Increasing our desire for God...

A post from Peter Mead... (If you are getting it again through yahoo, you can ignore it.)

I have given some thought to the issue of what we can do when our desires are lacking. This is no complete answer, but perhaps this is a start. The anthropology that underlies affective theology suggests an answer that I think can be borne out by Scriptural teaching.

Traditional "orthodox" anthropology suggests that (a) the will is central and determinative; (b) the affections are not to be trusted in any way, perhaps even suppressed, and (c) the affections will follow the lead taken by the will (informed by the mind). Consequently we are told that the locomotive is the will, and the feelings are merely one of the railroad cars being pulled along behind. So if we lack the appropriate feelings toward God we must choose to do the right thing and our feelings will follow.

Before I mention affective theology as a contrast, I just want to notice a couple of things I wrote in that last sentence. "We must choose to do the right thing and our feelings will follow." We must - obligation; choose - will is central; to do - spirituality rooted in our action (perhaps in our 'disciplines'?); the right thing - a very moralistic emphasis; and our feelings will follow - because they are secondary and subservient to the informed will. If I had time I suppose it would be worth challenging every one of those elements of the sentence.

A theology of the affections suggests that (a) the heart is central and determinative; (b) the affections may be fleeting, fickle, or untrustworthy at a superficial level, but there is a deeper level of affection that drives all that we do, even when we seem to go against our feelings (the issue of values); and (c) the heart is the engine that drives the train along.

Now the contrast can be simplified. Traditional anthropology suggests we must choose to do the right thing, knowing that our feelings will follow. Affective anthropology suggests the problem of lack of desire is a problem of the heart.

I think Galatians 2:20-3:3 is a key passage in this whole issue. The spiritual life is one of faith in Christ's life at work in me. The foolish Galatians had been duped into thinking that although they began their spiritual life by pure trust (that gaze on Christ, as Ron Frost would helpfully define faith from John 3:14-15), they could go on to spiritual maturity through the effort of their flesh. In light of this I don't live my life as if the will is the locomotive any more. I feel that if I simply force myself to do the right thing without a right heart then I will become a progressively more effective hypocrite. Galatians 5 even can be taken to suggest that if I try to live the spiritual life by fleshly self-effort, then the result will be greater sin (which I have seen in experience as well as in the Word). So the solution is not what I must "do," but where is my heart? If I don't desire God, if I am lacking the appropriate feelings toward Him, then "doing" will only hide the problem. Rather I must crawl back to the Cross and in faith get my gaze back where it should be. Perhaps it needs to involve brokenness over a hardening heart, perhaps a simple gaze at the cross, or at Christ through His Word, until I am drawn to Him. Either He is more attractive, or He is not. Ron Frost told me one time that he tells people to honestly tell God how they feel - "God, I don't think you wrote a very interesting book, I don't find you attractive, I have better things to long for right now, etc." The mere act of speaking in that way might help the heart break before God and respond again in awe at His amazing grace.

I don't know if that helps, and I do know it is not a complete answer. In simple terms, we should "do" nothing, but rather bring our hearts back to a place of responsive brokenness before our supremely attractive Lord. To put it in marriage terms, if I am lacking desire for my wife (which I am not, incidentally), I can fake it through buying lots of flowers and cards, hoping the feelings will come back, or I can simply allow myself to stop and be drawn to her again. Maybe that is simplistic, but it seems that there is a passive reality to our faith as we are drawn to our Lover. It's all about Him.

I also know there may be other factors. My affections may love God at a very deep level, but on the surface the issue may be clouded by factors such as fleshly immaturity, physical tiredness, emotional fatigue and distraction and so on. The issue is the heart, not the will. The solution is to be found in Him and not in ourselves.

Them be my thoughts. What do others think?

the affections at work in life

In Malcolm Gladwell's work, Blink: the power of thinking without thinking, he describes a situation where affections clearly control intellect. (The book itself is about how people make seemingly intuitive/instinctive snap judgments which Gladwell attributes to the work of the unconcious part of our mind.)

"The art historian George Ortiz was once asked by Ernst Langlotz, one of the world's foremost experts on archaic sculpture, whether he wanted to purchase a bronze statuette. Ortiz went to see the piece and was taken aback; it was, to his mind, clearly a fake, full of contradictory and slipshod elements. So why was Langlotz, who knew as much as anyone in the world about Greek statues fooled? Ortiz's explanation is that Langlotz had bought the sculpture as a very young man, before he acquired much of his formidable expertise. 'I suppose,' Ortiz said, 'that Langlotz fell in love with this piece; when you are a young man, you do fall in love with your first purchase, and perhaps this was his first love. Notwithstanding his unbelievable knowledge, he was obviously unable to questions his first assessment.'" (pp. 14-15)

What is "affective theology"?

"Affective theology" or, perhaps more appropriately, a theology of the affections takes the view that people do what they do because of what they love. The reason we do what we do, is because of what we love/value.

Where does this love stem from? Is it's motive center sourced in the mind/intellect/cognition? Or, is it an act of the will/volition? Or, does it come from the heart/affection?

Is there only one primary motive center or can it be a combination of two or more of the faculties in question?

The operating premise here is that one's love for God comes solely from the heart as the Holy Spirit moves our primary affection for self/others/things toward God (Ro 5:5, 1Jn 4:19).

Welcome to a work-in-progress...

Thanks for visiting. If you're here, you probably found this through a circle of friends who all have this strange infatuation with "affective theology."

I'm hoping this would be a place to help explain what we're talking about.