Hi,
Just want to ask people what they think of the writtings of M. Scott Peck, as a guide to spiritual growth for a christian. Scott Peck is best known for his book The Road Less Travelled. But he wrote seven or eight more. He was a psychiatrist, and when he wrote his second book, The People of the Lie, he announced he had become a christian and been baptised. The second book took the issue of human evil seriously, and I have found it a very interesting read, it details a host of case studies of clients of his that he came to feel may be evil, or close to becoming evil. After that he wrote several other books, some on community. I have three of his books, the first two, and a follow up called Further Along the Road Less Travelled.
I am sorry to say i have not found the sort of help or understanding I am seeking when I have talked to the Pastors at churches i have been to, or christian counsellors, thats not to say there are no good ones, but it leaves me with the only other option at times of seeking help from psycho-therapy, and at times I think they are superior in their understanding of the soul, though they often are not christians. As I have also read some of the critiques of secular psychology, I feel left in a quandry. Pastors address matters from a christian point of view but will often admit they don't have a depth understanding of the soul. Other pastors are dead against psychology, and think the Bible is sufficient.
I have had to try and think all this through myself - probably something some Pastors haven't even made any attempt to do.
Back to Scott Peck
I think books like this do affect one's hermenutic, one's way of understanding the world.
I have a lot of respect for Scott Peck, his writings are genuine and I don't think he is anything like some of the charlatans in the self-help movement.
Theres just a few things in what he says, were he would diverge from traditional christian understandings. One is were he talks about the Garden of Eden: he writes
"the story of the Garden of Eden is of course a myth, but like other myths it is an embodiment of truth, and among the many truthful things the myth of the Garden of Eden tells us is how we human beings evolved into consciousness. When we ate the apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we became conscious, and having become conscious, we became self-conscious."
I have a few questions about that, but to begin with what does it mean for something to be a myth, and what does it mean for something to be historical? I am inclined to think at this moment that history in the Bible begins at certain point later than the early chapters of Genesis, but that that doesn't mean the events in Genesis never took place as described, or that they were not space-time events. So to what should we ascribe the term historical, and can we say of events, people etc. they are non-historical without meaning they never took place, or existed?
Just want to ask people what they think of the writtings of M. Scott Peck, as a guide to spiritual growth for a christian. Scott Peck is best known for his book The Road Less Travelled. But he wrote seven or eight more. He was a psychiatrist, and when he wrote his second book, The People of the Lie, he announced he had become a christian and been baptised. The second book took the issue of human evil seriously, and I have found it a very interesting read, it details a host of case studies of clients of his that he came to feel may be evil, or close to becoming evil. After that he wrote several other books, some on community. I have three of his books, the first two, and a follow up called Further Along the Road Less Travelled.
I am sorry to say i have not found the sort of help or understanding I am seeking when I have talked to the Pastors at churches i have been to, or christian counsellors, thats not to say there are no good ones, but it leaves me with the only other option at times of seeking help from psycho-therapy, and at times I think they are superior in their understanding of the soul, though they often are not christians. As I have also read some of the critiques of secular psychology, I feel left in a quandry. Pastors address matters from a christian point of view but will often admit they don't have a depth understanding of the soul. Other pastors are dead against psychology, and think the Bible is sufficient.
I have had to try and think all this through myself - probably something some Pastors haven't even made any attempt to do.
Back to Scott Peck
I think books like this do affect one's hermenutic, one's way of understanding the world.
I have a lot of respect for Scott Peck, his writings are genuine and I don't think he is anything like some of the charlatans in the self-help movement.
Theres just a few things in what he says, were he would diverge from traditional christian understandings. One is were he talks about the Garden of Eden: he writes
"the story of the Garden of Eden is of course a myth, but like other myths it is an embodiment of truth, and among the many truthful things the myth of the Garden of Eden tells us is how we human beings evolved into consciousness. When we ate the apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we became conscious, and having become conscious, we became self-conscious."
I have a few questions about that, but to begin with what does it mean for something to be a myth, and what does it mean for something to be historical? I am inclined to think at this moment that history in the Bible begins at certain point later than the early chapters of Genesis, but that that doesn't mean the events in Genesis never took place as described, or that they were not space-time events. So to what should we ascribe the term historical, and can we say of events, people etc. they are non-historical without meaning they never took place, or existed?
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