Why We Need A Christian Personality Theory

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.

For more, read:

CHRISTIAN PERSONALITY THEORY:

A SELF COMPASS FOR HUMANITY

The Trinity, Compass Psychotheology, and You

Compass Psychotheology represents a new field of study pioneered by Dr. Dan and Kate Montgomery. It seeks to integrate reliable principles from modern psychology with orthodox Trinitarian Christianity.

James Joyce spent 7,000 hours in writing Ulysses, the book that introduced the literary device of stream of consciousness into Western literature.

Dan and Kate spent 10,000 hours in writing Compass Psychotheology, the book that weds Christianity and psychology, and the foundation for their Compass Series works.

The Montgomery's aim included bringing together a cohesive theory of the God-human encounter that revealed modern psychological dynamics of personality and relationship within a perspective anchored in Bible teaching and a Christian worldview.

At its first tier of organizational composition, the overarching approach is known as Compass Theory. Compass Theory connects a Christian metaphysical conception of God, the cosmos, and humanity with the human psychological functions of perception, motivation, learning, memory, emotion, cognition, sensation, and spirituality.

Compass Theory suggests hypotheses about healthy versus unhealthy behavior, and offers ways to knit together identity, intimacy, and community—the perennial concerns of every person and every society, from ancient through contemporary times.

Where possible, Compass Theory cites empirical studies from psychological research on equal footing with biblical exegesis of Scripture, believing that both science and faith are essential to understand the complexities of human persons, and the mystery of God as present in persons and societies through the redemptive salvation of Jesus Christ through his atoning life, death, and resurrection.

The second tier of Compass Series works seeks direct application to human need in the forms of the Self Compass growth tool, Compass Therapy, Christian Personality Theory, and Compass Psychotheology. 

Applied to self-help and healthy personality it becomes The Self Compass: Charting Your Personality In Christ.

Applied to inspiration for Christian living it becomes: Faith Beyond Church Walls: Finding Freedom in Christ.

Applied to counseling and psychotherapy it becomes, Compass Therapy: Christian Psychology In Action, and Christian Counseling That Really Works.

Applied to understanding of Christ's personality and human personality it becomes Christian Personality Theory: A Self Compass for Humanity.

And applied to integrating behavioral science with biblical theology it becomes Compass Psychotheology: Where Psychology and Theology Really Meet.

The third tier of Compass Series works drawn from Compass Theory seeks direct application within Christian churches, but are finding use among leaders and members of synagogues and mosques as well. This may indicate that Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share a common biblical anthropology and belief that the God who created humans seeks to interact with them in personal and corporate ways.

Applied to pastoral care and counseling it becomes Pastoral Counseling and Coaching: Compass Therapy in Churches.

The fourth tier of Compass Series works drawn from Compass Theory seeks to apply God's nature as the divine Trinity to every aspect of human life. Compass Theory suggests that God is only omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, but relational. That is, that the one God of the Old and New Testaments is revealed in and through Jesus Christ as Three Persons who are One God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Applied to a Trinitarian understanding of love, holiness, worship, grace, prayer, human nature, the unconscious, miracles, the devil, science, psychology, philosophy, the Bible, and becoming a Christian it becomes Trusting In The Trinity: Compass Psychotheology Applied.

A fifth level of Compass Series works drawn from Compass Theory seeks to promote a unifying conversation between Protestant and Catholic Christians using the Compass Model. In their marriage Dan and Kate Montgomery have themselves bridged the historical differences between Kate's liturgical and creedal formation as a confirmed Anglican (close in most ways to the Catholic Church), and Dan's Bible-believing and Jesus-centered spirituality (akin to Baptist, Pentecostal, and Wesleyan fellowships). Together they joyfully took a leap of faith to write a crossover book for Roman Catholics that is now commended by Cardinals and housed in the Vatican Library.

Applied to understanding the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a Catholic believer's personality transformation in Christ, Compass Theory becomes God and Your Personality: Revised and Expanded Catholic Edition.

New books on the Compass Theory works-in-progress list include one for a popular readership and one for professional therapists. The general readership book is tentatively titled, The Trinity, World Beliefs, and You. The book for professional therapists and pastoral counselors is tentatively titled, DSM-V and Christian Personality Theory.

Dan and Kate warmly welcome your involvement as compass psychotheology continues to develop in the 21st century!

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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