...this three-article series is to outline theology-driven metapsychology for one approach; a moral motive analysis of the role of emotion in spiritual transformation. Toward that end, these articles outline 1) a framework for conceptualizing a "Good Life" story (Murphy's MacIntyrean framework), 2) a paradigm for integrating conceptions of moral development and spiritual transformation (relational spirituality paradigm), 3) a theological tradition for clarifying the importance of multiple processes of change (apophatic tradition), and finally 4) an approach to modeling the affective basis of transformation (moral motive analysis). Collectively these articles attempt to delineate an interdisciplinary paradigm that is consistent with the sensibilities of Aristotelean virtue ethics (MacIntyre, 1984), contemporary moral motive theory (Emmons & McCullough, 2004), and the apophatic tradition of personality change (Jones, 2002). The purpose of the present article is, first, to summarize Murphy's MacIntyrean framework (Dueck & Lee, 2005) as a heuristic for theory-construction to be used in subsequent articles. Second, it discusses five trends in current psychological theory that highlight the need for of a new approach to emotion and transformation. Prospects and prescriptions for future theory and research are suggested throughout the article.

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It is a mistake to think of psychoanalysis and Prozac as different means to the same end. The point of psychoanalysis is to help us develop a clearer, yet more flexible and creative, sense of what our ends might be. "How shall we live?" is, for Socrates, the fundamental question of human existence--and the attempt to answer that question is, for him, what makes human life worthwhile. And it is Plato and Shakespeare, Proust, Nietzsche, and most recently, Freud, who complicated the issue by insisting that there are deep currents of meaning, often cross- currents, running through the human soul which can at best be glimpsed through a glass darkly. This if anything, is the Western tradition: not a specific set of values, but a belief that the human soul is too deep for there to be any easy answer to the question of how to live. --Jonathan Lear, Open Minded

The relevance of metapsychology for theory and research in psychotherapy and spiritual transformation cannot be overstated. Advances in several areas of psychological science in the last 20 years suggest that the time may be right to take up anew the challenge of constructing an "integrative" psychology-theology framework for studying the affective basis of spiritual transformation (Emmons, 2005). In recent psychotherapeutic and spiritual formation literatures we are witnessing increased interest in relational and emotion-focused approaches to personality change (Bucci, 1997; Fosha, 2000), and their application to spiritual transformation (Fredrickson, 2002; Hall, 2004; Shults & Sandage, 2006). This interest, in turn, derives in large part from four contemporary developments in the interdisciplinary study of personality and emotion: 1) the burgeoning literature on the psychology of positive emotions (Snyder & Lopez, 2007), championed in large part by Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, 2) the return of virtue conceptions of moral development (Worthington & Berry, 2005), promoted by the positive psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihayli, 2000), 3) new conceptualizations of the "moral emotions" (affects) as motivators of prosocial action (Emmons & McCullough, 2004), facilitated by a "turn" in moral psychology away from Kohlbergian cognitive rationalism and toward "social intuitionist" accounts (Haidt, 2001), and 4) the proliferation of more "psycho-dynamically informed" (Westen, 1998) models of personality, featuring new integrations of social-cognitive and relational models of affective change (Fosha, 2000; Horowitz, 1991; Westen, 2002).

In light of these developments, the general purpose of this three-article series is to outline a rationale and theoretical trajectory for a more psychodynamically informed moral motive model of spiritual transformation, one that eventually offers clear and specific suggestions for therapeutic and practical theology methods. As background for such a model, the goal of these articles is a metapsychology ("story") of the role of emotion processes "both as mediators of and consequences of" spiritual transformation (Emmons, 2005, p. 247). The objective is a moral motive analysis that models how a person expands the moral affective capacities (e.g., gratitude, empathy) of personality that make up one's implicit and procedural capacity for prosocial motivation and mature relationality. For example, how does one expand the motive and capacity for compassion? To this end, these articles collectively present a framework for narrating a "Good Life" story (Murphy's MacIntyrean framework), a paradigm for integrating conceptions of implicit morality and spiritual transformation (relational spirituality paradigm), a theological tradition for clarifying the multiple principles of personality change (additive and subtractive principles), and finally an approach to modeling the motivational locus of spiritual transformation in light of relational and apophatic assumptions (moral motive analysis). Thus, these articles follow the recommended "multilevel interdisciplinary" strategy (Emmons & Paloutzian, 2003) and attempt to delineate an approach to emotion and spiritual transformation that is consistent with the sensibilities of Aristotelean virtue ethics (MacIntyre, 1984), contemporary moral motive theory (Emmons & McCullough, 2004), and the apophatic tradition of personality change (Jones, 2002). The goal is a more psychodynamically informed framework for emotion theory and research in the relational spirituality paradigm (Benner, 1988; Hall, 2004; Jones, 1996; Shults & Sandage, 2006).

"WHAT KIND OF STORY ARE WE IN?"

