I think the single greatest challenge so far in my life as a christian has been compartmemtalizarion. And I imagine others may have the same challenge, so I'm going to blog about it.
Step one is to talk about Fruedian, behavioural, and cognitive psychology. It will become clear later why this is important.
Originally the field of psychology (or psychoanalysis at this point) was dominated by Freudian theories. These theories had a few important traits:
1. The theories attempted to be dispassionate and scientific
2. They were based on an assumption that (strange) behaviours could be explained by hidden thought processes in a person's mind. Call these processes P, for "person".
3. It was impossible to prove whether they were true or false (they were not falsifiable).
Behaviorism was the next movement in the field. It was characterized by two big changes:
1. These theories were based instead on the assumption that all behaviours could be explained by features if the environment: the context you were in at the moment the behaviour occurred (e.g. church, a pub, etc), socialization with peers and family while growing up, or maybe even the clothes you were wearing. Things like that. Call these factors E, for environment.
2. Crucially, and why behaviourism was a big atep forward from Freud, every theory was fasifiable. That meant experiments could be run to disprove or build confidence in a theory.
The third movement happened much more recently, and I'm calling it cognitive psychology. This is a move to extend behaviourism to include bodily processes and thoughts, but trying to maintain rigorous falsifiability. Its hard to do!
So the model that was drilled into me in my psychology couraes in university was P x E. That is, behaviours should be seen as being caused by internal thoughts and factors (the person), external factors (the environment), or both!
So how does this apply to living out my faith?
I learned about compartmentalized faith when i was 16, but I've been thinking about it mich more deeply recently.
I became a Christian at a church camp. My thoughts, words, and deeds were impressive and I'm so grateful hat i was influenced by church camp.
Now it's a tired complaint that Christians are faithful on Sundays bit invisibly Christians the rest of the week. That's part of what I'm saying here. But I think it goes deeper.
I think the reason I feel cliser to God on a soccer field at camp than in a church pew furing the year is that during rhe year I am exposed to so many more contexts. In particular:
1. Church
2. Work
3. Home
4. With family
5. With frienda from high school or university
6. Meeting a Chinese citizen or another expat here in Beijing
7. Meeting a fervently faithful American at church here in Beijing
I know there are more contexts in my life, but these are the most illustrative of my point. For each of these contexts (note they dont include church camp, where my faith took root), i have to go through a few steps just to begin identifying myself in my head as a christian!
1. Read the bible and pray while thinking about issues and problems from that context
2. Say a quick, silent prayer while in that context
3. Thank God for a blessing from that context
This is like a bare minimum! And its still unlikely I'll be talking about faith with my frienda from that context. I still need to "come out" as a Christian in each context, and ideally gauge people's reactions, before even talking openly about it.
I think compartmentalization is easily confused with cowardice - I'm just not courageous enough to share my faith with all my friends. But that's not really it. I think framing a faith struggle as one line, from sinner to saint, ignores a crucial part of my psychology. I've got 7 or more lines, and I'm at a different spot in each context's faith journey.
I really welcome comments on this entry. This is something I've been thinking about a lot as I try to keep growing in my relationship with God.