Compass Psychotheology, Modern Life, and the Bible

Compass Psychotheology brings together a century of research into the psychology of human behavior with a spiritual foundation of Scripture and Christian orthodoxy.

In a nutshell, early in my career as both a psychology professor and licensed therapist, I challenged the metaphysical assumptions that underlie Freudian, Jungian, behavioral, and humanistic approaches to being human. I grateful receiving valuable insights, while replacing the erroneous metaphysics with the foundation of Old and New Testament Scripture: the Bible.

Why did I do this? Because I believe that God created humankind; and that God therefore knows, understands, and created the way humans function as psycho-social-spiritual beings. As a psychology professor I taught twelve different graduate and undergraduate courses. This learning experience opened my own eyes to what God already knows about psychology, including: cognition, emotion, motivation, personality, memory, learning, perception, social psychology, sexuality and lifespan development. I began to understand how "we are fearfully and wonderfully made." And as a direct consequence I grew more in love with God, our Creator and Redeemer.

Knowing these fields within contemporary psychology does not need to exclude spirituality, nor does it need to disqualify the supernatural, miracles, and biblical prophecy as realities, not only in biblical times, but today.

So I sought to put together faith and reason in understanding God and human behavior, with faith coming first, and reason following, as long as it is humble reasoning that includes what Scripture says about human purpose and psychosocial processes.

Now that the ten books of the Compass Series books have been written, my attention is keenly focused on how this body of knowledge can enrich churches and the Body of Christ.

Just today I spoke with a man in his eighties, a nationally known motivational speaker, who said, "Dan, this message you are bringing about how pastor's and congregants need to understand their own and other people's personalities is greatly needed in the church. Too often pastors are prepared in seminary with theological topics and church polity, and given little or know knowledge of human psychological functioning. I hope this changes through the knowledge you are bringing to the Christian faith."

I hope so, too, since my experience over forty years is that many people are incapable of growing a deeper love for Christ precisely because they are held captive to psychological dynamics, especially unconscious ones, they neither comprehend nor make progress outgrowing. 

If there's a mission for compass psychotheology yet to accomplish, it is this: to wed psychology and biblical faith within us, so that we can grow in understanding ourselves and God, and thereby experience more keenly the intimacy and adventure God created us to know.

Why God Makes Room for Your Doubt

From a compass psychotheology perspective, too great an emphasis on perfect faith actually blocks growth instead of facilitating it, creating the unconscious expectation that without perfect faith God will be disappointed and reject a person. 

But God has more patience and maturity than that, for as Jesus said, a tiny mustard seed of faith is sufficient for the Lord to work within a person (Mt 17:20). The Trinity wants to help people face, feel, and process their doubts, which in turn leads to greater faith. 

Even John the Baptist suffered doubts, and sent a messenger from his prison cell to ask Jesus once again if in fact he was the Messiah. Jesus sent back the answer that “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,” all signs from Isaiah’s prophecy attesting to the Messiah’s arrival (Lk 7:22 NKJV).

Thus, if individuals are trusting Christ for their right standing with God, then God makes room for occasional doubts as they experiment with how prayer does and doesn’t work, what to do when they feel uninvolved in a worship service, how to handle it when they can’t meet a homeless person’s needs, and what to do about behavior they feel is wrong but have to seek God’s help over months or years to overcome. 

Natural rhythms of faith and doubt ultimately bring people closer to the Lord. Although people can’t always hold onto God, he nevertheless holds onto them. As Jesus promises, “No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:28-30).

During Christ’s Passion, Peter struggles with intense doubt about whether to claim friendship with Jesus or deny knowing him. He temporarily opts for denial just when Jesus needs him most. And after the resurrection, Peter reaches the point where he throws up his hands and says, “Come on boys, let’s go back to Galilee and start fishing.” He stands at the place all human beings know from time to time, even when they also know and love the Lord, where life just does not make sense. There are too many setbacks, too much confusion, and too little guidance from the Holy Spirit.

