced by chronic anxiety. While obesity inn 25 -50 range is very different that 0 - 15 range.

               They are so immersed in the feeling world that they are unable to increase their basic level of differentiation.

               Most effective therapy with people in this group is with those in relationship with him.

               Many people in the 0 - 25 range of functioning become totally cut off from their families.

 

25 - 50

       Serious chronic symptoms may develop that indicate a basic level in the 25 - 30 range.

       Poorly defined selves but a budding capacity to differentiate.

       Lower part of range - fairly typical no-selves of people lower on The scale.

       Lacking beliefs and convictions of their own, they adapt quickly to the prevailing ideology.

       Highly suggestible and quick to imitate others to gain acceptance - ideological chameleons.

       Adopt viewpoints that best complement their emotional makeup and look to outside authorities - cultural values, religion,
       philosophy, The law, rule books, science, physicians, etc.

 

The 35 - 40 range - sufficiently adaptive that they do not manifest the impairment and paralysis characteristic of the majority of
       people lower on the scale.

       Feelings remain highly influential on their functioning.

       They are sensitized to emotional disharmony to the opinions of others, and to creating a good impression.

       They are apt students of facial expression, gestures, tone of voice, and actions that may mean approval or disapproval.

       Feelings can soar with praise and approval and be dashed with criticism or disapproval.  Like lower scale people so much life
       energy directed towards "loving" and seeking "love" and approval that little energy available for self-determined goals.

       They have low levels of solid self, an important component of basic self,  but reasonable levels of pseudo-self an important
       component of functional differentiation.

       Pseudo-self refers to the knowledge and beliefs acquired from others that are incorporated by the intellect and negotiable
       in relationship with others.

       Pseudo-self is created by emotional pressure and can be modified by emotional pressure. The principles and beliefs of
       pseudo-self are quickly changed to enhance one's image with others or to oppose others.

       While these opinions and beliefs are incorporated by the intellect, they are strongly fused with the feeling process.

       This fusion is evident when the opinions and beliefs are expressed with the authoritativeness of a know-it-all, the
       compliance of a disciple, or the opposition of a rebel.

       Conviction is so fused with feeling that it becomes a cause.

       When comprised of beliefs and opinions that are comforting or provide direction, pseudo-self can reduce anxiety and
       enhance emotional and physical functioning.  This can be so even if the beliefs conflict with fact. opposition to heliocentric
       view.

       In situations that are not emotionally tense pseudo-self usually provides an effective "rudder" or direction.

       Pseudo-self can help establish a connection between an individual and a group. By adopting the shared beliefs of a group
       even if they are emotionally based.

       Pseudo-self can increase the groups cohesion. Group may ignore or dispute facts that conflict with its shared belief system
       and expel nonbelivers. Such groups splinter into factions or gradually lose members when closed to new information.

       Pseudo-self as compass deficient in emotionally tense situations.  In marriage the pseudo-self of each partner merges into
       the relationship.

      Solid self is not negotiable in any relationship system and so little '"borrowing" and "trading" of "self" occurs in well
       differentiated relationships.

       When the majority of people in a community are functioning on significant amounts of pseudo-self, the community is
       vulnerable to being swept up in a frenzied hysteria.  e.g. Salem witch trials.

       Pseudo-self is a pretend self. People pretend to be more or less important than they really are, stronger or weaker than
       they really are more or less attractive than they really are.

       A group can "pump up" an individual's level of functioning to the point that he can do things he had been unable to do on
       his own.

       This higher level of functioning however, is totally dependent on The group's continuing support.

       The "artificial" inflation and deflation of functioning are the product of the lending, borrowing, trading, and exchanging of
       "self" that occurs in relationship systems.

       Pseudo-self can be thought of as a "pretend" intellect in the sense that, when the pressure for conformity is great,
       "intellectual" principle will be compromised.

       Feeling decisions are made rather than risk the displeasure of standing firm.

       When functioning mostly out of pseudo-self, the tendency is to maintain silence and avoid stating opinions that might put
       them out of step with the crowd and disturb the emotional equilibrium.

       Exception to silence is the rebel.  His pseudo-self is an anti-self that must be continually reinforced by triggering
       disharmony.

       Solid self is made up of firmly held convictions and beliefs which are formed slowly and can be changed only from within
       self.

       Never changed by coercion or persuasion from others. And is reasonable consistent with available factual knowledge or at
       least not in conflict with it which allows someone to be an individual while in emotional contact with a group.

       Anxiety can compel people into "groupthink" which is usually inconsistent within itself and molded more by subjectivity
       than by facts.

       Pseudo-self can be shaped by groupthink

       The well-thought-out beliefs of solid self in contrast an withstand groupthink.  Courage to stand firm and not simply oppose
       others can create an constructive effect on an anxious group.

      The person who stands firm does not have to be "right" to be of benefit to The group. His direction simply has to be self
       determined rather than influenced by anxious prodding from others.

       "This is who I am, this is what I believe."

       Family fights come more from reactions to differences in viewpoint, a threat to togetherness, than from the fact that
       differences exist. When people get reactive to this pressure and start caving into it, the problems get worse.

       When one person can simply define his viewpoint and what he intends to do without insisting he is "right" and the other is
       "wrong" problems will lessen.

       People do not an "answer" to the problem to solve it.

       People in the upper part of 25 - 50 have better developed solid self and many of the characteristics of the higher-scale
       people.

The 25 - 35 range - under stress develop transient psychotic episodes, delinquency problems, and other symptoms of that
       intensity.

The 40 - 50 range - when under stress, tend to develop neurotic problems.  The level of impairment tends to be less and
       recovery after the stress is alleviated tends to be complete.

