Hamartiology and Psychopathology: Prospects for Integration
This is a short case for the integration of theology and psychology (specifically forensic psychology in this case) via their subcategories of hamartiology and psychopathology.
There is a worldwide fascination people have with serial killers. One can turn to just about any major tv channel, subscribe to almost any streaming service, or play a wide variety of video games, and they’ll come across plenty of crime or murder-based evidence of this. The obvious question of, “Why?”, is actually answered first in the means that all of these things offer. Human beings are innately infatuated by narrative. The most fundamental narrative is good vs. evil. To understand one, we must understand the other as its opposite. So, these stories we emerge ourselves in are indicative of the fundamental structure of human experience. We crave it because we crave to understand ourselves. We cannot know our capacity for good unless we can at least touch upon the knowledge of our capacity for evil because what is good measured by apart from its distance from evil? Serial offenders, be it regarding the context of murder, rape, or child molestation, serve as this baseline of evil for most individuals (rightfully so).
In a grand sense, watching these shows is like looking at a horrid carnival mirror that shows us the worst parts of ourselves, and highlights what we could be if those small choices towards decency that we make day by day were made poorly. It is crucial to understand that the most evil people we’ve ever known of are still people, that we are people too, and therefore that we have that same capacity within us.
If we have little to no knowledge of our capacity for evil, we might incrementally choose it and slip there without ever knowing it. We would live out the reality that C.S Lewis once wrote, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…”. Serial killers are evidence of the capacity everyone has to be all that our hearts already are.
In Jeremiah 17:9 one reads that, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick…”. Ever since the fall in Genesis, mankind has had to wrestle with our sinful nature. John Wesley delineated the doctrine of original sin better in saying, “Sin is entailed upon me, not by my immediate generation, but by my first parent. In Adam all died; by the disobedience of one, all men were made sinners; all men, without exception, who were in his loins when he ate the forbidden fruit”. To say we don’t have this sin nature is evidence of that sin nature. For the heart is deceitful above all things, and to say that we have no sin is to deceive ourselves.
Contrary to the popularly held belief of our brothers and sisters in the reformed tradition Wesleyan Arminians do in fact hold to the notion of total depravity. Rightly understood, the pieces still fit together when a proper understanding of our personal choice in relation to prevenient grace is considered (and I would argue also with the consideration of our moral agency as an aspect of the imago Dei). The Wesleyan Church Discipline puts it well, “They cannot even of themselves call upon God or exercise faith for Salvation. But through Jesus Christ the prevenient grace of God makes possible what humans in self effort cannot do” (The Wesleyan Church, 2016). Every sinful decision we indulge, however small it may seem, is cosmic treason, tilting the earth further towards evil. Although, with Calvary considered, all sins are equal, it is my personal belief that some sins tilt the state world in that direction more rapidly. Even just so much as a white lie serves as a micro attempt to twist the structure of reality. No deed is small when analyzed for what it really is, whether good or bad. So then, the deeds more obviously malevolent are the same in a grander sense. What then shall we say of serial murder but that it is an all the more stark proof of our sin nature?
“The most common motive for serial homicides committed in the U.S. appears to be enjoyment” (Pozzulo, Bennell, & Forth, 2018). Other common motives include financial gain and anger. This serves as a good transition as to why a proper integration of theology and psychology is necessary. In this postmodern, relativistic day and age in which we find ourselves, what worldly philosophy could genuinely posit such a motive of hedonism as evil and remain consistent? From what basis do they say anything is evil? Is the logic that enjoyment is fine as a plausible value until it hinders someone else’s ability to enjoy anymore? Who is to say that hindering someone else’s enjoyment of life is wrong? The law of the land? Hasn’t the ascription to the relative law of the land shown flawed in the past? The quiet infanticide of abortion has been legal in the United States since 1973. Homosexual marriage has been legalized in all fifty United States since 2015. Clearly there is a difference between what we have a right to do, and what is right to do. If this weren’t the case why would Wesleyans feel the need to ever form in our civil disobedience to the sinfulness of the world, legal as it was?
I bring up the legality because utilitarianism, in possibly oversimplified terms, is something approximating the ends justifying the means. If something is best for the majority, it is considered moral. This is how right and wrong is hashed out in our country opposed to the theonomous viewpoint of objective, absolute morality from God. All that to say, if the main motive for serial murder is hedonism, and worldly philosophy can’t even consistently posit hedonism as wrong, there must be a proper integration of theology and psychopathology in order to deal with it.