But then it does make sense. For Jesus follows his weary fishing crew to the Sea of Tiberius, and there he makes a little campfire on the shore and grills some fish, shouting to Peter and the others in the boat, “Have you caught anything yet?” (Jn 21:5). Peter starts to yell back that the fishing is as dismal as his own life, when suddenly he recognizes Jesus and dives headlong into the sea to swim ashore. 

The Bible says the disciples don’t say much at that meal, perhaps too busy internally absorbing the rhythm of doubt and faith, crisis and deliverance, self-consciousness and joy—and feeling mostly awe, not only that they had been right in choosing to follow Jesus, but that they had chosen, for the most part, to believe all he had told them.

Rather than trying to secure a flawless platform of witness that one is adamantly Christian and proud of it, a wiser stance might allow that all human beings, including one’s self, hold even cherished beliefs somewhat precariously, and therefore stand in need of God’s continuous provision to remain close to him.

Once individuals accept that they are both strong and weak, hardy and frail, capable of moments of shimmering faith and times where all seems lost, then they can relax, breathe, and trust in God’s faithfulness and providential care. 

Add to this the hundreds of scriptures that attest to the transcendent power whereby God saves those who hide themselves in him, and people can enjoy a degree of serenity, knowing that he is there for them in faith or doubt. 

For the same Peter who denies even knowing the Lord, later writes to all who would follow Christ, “Now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet 1: 6-9).

Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Compass Psychotheology

Contemplating the collapse of the Christian faith related in part to the popularization of Darwin’s godless evolution of the species, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) throws up his hands in despair. Of greatest import for him is not the unfolding advances of science, but rather that people’s belief in a Christian God has declined to the point where he declares in The Happy Science that, “God is dead! And we have killed him!” 

 

Nietzsche foresees the disintegration of any distinction between man and animal. He feels appalled at the consequences that will follow once everyone becomes aware of the implications of God’s demise in human eyes. He sees life as an encounter with nothingness—the brutal awareness that all a person thinks, feels, and does means absolutely nothing. 

As a young man, Danish philosopher Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855) shares Nietzsche’s vision of individuals’ alienation from one another and any lasting meaning; a vision of human beings as molecules in motion in the void of space and time. Kierkegaard’s own encounter with nothingness so shakes him that he seriously contemplates suicide.  

 

Shortly thereafter he has a conversion experience: an intimate encounter with Jesus Christ, which changes his stance from atheism to Christian existentialism. He comes to believe that without the anchor of Christ, people will drift on an ocean of relativity; through a relationship with Christ, however, they can find love and purpose in a fallen world.

Kierkegaard champions each individual’s subjective encounter with God as the source of an authentic life. In The Journals of Kierkegaard, he advocates a life surrendered moment-to-moment to God’s loving will:

"In the profoundest sense, really, there are only two parties between which to choose, and there lies the category 'the individual': either obedient to God, fearing and loving him, to cling to God against men, so that one loves men in God; or to cling to men against God, so that one distorts and humanizes God and 'savors not the things of God but those that be of men.'  For between God and man there is a struggle, a struggle for life and death." 

Kierkegaard sees human beings as universally needing faith in Christ, a faith that can never come by way of rational proofs or logical propositions, but only through a complete abandonment of self-will in the form of a leap of faith in which one reaches out to God in Christ, risking everything, to find that one is transformed as a child of God, the Holy Spirit bearing witness that one is born again. The person then continues responding creatively to God’s revelation of a unique destiny—a path of purposeful living that requires passionate pursuit.

 

In compass psychotheology there is, too, an emphasis on the irreducible category of the individual, the person whom God calls, loves, and leads into a creative future that requires personal choice and responsibility to actualize.  

But in compass psychotheology there is more faith in the Church, the worldwide Body of Christ, not because churches can’t become petty, superficial, and repressive of individualism, but because God has foreseen the fallibility of the Church and has made provision  to counter the depersonalizing tendencies with the power of his Word and the presence of his Spirit.

