Outline of My First Oral Presentation

Understanding the First Methodology in Theistic Psychology

This is a presentation of Theistic Psychology by Leon James (2004)

Sections 1.8.4-1.8.4.1 http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ ch1.htm#method

 

By Sabrina Favors

 

Instructions for this oral presentation can be found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/g22-oral.htm

 

  1. Divine Psychologist
    1. God helps each human grow so they can achieve their heaven every moment, from birth until they reach the afterlife.  The Divine Psychologist is in reference to the dependent relationship with God.

i.  The main idea is that the Divine Psychologist prepares people for their afterlife, and helps them try to reach their heaven.

    1. The Divine Psychologist is actually mentioned earlier, in section 1.8.2 and defined fuller there, but there were so many references to it in these two sections, that it seemed appropriate to outline it here.  Thinking about it and explaining the concept to others helped me to understand it a little better as well, although I think I have a ways to go before fully understanding it.
    2. As you sit at your desk, reading some passage of Swedenborg’s in our Theistic Psychology text, you may get stuck.  There is the literal meaning which you understand, but the deeper meaning (which reacts to a higher level of rationality) eludes.  You think about it, and study the passage, and eventually, the spiritual meaning of it hits you (like inspiration).  This is the Divine Psychologist leading you to a higher understanding so you can reach enlighenment (moving up the scale of natural and spiritual rationality as far as you can go while still conscious).
  1. Extractive Research
    1. Literally, a method of research involving drawing out the underlying information from the literal.  In the sense of theistic psychology, finding the spiritual meaning underneath the literal meaning in Swedenborg’s Writings.

i.         This is considered the true and only method of researching theistic  psychology, and the only “entry point” is by using the method of “correspondences with enlightenment.” 

ii.   The main method of using extractive research is to translate the literal 

meaning of Swedenborg’s Writings to its higher spiritual equivalent        using the correspondence with enlightenment (i.e. working with the Divine Psychologist).

    1. This topic is the central one to these two sections, it hardly seemed appropriate to ignore it.  I think I agree with it.  The idea of searching for deeper meaning in the text, looking beyond the literal, strikes me as a sound research method for anything you look at analytically.
    2. I read Jonathan Swift’s essay, “A Modest Proposal,” in high school.  It’s a satirical piece, which my teacher didn’t mention.  The students had to look beyond the literal (Swift proposed a drastic resolution to the over-population and poverty of the lower class in Ireland) or else Swift sounded as if he’d lost his mind.  Deeper study brought understanding of the satire and what he was actually saying about social classes and inequality.
  1. Divine Speech in relation to Extractive Research
    1. The “Word of God” so to speak, which is continuous and filters down from the highest level, celestial-rational, down to our natural-corporeal mind.  It has layers of meaning which are revealed at various levels of spirituality.  It is always trying to increase the human consciousness, and it creates and initiates mental organs, so humans are prepared to process the information we receive.
    2. We’ve already discussed Divine Speech in other oral presentations, but the aspects brought up in regards to extractive research didn’t sound like what we’d learned previously, so I thought it would increase everyone’s understanding.  At the same time, however, it is still slightly confusing for me, to separate the idea of Divine Speech from the Writings of Swedenborg (I think the difference is in the level of understanding, with the literal Writings at the bottommost level).
    3. The continuousness of Divine Speech is like a cd set to ‘repeat all.’  It will play over and over without stopping, only instead of hearing the same songs over and over again, you are receiving this essence (for lack of a better term) which is influencing, and even managing your preparation (character “reformation” or “regeneration”) for heaven.

 

 

My homepage: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2004/favors/home.htm

Other Websites that may be helpful:

www.psywww.com/psyrelig/USA.html (a discussion of religion and psychology, including theistic psychology, with plenty of links)

www.newdualism.org/newtheism.htm (plenty of links to articles about new dualism, new theism, and Swedenborg)

www.swedenborg.ca/ (a general information site, with various articles dealing with his view of life, the afterlife, and prayer)