       A main difference between the 0 - 25 and 25 - 50 groups is that the 25 - 50 people have some capacity for working to raise
       their level of differentiation.

       The probability is much higher in The 35 - 50 range, the 25 - 35 group tend to lose motivation when they get comfortable.

 

 

50 - 75

 

Page 105  Above 50 the intellectual system is sufficiently developed to make a few decisions of its own.

       The intellect recognizes that a bit of discipline is needed to overrule the emotional system.

       People have fairly well-defined opinions and beliefs on most essential issues.

       A criterion for distinguishing people who are above rather than below 50 is that above 50 there is more awareness of The
       difference between feelings and intellectual principle.

In 50 - 60 range - people are still so responsive to the relationship system that they hesitate to say what they believe. While
        they know there is a better way, they still tend to follow a life course like those less than 50.

Over 60 - They are freer to have a choice between being governed by the intellectual and feeling world.

       They have less chronic anxiety, are less emotionally reactive, and have more solid self than lower-scale people.

    - With individuality better developed, they have more freedom to move back and forth between intimate emotional
       closeness and goal-directed activity. Pleasure and satisfaction can be derived from either.

   - They are free to participate in  highly emotional situations knowing they can extricate themselves with logical
       reasoning when need arises.

    - There can be periods of laxness in which they permit the automatic pilot of the emotional system to have full control,
       but when trouble develops they can take over, calm the anxiety and avoid a life crisis.

In 50 - 75 range - under sufficient stress people can develop fairly severe physical, emotional and social symptoms, but the symptoms tend to be more episodic and recovery is faster.

     - A transient psychotic episode is still possible but an unusual degree of stress is required.

 

75 - 100

 

Page #97 Complete differentiation exists in a person who has fully resolved The emotional attachment to his family.

       He has attained emotional maturity in sense that he self is developed sufficiently that, whenever it is important to do so, he
       can be an individual in the group.

       He is responsible for himself and neither fosters nor participates in the irresponsibility of others.

       This level of functioning is arbitrarily assigned a scale value of 100,

 

Page 106 No many people function in this range.  Bowen left 95 - 100 range as hypothetical or for theoretical purposes.
       Essentially impossible for anyone to have all the characteristics of 100 on The scale.

       Rare people in 85 - 95 range would have most of the characteristics.

 

Page 107 In 85 - 95 range  -  Person is principle-oriented and goal-directed.

      - Begins growing away from parents in infancy and becomes an "inner directed" adult.

      - While always sure of his beliefs and convictions, he is not dogmatic or fixed in his thinking.

     - Capable of hearing and evaluating the viewpoints of others, he can discard old beliefs in favor of new.  He can
         listen without reacting and can communicate without antagonizing others.

      - Functioning is not affected by praise or criticism since he is secure in himself.

     - He can respect the identity of another without becoming critical or emotionally involved in trying to modify the
         life course of another.

       Able to assume responsibility for self and sure of his responsibility to others, he does not become overly
       responsible for others.

    - He does not have a "need" for others that can impair functioning, and others do not feel "used."

    - Tolerant and respectful of differences and is not prone to engage in polarized debates.

    - Realistic in his assessment of self and others and not preoccupied with his place in the hierarchy.

    - Expectations of self and others are also realistic.

    - Intense feelings are well tolerated and so he does not act automatically to alleviate them.

    - His level of chronic anxiety is very low and he can adapt to most stresses without developing symptoms.

 

 

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[1] https://bazzastotle.com/2017/04/02/when-youre-stuck-go-back-to-basics/

[2] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/back-to-basics

[3] https://danielhulsey.com/2017/08/30/the-genius-of-the-gospel-of-mark-a-sprint-to-the-finish/

[4] New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

[5] See Patricia Killen and Mark Silk. ( March 12, 2004) Religion in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone (Volume 1). AltaMira Press.

[6] There are 5 words for power in the bible: ischus, energia, dunamis, kratos and exousia. These concepts of power are often misunderstood. God gives exousia, authority, to the church (Matthew 28:18, Mark 3:14-15). God gives the Church power over Satan, exousia (authority) and not dynamis..

[7] In the recent funeral of Queen Elizabeth II this concept was applied to her reign and emphasized in the announcement that King Charles III will be crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

[8] It is easy to avoid judgement by proclaiming “God loves you” but that love is the love at the cross.

[9] Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 2006, Augsburg  Fortress Publishers

[10] The Small Catechism by Martin Luther, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis 1960,1968

[11] The cruciform life of the Christian became movingly apparent to me when in 1998 while in Pietermaritzburg I was able to attend part of a session of the work of the Church historian Father Denis who was recording testimonies of Christian clergy who had been tortured by the security police on behalf of the South African government. The presentation I heard was by  a Lutheran Pastor who had been arrested and tortured daily. He would be tossed later each day into his cell. Badly beaten he would crawl to a wall and using the raise himself until he was standing. He would stretch out his arms in a cruciform posture and meditate on the crucifixion of Christ.

[12] Professor Arthur Voobus a New Testament scholar who taught in Chicago pointed out that the word “remember” relates to the question the youngest present asks his father at the celebration of the Passover four questions. The father’s reply is “We were slaves of Pharoah in Egypt…” Voobus noted the “We” in the response that suggests that every Jew of every time and place was a slave in Egypt. To “remember” in the Lord’ Supper has this Passover meaning that every Christian of every time and place is in the room with Jesus hearing Jesus’ word of promise and hope the night he was betrayed.

[13] Many of the supporters of apartheid were highly educated. Prime Minister H. Verwoerd who was the architect of separate development had a Ph.D. in psychology.