Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies

...Religious Thought returns to the schematization of modern psychologies which Browning constructed in Pluralism and Personality, but the return is not repetition...

...Such an interpretation would miss both the spirit and the letter of Browning's inquiry...

...This holds since "none of us...

...These are, of course, the features which should accompany all modes of human inquiry...

...While making no claims for completeness, he locates modem psychologies in one of four categories: the "culture of detachment" (Freud...

...This is, of course, a rather large claim and raises a question as to whether Browning is falling back upon a mode of metaphysical essentialism and a questionable natural law theory...

...The earlier work was an' 'essay in cultural analysis" which "bracketed all theological issues...

...Each of these is critiqued in the light of an Augustinian-Kierkegaardian anthropology as articulated by Reinhold Niebuhr, supplemented by James ("deepening Niebuhr's typically American appeal to experience as a test for theological judgments and truths"), and Paul Ricoeur ("amplifying and balancing Niebuhr's critique of psychoanalysis...

...Drawing upon a number of contemporary thinkers, Browning views metaphors as familiar terms employed to aid us in our effort to grasp the unfamiliar...

...the ethical character in terms of...

...Thus we are dependent upon these metaphors to "tell us something about the ultimate conditions of the world in which we live and present a picture of what is morally possible within that world...

...This is the common element in all metaphors that makes them fundamental to both religious discernment and scientific discovery.'' In order to represent the "world in its most durable and ultimate respects" as well as the "ultimate context of experience," we must employ "metaphors of ultimacy...

...really knows in any direct, tangible, and sensory way what the ultimate context of experience is...

...He does not deny that these psychologies are "indispensable for modern life" or that they have an important though limited role to play "in shaping our self-interpretations...

...In turning to the second stage, Browning acknowledges that a full evaluation would involve an exercise in comparative metaphysics but, following James's pragmatic approach, he restricts himself to "moral experience as at least one aspect of the relative adequacy of a metaphor of ultimacy...

...It is in the work under consideration, however, that Browning realizes his more distinctive role as a theologian of culture...

...These psychologies are now more richly and subtly developed and, most important, viewed and evaluated over against what might be called an incipient theological metaphysics...

...Browning does not consider the psychologies under review from a scientific or clinical perspective but rather as "cultural documents" and "systems of practical moral philosophy" that influence the character of our society and the way in which we live...

...principles of obligation...

...The result might be the demise of scientific and psychological triumphalism in the manner of the earlier demise of metaphysical and theological triumphalism...

...But while Browning's critical analysis of these thinkers is subtle and complex, it is also clear and possible...

...Theology, metaphysics, and morality are, and always have been, influenced by psychology, whether folk, philosophical, or modern...

...Any restoration, however, must be characterized by a critical consciousness, a tentativeness which does not exclude commitment and evaluation, and a pluralism responsive to the richness, scope, and depth of concrete experience...

...The critique is basically constructive...

...Well, thanks to Don S. Browning, Alexander Campbell Professor of Religion and Psychological Studies at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, a fine work is now available which will enable us to cite chapter and verse in support of our more or less vague impressions...

...For the future, Browning would like to see two distinct models of psychology emerge: "one more properly scientific, descriptive, and predictive and one more selfconsciously critical and normative...

...the "culture of control" (Skinner...

...The first involves little more than ' 'laying them alongside the metaphors of ultimacy and ethics of selected interpretations of Christian thought...

...Science and psychology, of course, would no more have "ended" than have metaphysics and theology...

...The specific process by which Browning evaluates the various metaphors of ultimacy and the principles of obligation to which they give rise emerges in two stages...

...While the metaphors we choose are in the first instance "a matter of faith," the decision as to which are the better metaphors "is not something that should be decided completely on faith...

...In Religious Thought, Browning continues a project initiated in his Generative Man (Westminster, 1973) and further developed in Pluralism and Personality (Bucknell, 1980...

...He contends that this core is "paradigmindependent" and insofar as forms of it appear "outside specifically Christian or Jewish sources," he suspects "that we are dealing here with a natural product of the human mind, of some universal significance...

...In noting Browning's strong critical judgments against psychologies, I am not suggesting that he has left nothing for them to do but confess their sins and surrender...

...There is no claim that James had already done what modern psychology is doing, but Browning maintains that James did possess the larger vision — one more in keeping with the concreteness and the breadth of the actual human condition...

...He is not suggesting simply that these psychologies should or could "stay in their own backyard...

...The latter phrase is selfexplanatory but a more scientific indication of how Browning understands "metaphors of ultimacy" might be helpful...

...The metaphysical character of the psychologies discussed by Browning is expressed in terms of what he calls "metaphors of ultimacy...

...Niebuhr's doctrine of agape is in turn critically refined in terms of the "older Catholic view of love as caritas...

...In his movement toward a critical theology of culture, Browning has provided us with an illuminating model of how to initiate such inquiry...

...The second work utilizes the philosophical psychology of William James, splendidly explicated, to critique a number of modern psychologists...

...Not that he makes any pretense to having presented a fully developed theology of culture...

...Eugene Fontinell How many times have we battled with our more psychologically oriented friends (professional and non-professional) and argued, for the most part to no avail, that their psychology had the character of a religion, that they were basing their conclusions and practices on unquestioned assumptions, indeed on unacknowledged acts of faith...

...The entire thrust of his inquiry, however, would seem to go counter to such a metaphysics...

...It is not possible to summarize the rich manner in which Browning analyzes and evaluates each of these psychologists, explicating their distinctive metaphors and principles of obligation and judging them wanting when compared with the anthropology rooted in the Jewish and Christian traditions and the rational core of morality which transcends all religious traditions...

...Browning contends that each of these psychologies involves metaphysical and ethical aspects that exceed the limits of what is customarily understood as "empirical" or "scientific...

...the "culture of care" (Erikson and Kohut...

...What Browning is calling for and contributing to is a dialogue in which all participants become critically aware of their assumptions, recognize the non-isolability of their disciplines, and cooperatively strive for new models of inquiry which will still allow for distinction among disciplines but with a deeper appreciation of their limitations and their need to live off the fruits of other disciplines...

...Hence, his test is based upon what he claims is the " rational core of morality,'' which is "mutuality understood as equal-regard'' — the ethic implied by the Golden Rule and neighbor-love...

...He has given, however, a work which is a significant contribution to what he calls in his subtitle "A Critical Conversation in the Theology of Culture...

...Religious Thought can and should be read not only by practicing theologians and psychologists but by any reflective person concerned with the ways in which we construct our world and our moral life within that world...

...the "culture of joy" (Maslow, Rogers, Perls, Jung...

...What is and has been the situation, however, is much more muddled and what is immediately needed is a description and evaluation of this muddle...

...As a start, it must be recognized that "clinical 11 September 1987- 505 psychologies, especially, cannot avoid a metaphysical and ethical horizon and, for this reason, they should critically ground these features of their systems rather than unwittingly lapse into them...