The research looks for similarities by contrasting the definition of Urban Holmes that "spirituality means the universal ability of human beings seeking after relationship" with the premise of the theory of Object Relations Theory that "the ultimate p...
The research looks for similarities by contrasting the definition of Urban Holmes that "spirituality means the universal ability of human beings seeking after relationship" with the premise of the theory of Object Relations Theory that "the ultimate purpose of libido is not the pursuit of pleasure but the pursuit of the formation of relationship with objects." The introduction of the thesis deals with the significance, objectives, and methodology of the research.
In chapter two, the author introduces the understandings of many theologians and Urban Holmes. Urban Holmes
defines spirituality in five categories and emphasizes 'relationship.' He is an Anglican priest, an evangelical theologian, as well as a pastoral psychologist. He considers that the human experience of relationship is analogous to experiencing God. He also understands sex and relationship in a holistic perspective, which is more than a simple physical meaning and includes the wholeness of spirit, sentiment, and emotion.
Chapter three examines the theory of object relations on spirituality: it deals with the basic concepts of the theory of object relations such as 'object and object relations,' psychology of relation with mother,' and 'representation of God.' The author attempts to extend cognition on spirituality by harmonizing the understandings of principal scholars who maintains the theory of object relations in Christian spirituality. Melanie Klein examines spirituality through libido theory that pursues objects and the concepts of inner objects, paranoid-schizoid and depressive position. It may be said that pursuing an object is similar to pursuing the formation of relationship.
In the theory and spirituality of D. W. Winnicott, a good-enough mother, an environment wherein the mother frequently holds the baby in her arms, the true self and the false self, transitional experience, and object usage have been dealt with. transitional objects exist between the subjective world and the real world. They supply us with a shock-absorbing function that protects from a shock which takes place when we fall from the world where we have our own way in everything into the real world where we have to comply with other's requests and cooperate with them. It may be said that religious life is a sort of middle object in that devoting ourselves to a religious life can relieve us from the suffering of objective realities.
The author also examines the theories of motivation, emotional development, and mental of W. Ronald D. Fairbairn. By saying "Libido does not pursue objects from the beginning", he makes clear that the motive of libido is not the structure of drive but the structure of relationship. As praying seeks a true relationship with God, so the true purpose of libido is pursuing objects and forming a connection to them. H. Guntrip insists that those who negatively experience a deep desire for love in their early life, reject all objects, lack emotion towards objects, tend to have tension and keep their distance between inner and external world. Such schizophrenic people tend to reject religions that deal with an emotional relation and desire, while they are driven by the world of scientific analysis. And also he considers the concept of a religious maturity and a mature dependence as concurrent. This implies that those who are in a mature dependent relation can have a mature piety. In the theory of Ann Marie Rizzuto, the author deals with a unique scope of the formation of God's representation through the experience of object. And she explains how the representation of God is formed.
Chapter four concerns self-psychology and Christian spirituality. The author examines the concept of selfobject of Heinz Kohut and the experience of a spiritual oxygen (favor, respect, twinship selfobject). Heinz Kohut asserts that, concerning self-object, God plays a good role of self-object. He considers that the perfect and omnipotent God who wants weak human beings who have a sense of guilt to be reconciled accords with an eons-old almighty self-object, namely the idealized original image of parents.
In chapter five, the author examines the relation between the formation of image, "the good God" of Rev. Yonggi Cho and his life; of his experience of an emotionally charming mother and idealized father, the experience of a well-timed frustration, and self-fulfillment. The young minister formed a negative image of God in the early 30's, as his psychological structure was feeble because of the lack of the experience of selfobject and a fatal traumatic injury.
In chapter six, the analysis on the correlation between self-esteem and spirituality has been conducted. Those who have a good relation with early objects generally have a high self-esteem. The hypothesis is "the higher self-esteem people have, the better spiritual health they will have." The author conducted a survey of spiritual health and spiritual maturity on the upper 25% people who had a high self-esteem. The average of the result was remarkably higher than that of all respondents. Therefore, the hypothesis was proved to be significant.
Chapter seven deals with the theory of object relations and the pastoral counselling application of selfpsychology. The possibility of application of two theories is examined in the view of pastoral care. In conclusion, the author proposes five suggestions concerning pastoral application.