The Question of God is not extrinsic, and if it is, it is unhealthy!

I have just reading four different books for a class I am taking on the Christian worldview. All four were thought provoking but one in particular was both challenging and affirming at the same time.

The book is called The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life. I think what has been so helpful for me personally is that both Freud and Lewis have been a big part of my referential system, and having someone put both their worldviews and their lives side by side.

The Author, Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr., is a Professor of clinical Psychiatry at Harvard Medical school which means he brings a different life experience than the typical Christian Author. He makes it clear that he wants to explore the worldviews of each man, but also their lives and, in his words how the way they lived their lives might “strengthen or weaken their arguments and tell us more than their words convey.”

What emerges is that Freud lived life intellectually brilliant but socially dysfunctional. For all of his insight into how people worked, he seemed unable to maintain healthy friendships or relationships with the opposite sex.

What came through profoundly in the book was the way that C.S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity affected his whole life.

The author writes:

It happened when he was thirty-one years old. The change revolutionised his life, infused his mind with purpose and meaning, and dramatically increased his productivity; it also radically altered his values, his image of himself, and his relationships with others. The experience not only turned Lewis around, but turned him outward – from a focus on himself to a focus on others.
Even his temperament changed. People who knew him before and after his conversion write about his becoming more settled, with an inner quietness and tranquility. A buoyant cheerfulness replaced his pessimism and despair. On the last days before he died, those who were with Lewis spoke of his “cheerfulness” and “calmness.”

The author was fascinated by the apparent change in Lewis’s character from a psychological point of view and conducted a series of interviews with University students who had been through a similar conversion experience. His conclusion was that there were a number of similarities between Lewis’s conversion and the experience of the students he interviewed.

The first similarity was contextual. Both Lewis and the students came to faith in the “context of a modern, Liberal university where the climate tended to be hostile to such experiences.”

The second similarity was that “both Lewis and the students observed in the lives of people they admired some quality they found missing in their own lives.”

The third similarity was that “both Lewis and each of the students made a conscious exertion of their wills to open their minds and examine the evidence.”

The final similarity was that:

“Both Lewis and each of the students, after their conversion, found their new faith enhanced their functioning. They reported positive changes in their relationships, their image of themselves, their temperament, and their productivity. People who knew Lewis and those who knew the students before and after their transition confirmed these changes.”

As I read these words and saw the theme come up right the way through the book I found myself challenged to look at my own life and examine where my faith does not affect my life. As I did I realized that too often my faith gets consumed by the “reality” I am living, rather than transforming my view of the reality.

I love though, that the strongest argument for Christianity is Christians who have had their lives changed by their faith.

As Freud points out though, the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians, who apparently have not had their life affected by their faith.

The author helpfully tackles the distinction between people who are intrinsically and extrinsically religious. He writes that:

Extrinsically religious people are those whose expressions of faith are motivated by a need to attain status or be accepted by others. Usually a child’s faith, motivated by a need to please parents, falls into this category. Intrinsically religious people are those who internalise their beliefs so that they become the primary motivating influence in their lives. Many of this group speak of a specific time when they came to faith; some speak of the experience as a rebirth. Modern medical research has shown that extrinsic religiousity can have a negative effect on physical and emotional health, whereas intrinsic faith often has a scientifically demonstrable positive effect.

I realised that there is always a temptation for those of us in ministry (and I guess for anyone) to slip into extrinsic faith and away from intrinsic faith. The book reminded me just how important my faith is to every aspect of my life.