Given this dynamic partnering of the Son and Spirit in the world, in the Church, and in the personal lives of believers, compass psychotheology joins with Kierkegaard in suggesting that the way of following God’s unfolding will involves here and now choices more than dogmatized beliefs, and that the subjective experience of the truths of faith and doctrine is more vital than mental recitation.

For more about the compass psychotheology integration of philosophy, psychology, and science with Christianity, read:

TRUSTING IN THE TRINITY: COMPASS PSYCHOTHEOLOGY APPLIED

 

Fuller Seminary Professor Commends Compass Psychotheology

Compass Psychotheology has taken two lifetimes to pioneer and develop. Mine, and my wife, Kate's. I'm Dan Montgomery and I freely gave myself to this endeavor, which started forty years ago in seminary, when I realized that I was drawn not only to the Bible and theology, but also to the field of psychology.

The Bible riveted my attention and stirred my deepest emotions. But something else was happening. I was realizing that I am a psychological person as well as a spiritual being. Yes, as a Christian the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit indwells me. But as a psychological personality I also have competing motives, private perceptions of life events, emotional feelings, cognitive thoughts, bodily sensations, and limitations on my knowledge, learning, and memory that are built into my human nature.

When God through prayer issued new marching orders to me: Dan, I want you to take a Ph.D. degree in clinical and counseling psychology, it made perfect sense! 

And I found new answers to my curiosity about: 

• How dreams work—even how God can use them in personal guidance, as he did with Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar. 
• How emotions and thoughts need to complement one another if we want to develop psychological and spiritual maturity. 
• How the unconscious can make resourceful contributions to self-understanding and a richer life in Christ, once we grasp the primitive language that it speaks. 
• How we humans always have mixed motives that include an element of self-interest, no matter how righteous or loving we think we are. 

That doctorate at the University of New Mexico and the dissertation that came with it ("Personality Fulfillment in Religious Life") became foundational to my lifetime: Of doing psychotherapy, reading the Bible through in numerous translations, teaching university level psychology, and writing the Compass Series books with my wife Kate.

Kate is a marvel to behold, with her superb education from the University of Toronto, and her twenty years as a Professor of Child and Human Development. But what really got my attention was how the Holy Spirit came upon her in a new way fifteen years ago, telling her in no uncertain terms that she was to leave college teaching in order to help me write the new books God has purposed for us to author.

Now for the biggest challenge of our lives, for God unveiled a surprise. It's as if he said, "Hey you two, it's time to put your writing gifts to the test. I want you to create a new field of learning that integrates psychology, theology, and philosophy." Of course it didn't come that clearly at first. But piece by piece, precept upon precept, we both came to understand this as our mission for the Lord.

Ten thousand hours later, we had created a 500 page manuscript called "Compass Psychotheology," but weren't sure what we had. I said to Kate one day, "We need to send this manuscript to a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. They have the best reputation for holding together historical Christianity with contemporary science. Maybe someone there can tell us what we've accomplished, if we've accomplished anything at all."

I sent an email attachment of the book to the senior professor of theology and ministry because his photo looked friendly on the Fuller website, saying that if he ever got around to browsing it, we'd be grateful, and that if it didn't interest him he could delete it.

That was on Friday. The next day a ping from our computer revealed an email response from Ray S. Anderson, Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary.  

 This is what Dr. Anderson said:

“Dan and Kate Montgomery do not attempt to integrate psychology and theology by beginning with a state of disintegration and attempting to create a synthesis or a state of collaboration between the two disciplines. Rather, Compass Psychotheology begins with a model of human wholism based on the ontological intimacy that God intended by endowing humans with personal being that reflects the divine image.

"In their compass model, a comprehensive view of personality disorders, both psychological and spiritual, are shown to have a common source in defection from an original state of wholeness. Spiritual growth and psychological health result from a rhythm of being and becoming. 

"This is a stunning and stimulating contribution to the literature on integration. I recommend it as required reading for integration courses here at Fuller Seminary.”

