There is a
Freudian personality theory, a Jungian personality theory, a
cognitive-behavioral personality theory. And now there is a Christian
personality theory.
Compass
personality theory offers a Christian approach to personality and relationships
that is anchored in a biblical worldview, informed by personality research, and
applied to the understanding of self, others, and God.
Compass
theory describes human beings through the term interpersonal selfhood, a term
that unites the essence of individual persons with their common humanity, a
term that preserves the singularity of personality while reflecting the
plurality of social existence, a term derived from the Trinity as three persons
in one God who created humankind in their image. Thus, human beings derive
their personhood and interpersonal orientation from God, who is “a living person
whose nature defines the meaning of personhood” (cf. Nah 1:4-5).
God exists as
the transcendent and sovereign Creator of all that is: “The Lord our God, the
Lord is one!” (Deut 6:4). Yet the plurality of God’s Being is revealed by the
use of the plural pronoun, elohim, in the Genesis narrative of creation: “Then
God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness’” (Gen
1:26). Further, God has disclosed his personality and interpersonal nature
through Jesus Christ, the God-person, and through the social Trinity—the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit—who are historically and progressively revealed in the
biblical narrative.
Because Jesus
voluntarily descended from the Godhead to assume human nature, he relates to
all humanity. His death accomplished the atonement for sin that reconciles
persons to God and one another. At his resurrection he declared on behalf of
every person, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God” (Jn 20:17).
Because Jesus
is himself God, sharing with the Father and Holy Spirit the interpersonal
selfhood of God’s essence, Christ mediates the Lord’s actualizing purpose for
human personality, infusing those who trust in him with the power of
personality transformation, power imparted not through esoteric teaching,
ethical striving, or religion per se, but through an individual’s own human
nature, personality, and connection to Almighty God.
Human
psychology is not foreign to Christ because he invented it. Human personality
development is not irrelevant to God, because God’s personality gives infinite
significance to human personality. Human community is not alien to God, because
he delights in it, reflecting as it does the Trinitarian community.
When joined
together in Christ, human psychology, personality, and community find actualizing
fulfillment, as Jesus foresaw in his earthly prayer to the Father. “I have
given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in
them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know
that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:22-23).
Christ
actively engages those who invite him with the greatest challenge they can
know: to develop their thoughts and feelings, sensation and perception,
learning and memory, motivation and intentionality—with the presence of God in
their personality.
Since the Trinity radiates supreme health in their unity as
God and their relationship to humanity, Jesus provides the standard for
assessing personality health among human beings, not just theoretically, but as
the ontological foundation for compass personality theory.
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