The image that I have spoken about is pictured below:
It is found in the booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws pictured below:
But to head off any objections quickly in advance, let me point out that my putting emotions before reason does NOT result in feelings, followed by faith and then followed by fact. The diagram, if reversed as below has mixed categories logically that don't belong together. So up front I disavow any view that looks like the following illogical (Do you see how I still value logic and reason?) scheme:
Now that I have answered that concern up front let's continue. According to Goleman, my Bible and Tim Keller, our emotions have to come before our reason or rationality. But let's be clear, second goes with first. The best of all worlds has the two working together like the first and second commandments. The first commandment is the greater, the second commandment is the lesser between the two and the two together for the greatest commandment. I learned this principle of greater, lesser, and greatest first from my studying at the Center for Biblical Research in Pasadena, CA (now in Redlands, CA. Dr. William Bean taught all of us the importance of knowing the distinction of greater and lesser. But this was really driven home to me later with the example of how KJV translators viewed how they were to translate the word for justice. In some contexts, when the Hebrew word meant justice in addition to rightewousess it is translated as justice. But at other times when it stands for both both righteousness and justice it was to be translated as judgment.
So let's look at some examples of greater and lesser before moving back to the topic of emotional and rational. Let's lay out what I have just said in a more graphic format:
GREATER LESSER GREATEST
Righteousness Justice Judgment
Plumb line Level line Level (er) (vertical and horizontal)
1st commandment 2nd commandment 2nd commandment sums up 1 & 2
Living or dead Lion or dog Living Lion over all other combos
Food or not food Full loaf or half-loaf The full loaf of food is greatest
You get the pattern. So what is the pattern I see for emotions and reason? My answer is:
GREATER LESSER GREATEST
Emotional Logical, rational Rational emotion (credibility)
If you disagree with my order consider this. So do the charts that many Christians grew up with in the evangelical setting. You ought to react that way based on your education. But please take your education another step forward. Search the Scriptures to see if what they taught you in pubic or private school is true.
People claim all the time that Scripture is their only rule and authority, but in actual mental health deny it. They respond out of a defensiveness in the sense that they do not want to hear that their position is not good enough. Or worse yet, they feel a sense of grief over having to let go of an idea they so prized. So let's bring Scripture itself into this messy situation.
We read in any translation I have ever read: "the fear of the LORD [Yahweh] is the beginning of wisdom". To me the beginning comes first. So the emotion of fear comes before the reason of wisdom. Note that it does not say that "wisdom of the LORD [Yahweh] is the beginning of fear". This is not the only place we see mention of emotion before reason. "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy". Notice that the reference is first to fear and then to reason.
Note to this diagram that shows somewhat (the best would be where there is more overlap) my point if you move from right to left like the Hebrews:
THE mistake people make is that they think that the greater and lesser are mutually exclusive rather than realizing that they both are necessary to reach the greatest. Consider this example. The recent killings and suicide at Santa Barbara were followed by deep expressions of grief and deep reason in some cases. In one expression alone the question was asked: "When will the insanity end?" This was asked by a father feeling the grief of losing his son, but also still in possession of his rational faculties. He has more credibility at this moment than anyone not touched by the tragedy both because of his grief but also because of his reason. The danger for the rest of us is that we can ignore his grief and we can sidestep his rationality. He clearly feels the grief and sees the insanity. He knows delay does not make sense in light of this continuing new tide of the same kind of outcomes. So why do he rest of us think it does make sense emotionally and rationally? Could it be that we have become cold to the emotion and only cold rationalists able to delay, because his emotion does not touch our own? Have we become so bad at communication that we can't even listen well to either emotion or reason?
It appears we have. There is nothing that is calling us to do something. We are going to do the same things again which means the insanity will happen again. We will once again bring in the emotional experts to heal the wounds rather than prevent the wounds. We will continue to bankrupt the system. WE will be so proud of ourselves for being ahead of past research and of making the latest discoveries. But this man is hurting, is he not? So, what if we or our best friend is next? So what if we only ignore him? I got a feeling a lot of people might feel like he does, that they have been slighted yet again. That just sets off further anger that is unresolved. And anger was the emotion involved in the killings.
No, emotions cannot be sidestepped, they must be faced. It is the only way to begin to diminish anger. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of the man who no longer has a son and who feels now that his question is not being addressed in a prompt fashion. All the rest of us must look slow to him.
Talk to Rev. Tmothy Keller, talk to Daniel Goleman. But more than that think about what the title Christianity TODAY (my emphasis) says in relation to the man's question of "When?". Can we say TODAY to this man is when we will do something. Will you do something TODAY? Will you contact me TODAY and help me form a team response? Or will your emotions continue to run just a little later on the tracks than it should. Will the caboose arrive just a little late, when the engine arrived on time? Will it continue arriving late with some well-worn excuse or can we hear the whistle of our emotions that says get on board with this guy now and do something. Let's stop the insanity NOW, not LATER.
Don't fall into the errors (sins) of the caboose like I did. I pray that I have communicated with you in such a way that you cannot ignore that man's grief nor the grief you can feel through him. Ask the man who has lost a son, how it feels and why he feels the way he does. I think he can prove more than I can at this moment. Go ask him, if you still don't think emotions comes first. Should he not feel grief first and most? May God's word move you to both emotion and reason and then to action. May God bless all of us to learn to communicate in this way. Remember the greater and the lesser together are the greatest. That man gave all of us an expression that was the greatest statement of all. Respond to it. Don't just sit there. How can you do that? You can't, right? I can't. So I am doing what I can. I pray you will too.
Sincerely,
Jon,
A friend of a man with
the courage to speak what
he feels eloquently.
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