How one eventually views the role of emotion in spiritual transformation will depend, of course, on the nature of the metapsychological assumptions which one endorses. While Christians of all theological persuasions regard the Judeo-Christian narrative revealed in the Holy Scriptures as the "story of God" (Tilley, 1985) various tellings of the history of Christian thought seem to make it clear that we are all not living in the same "version" of the story (Benner, 1988; Foster, 1998). Nor are therapists and Christian educators, even of the same theological persuasion, operating within the same "narrative envelope" (Browning, 1991) with respect to their assumptions about and methods of change. At the beginning of their quest in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, a book that five separate reader opinion polls rated the most influential book of the 20th century, Sam asks Frodo the question: "What kind of story are we in?" He asks, not only because he is uncertain about the outcome, but also because he realizes, hobbit though he is, that not all stories are good stories. Perhaps Sam knows, with the late and much beloved psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim (1985), that: "The end is always in the beginning." With this therapeutic maxim Bettelheim sought to teach his supervisees and clients that "the assumptions, attitudes, and expectations with which we approach a therapeutic encounter or life situation define how that encounter or situation will evolve" (Frattoroli, 2001, p. 105).

At story's end I will join others in encouraging an "affirmative postmodern" approach to psychotherapy and spiritual formation (Sandage & Hill, 2001), but one that explicitly embraces a more dynamic understanding of virtue-construction and vice-diminishment. In distinction from some recent positive virtue theory, in this article I will argue that emotion and transformation in the apophatic telling of the story is quite different, and may call for different practices, than in the kataphatic version (Holmes, 1981). Mine will be a recommendation for a (relative) shifting of the "injunctions" of personality change and spiritual transformation toward an old "new" apophatic view, while envisioning such an approach within the context of the relational spirituality paradigm (Benner, 1988; Jones, 1996; Hall, 2004; Shults & Sandage, 2006). Following Thomas Kuhn (1962) in his classic work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, when I use the term injunctions I will simply mean practices or methods suggested by a paradigm that take the general form: "Do this in order to achieve that" (Wilbur, 1998). It is the 'this' (the methods of change) and the 'that' (the goal of change) that I want to discuss in this article series.

Overview of Present Article and Article Series

The purpose of the present article is to discuss the need for and significance of a "complex anthropology" (Pope, 2002) of moral-spiritual development in light of recent trends in contemporary therapeutic theory and practical theology particularly changes to the theoretical landscape of contemporary moral psychology (Lapsley, 1996) and psychotherapy (Held, 1995). A first objective is to delineate why the construction of a new framework for studying the affective basis of spiritual transformation may be an important and timely thing to do. Second, this article summarizes philosopher Nancey Murphy's (Dueck & Lee, 2005) proposed conceptual framework for integrating Christian doctrine with theory and research in psychology. Following the lead of virtue philosopher Alistair MacIntyre (1984), Murphy has suggested that psychologists need to more clearly formulate mini-systematic theologies organized around the psycho-theological dimensions of moral telos, problem, and praxis, i.e., theology-driven accounts of the purpose, dilemma, and process of moral-psychological development and flourishing. A secondary objective of this article is to outline the Murphy's MacIntyrean framework in the hope of making it more visible and accessible to the integration community.

The purpose of Part 2 is take the next step by summarizing a paradigm for integrating conceptions of implicit moral personality and spiritual transformation (relational spirituality paradigm), and then a theological tradition from which to view three principles of personality change (the apophatic tradition). That article summarizes seven basic tenets or assumptions of the recently outlined (Hall, 2004), and now expanding (Shults & Sandage, 2006) relational spirituality paradigm. To my mind, the relational spirituality paradigm provides an important theoretical advance in how we model the relationship between personality structure (particularly affective processes) and spiritual transformation, and with this a useful way to conceptualize the continuity between naturalistic and spiritual conceptions of change. In that article, I also propose a further contribution to the relational spirituality paradigm by re-considering the subtractive principle of change emphasized in the apophatic "way" (Jones, 2002). In recent integration literature there is renewed interest in the apophatic tradition of Christian thought (Coe, 2000; Mangis & Watson, 2001; Shults & Sandage, 2006; Watson, 2000) and the potential contributions it has to make to an understanding of "transformational change" (Brown & Miller, 2005). I employ Murphy's framework to model an apophatic vision of a Good Life story--moral purpose (telos of love and likeness), moral problem (dilemma of idealization and attachment), and moral praxis (process of subtraction and mourning).

Following from these considerations, Part 3 then offers a moral motive analysis (not yet a working model) of spiritual transformation that derives from recent developments in the study of "moral emotions" (Haidt, 2003) and moral motive theory (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larsen, 2001; Shulman, 2002). A central assumption of this approach, in distinction from some positive virtue models, is that virtue-acquisition and vice-diminishment are not the same processes, and likely require different practices. In brief, the proposed approach suggests that the moral "heart" of character may be meaningfully conceptualized as an associative network of moral emotions (Haidt, 2003) or "other-regarding virtues" (McCullough & Snyder, 2000). These virtues, here re-conceptualized as moral affective capacities (e.g., empathy, compassion, gratitude), collectively form the implicit and procedural moral motive associative network that enables prosocial action (love). By this view, spiritual transformation whether facilitated in religious, therapeutic, or natural helping settings, is centrally about the "amplification" (Tomkins, 1970) of these moral affective capacities such that the likelihood of 'converting' moral thought-action tendencies into caring behavior is enhanced.

Applying the Murphy-MacIntyrean...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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