Compass Psychotheology: Where Psychology and Theology Really Meet

How Jesus Shows What God Is Really Like

We can see Jesus' personality revealed in the Gospel narratives, where he discloses thoughts, emotes feelings, expresses a point of view, and acts with deliberation, choosing certain alternatives and not others, even to the point of unveiling his inner motivations at times: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).

This historical identity helps to keep Jesus real for his created—not an ethereal, but a thoroughly human being, whose personality is understandable both as the Son of Man, and beyond this, as Christ, the Son of God. Jesus shows through his behavior what God is really like, that God cares about people, seeks companionship, challenges injustice, fulfills promises, and searches for lost human beings in need of salvation and welcoming into God’s family.

Compass Psychotheology suggests that Jesus embodied normal psychological processes in his personality, conjoined with gifts of the Holy Spirit, revealing both God’s full immersion in human life and how God’s divine psychology finds an echoing partnership with human psychology. To further illuminate both Christ’s and human beings’ personality structure and function, Compass Psychotheology offers the Self Compass, an empirically validated growth tool for assessing personality and helping individuals develop more Christlike personal and interpersonal health in their lives.

Personality research using a variety of statistical tools reveals a rhythmic structure to personality that accounts for many of the seemingly opposing dynamics within a person.

Reducing these dynamics to their most elemental form, one can say that human beings universally experience both Love and Assertion, the compass points from which a person loves, cares for, or nurtures those in their interpersonal world, and stands against, challenges, or confronts them. The Weakness and Strength compass points exemplify the times when a person feels vulnerable, uncertain, or anxious, as well as those times when the person displays adequacy, confidence, and competence.

Love and Assertion, Weakness and Strength, when taken together, form an anagram: the “LAWS” of personality and relationships that create a trustworthy guide for understanding human behavior in its healthy or dysfunctional expressions.

Though many theories of personality exist, compass theory offers the advantages of simplicity for ease of memory, yet sophistication for classifying mental health disorders known as psychopathology.

Just as a rhythmic use of Love and Assertion, Weakness and Strength, leads to personality wholeness that Jesus exemplified and persons can develop, so does the rigid overuse of one or more compass points at the expense of the others lead to dysfunction. (For an in-depth treatment on how compass theory utilizes the Self Compass in counseling and psychotherapy, see Compass Therapy: Christian Psychology in Action).

Thus in compass theory terms, Jesus’ personality perfectly expresses the LAWS of healthy human behavior; that is, on every occasion, Jesus functions with a balanced Self Compass, in which he employs the rhythmic use of Love and Assertion, or Weakness and Strength, as appropriate to the situation and his purposes.

Free of personality rigidity, Jesus enjoys complete access to all four compass points. He forms loving friendships with Peter, James, John, and Mary Magdalene, yet sets assertive boundaries if they presume upon his aims as the Son of God.

By the same token, he preaches the gospel of the kingdom of God with loving conviction, yet assertively debates many religious leaders because of their hardness of heart. This balanced interplay between Love and Assertion keeps Christ from developing the exaggerated traits of dependence upon people’s approval (too much Love), or unforgiving anger toward others (too much Assertion).

Picture Jesus experiencing Weakness and Strength in the Garden of Gethsemane, falling down with anxiety, pleading with both his disciples and the Father to help him hold true to his mission for coming into the world: to die on the cross for the sins of all people. Yet when the guards come to arrest him, he strides forth with such strength of purpose that they are speechless.

Perhaps the greatest revelation of Christ’s balanced Self Compass lies in the Messianic names given to him: Jesus as the Good Shepherd (Love compass point) watches over his sheep and calls them by name; Christ as the Lion of Judah (Assertion compass point) fiercely opposes social injustice and judges the unrighteous; Jesus as the Lamb of God (Weakness compass point) gives his life to save people from the inseparable breach that sin creates between them and God; and Christ as the Prince of Peace (Strength compass point) becomes God’s reigning Messiah who overcomes sin and the devil to inaugurate the kingdom of God.

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