Feelings about faithful feelings

Journal of Psychology and Theology, Summer, 2007 by Rex Johnson

Elliott, Matthew (2006).

Faithful feelings: Rethinking emotion in the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel. Paper. 301 pp. ISBN 0-8254-2542-5.

Matthew A. Elliott (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is president of Oasis International, a Chicago-based distributor of books and Bibles into the English-speaking developing world.

Faithful Feelings is a must read, especially for pastors, but also for anyone involved in therapy, pastoral care, counseling or serious discipleship. It is the result of thorough scholarship, so it will not be an easy read for volunteer ministers. For psychologists invested in ministry to their church's pastors, it will be an invaluable resource to help pastors get in touch with their own feelings and let go of the anti-feelings bias many pastors have bought into. Pastors will be challenged to re-think what they have learned and preached about feelings, and theologians will be challenged to re-think emotion in Scripture, especially in the New Testament.

Elliott demonstrates a thorough grasp of theology, history, historical philosophy and psychology, and uses each of these domains to challenge readers to re-think emotion. He begins by tracing the debate between cognitive and non-cognitive theories of emotion and showing the effect of emotion on thinking and behavior. He then makes a solid case for integrating reason and emotion, shows the implications of this integration, and suggests implications as well for the study of the New Testament.

In his chapters on emotion in the Greco-Roman world and emotion in Jewish culture and writings, Elliott shows how non-cognitive Hellenistic philosophers, following Plato, relegated feelings (passions) to the "illogical part of a divided soul" (p58), out of a person's control. Religion, ritual and magic were the arenas for the expression of passions. But most Hellenistic philosophers, following Aristotle, saw emotions as subject to cognitive control and based on wrong beliefs. In contrast, in Jewish culture and writings, Elliott shows that the emotions of the righteous are based upon knowledge of God, and the emotions of the wicked are based on the absence of the knowledge of God. Most importantly, the Old Testament "presents Yahweh as an emotional God" (p105). The outcomes of Hellenistic philosophy two thousand years later are churches where emotion is thought to be out of personal control and evil, churches where spirituality and emotionality are not distinguished, and churches where emotions are understood to be based on wrong beliefs and are to be controlled by good reason and good behavior. Somehow in so many Evangelical churches, the Jewish perspective of emotions has been lost.

Elliott's mastery of hermeneutics and exegesis is most apparent in chapters four and five. After general analysis in chapter four, he analyzes the positive emotions of love, joy and hope in New Testament genres correcting "some of the major and consistent mistakes that have been made when it comes to interpreting emotion in the New Testament." Elliott sees these mistakes in four categories:

1. Mistakes in interpreting vocabulary or emotion words;

2. Mistakes made in exegesis due to misinterpretation of emotion;

3. A general neglect of emotion in New Testament studies;

4. A pervasive non-cognitive understanding of the emotions (p. 125).

Elliott addresses several important misunderstandings in this chapter that have great implications today in theology and ministry such as the idea that love is theological understanding or action (p160), and agape love cannot be commanded and is uncaused (p164). Joy is given by God regardless of circumstances (p166) or is theological and eschatological in suffering (p. 179). Hope is not an emotion (p. 183) but a sure eschatological truth as opposed to the emotional expectation of the world (p. 181).

In chapter five, Elliott turns to emotions considered to be negative--jealousy, fear, sorrow and anger. He clarifies differences between jealousy and envy and shows how jealousy and zeal are related. He demonstrates that there are legitimate reasons for fear, and not just fear of God. Whereas Christians often have little patience with grief, he shows how important grief and sorrow are in sanctification. In the differences pastors and therapists have over anger, Elliott shows how a clear understanding of the New Testament, might be a corrective to both. He even shows the legitimacy in Scripture of hatred (p. 222). Two paragraphs at the end of chapter five address what I think are roots of objections some people have to the integration of theology and psychology--the different definitions of emotion words, and that emotions, especially negative ones lead Christians to sin (p. 234).

In the introduction to chapter six, Elliott writes, "It is only in the last twenty years that a cognitive approach has become a prevalent view in psychology and the effects of this shift must now be felt in the realm of New Testament studies" (p. 236). Describing how he tried only to address the emotion vocabulary of the text and not other emotion issues such as syntax and style he suggests further studies. His hope is that "emotion can be understood as an integral and essential part of New Testament theology" (p. 237). In this summary of the book, Elliott adds several helpful comments.