Faith and Psychology: The Contribution of Empirical Research and Jungian Psychological Type Theory to Practical and Pastoral Theology

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie J. Francis
Author(s):  
Leslie J. Francis

The sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching has its roots in three fields: a theology of individual differences situated within the doctrine of creation, an application of Jungian psychological-type theory and empirical observation. The present study tested the empirical foundations for this method by examining the psychological-type profile of two groups of Anglican preachers (24 licensed readers in England and 22 licensed clergy in Northern Ireland) and by examining the content of their preaching according to their dominant psychological-type preferences. These data provided further support for the psychological principles underpinning the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching.


Author(s):  
Leslie J. Francis ◽  
Greg Smith ◽  
Alec S. Corio

Psalm 139 provides both great opportunities and huge challenges for the preacher. It is a Psalm crafted in four parts: part two is an imaginative and poetic affirmation of God’s omnipresence that engages the Jungian perceiving process; part four is a fierce and uncompromising diatribe against God’s enemies that engages the Jungian judging process. Interpretations of these two sections of the Psalm are explored among a sample of 30 Anglican deacons and priests serving as curates who were invited to work in small hermeneutical communities, structured according to psychological type theory and designed to test the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching. The findings from the hermeneutical communities demonstrated that the poetic power of part two was perceived quite differently by sensing types and by intuitive types. The judgement against God’s enemies in part four was evaluated quite differently by feeling types and by thinking types. The implications of these different readings of sacred text are discussed in relation both to hermeneutical theory and to homiletic practice.


2002 ◽  
Vol 95 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1063-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Tranum ◽  
Anthony F. Grasha

Response distributions for five cognitive illusions and one visual illusion were examined in two samples, college students ( n = 134) and pharmacists ( n = 51). These illusions were selected for study on the basis of pharmacists' judgments about associations of illusions to common dispensing errors. Participants were categorized as Illusion-prone or Illusion-resistant, and distributions of such tendencies for the six stimuli used varied within samples. Significant differences between the two samples on illusion-proneness and resistance were observed for the “Moses' Ark” and “Fcount” illusions. Associations of Illusion-prone and Illusion-resistant responses to field-dependence, psychological type, and the cognitive orientations derived from Psychological Type Theory were examined. Field-independence–field-dependence was the only cognitive dimension associated with Illusion-prone and Illusion-resistant responding. Implications of the data for developing measures based upon visual and cognitive illusions to identify people with error-prone tendencies were discussed.


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