Spiritual Practices Are Boring: a Psychoanalytic Understanding of Spiritual Ennui
- PDF / 328,354 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 81 Downloads / 248 Views
Spiritual Practices Are Boring: a Psychoanalytic Understanding of Spiritual Ennui Brad D. Strawn 1
& Chris D. Gioielli
2
Accepted: 1 September 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Boredom in prayer or in a spiritual discipline can be a common experience among people of faith. Questions arise about what is going wrong, and some may stop their practice altogether. Believers bring their histories and personalities to the devotional moment, which may account for some of this boredom. D. W. Winnicott and spiritual theology reveal the underlying dynamics at play in certain types of boredom and offer practical methodology for discernment and navigation through such experiences. Spiritual theology indicates that boredom in prayer may be a result of sin, God-initiated purgation, or a developmental capacity or deficit. In cases of developmental capacity or deficit, spiritual theology does not fully explain why the deficit exists or how to develop that capacity. Psychoanalytic theory bolsters spiritual theology by providing a deeper understanding of such boredom experiences and a methodology for working with them. Case studies from psychoanalytic theory and spiritual direction amplify theoretical concepts by providing examples of practical applications. Keywords Spiritual disciplines . Spiritual practices . Boredom . Christian spirituality . Psychoanalysis . Spiritual formation Most spiritual directors or pastors have heard some version of the complaint that spiritual practices are boring. Believers may bemoan that the practices are stale and dry. Reading Scripture feels lifeless and praying an act of futility. The person is tempted to stop their practice because of the discomfort that emerges whenever they try. They may feel that they are doing something wrong or are struck by the fact that they feel nothing at all. What they know * Brad D. Strawn [email protected] Chris D. Gioielli [email protected]
1
School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, 180 N. Oakland Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
2
Colorado Therapy & Assessment Center, 1777 S. Bellaire St Suite 390, Denver, CO 80222, USA
Pastoral Psychology
they feel is just plain bored, and they wonder if there is something wrong with them. Something about the experience is unnerving. Such a thought process or conversation is not uncommon for those involved in the practice of spiritual disciplines.1 Within the ebb and flow of the life of faith, there are times when practices feel life-giving and times when they feel dry or just plain boring. It may seem as though something in the discipline is lacking or has changed. However, another possibility is that believers bring their histories and personalities to the devotional moment and the boredom therefore reveals something worth exploring. It is the thesis of this article that psychoanalysis and spiritual theology may shed light on the concept and experience of boredom in the life of the believer. We use the psychoanalytic theorizing of D. W.
Data Loading...