John Carter and Richard Mohline proposed a model for the integration of psychology and theology in what is known as, The Integrated Models Approach. One of the three stated assumptions of theirs it is based on, that I maintain the sentiments of, is that “All truth is God’s truth, therefore, the truths of psychology are neither contradictory nor contrary to revealed truth but are integrated in a harmonious whole” (Carter & Mohlin, 1976). They concluded that the studies of psychology and theology could be split into eight more specific studies that are parallel to each other. Richard and Mohline say of them, “The nature, character, and levels of the integratable material in each area varies…but we are asserting that basic principles and content of psychology are integratable into their equivalent theological area” (Carter & Mohlin, 1976). Some of these parallel studies include Christology and counseling, anthropology and personality, soteriology and development, ecclesiology and social psychology, or, more specifically to the point, hamartiology and psychopathology.
Hamartiology stems from the Greek word “hamartia”. It is the most commonly used word for sin in scripture. Its literal meaning is to miss the mark. It was an archery term attributed to Pagan Greeks who used it to describe someone who was unskilled in their given endeavor. It makes sense to use this word for sin because the bullseye was a very small target in light of all else that could be hit. Holiness in light of all other human behavior is no different. Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” The proof that we have walked through the narrow gate is that we are walking in the narrow way. The world will call us narrow minded for that, but we are not called by the world, therefore it is of no benefit to look over our shoulder for the world’s approval anyway. It is crucial to stay on the narrow path because, as articulated prior, one foot out line and the natural ethical order of being is violated. There aren’t many ways of doing things right, and there’s lots of ways of doing things wrong. So, we cannot miss the mark. This is the fundamental narrative of good vs. evil lived out within each individual.
This is directly applicable to the study of psychopathology, at least in the forensic context, because it deals with both the intentional and unintentional missing of the mark head on. The clarification of intentionally and unintentionally missing the mark is an important one. It is no question that the study of psychopathology, sometimes referred to as abnormal psychology, deals with both. Mental disorders and maladaptive behaviors vary in extent. To take the forensic approach, there are tragic cases of people doing horrendous things unintentionally, and there are malevolent instances of people who resent being itself, hating themselves, others, and the God who made it all. They wreak havoc and make manifest Hell on earth.
Wesleyans traditionally categorize sin as unintentional or intentional when articulating the doctrine of entire sanctification. One can see this categorization for example in Numbers 15, beginning with verse 22, in which the consequences for unintentionally sinning and not observing the commandments that the Lord spoke to Moses are enumerated for the Israelites. Wesleyans believe that to be entirely sanctified, one lives a life bereft of intentional sin. As human beings with sin nature, unintentional sin will always be a present problem. It is also worth noting that if one is entirely sanctified, they will be in consistent repentance of both. Many people, even in the holiness tradition, fail to emphasize the command of repentance, and the role it plays in our sanctification. Repentance can be integrated into the psychopathological realm of thinking when properly registered.
To repent is not merely to apologize. To walk in a direction antithetical to a Christian worldview, or to walk on the “broad road”, as might be a better way of conceptualizing the idea offered by Matthews Gospel, and then to apologize and keep walking on that same path, provides in itself no remedy. Just as reflection in itself is nothing apart from the necessary adjustment it begs for, an apology is in itself nothing without repentance. Repentance is an apology lived out. It is to turn away from sin, and instead towards God.
The remedy to hamartiologically and psychopathological disordered states of being are the same. It is for one to repent, pick up their cross, and submit in obedience to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in their life. This begs also for an integration of theology and psychology in the context of Christian counseling. As delineated, both the ultimate diagnosis (being a fallen person in a fallen world), and the ultimate remedy (progression in sanctification) are the same. So with the inerrancy, sufficiency, and authority of Scripture presupposed, there is solid biblical basis to give aid to fellow believers in this way. Elders are to give Christian counsel by finding the bridge in the wisdom of Scripture that helps a fellow believer cross the gap between despair and obedient submission to the work of the Holy Spirit. With this considered, a proper integration of both disciplines would be mutually beneficial.
References
Carter, J., & Mohlin, R. (1976). 4. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 3-14.
Lewis, C. (1996). The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins.
Pozzulo, J., Bennell, C., & Forth, A. (2018). Forensic Psychology. Don Mills: Pearson Canada Inc.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton: Crossway.
The Wesleyan Church. (2016). The Discipline of the Wesleyan Church 2016. Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House.
Wesley, J. (1966). A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City.
