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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
strangeness both allures and disconcerts him. This is not
surprising. We seldom make an act of valuation in a condition of
undisturbed harmony and repose. Moreover, the religious act
of dedication is at the same time a surrender: the culmination
of a spiritual struggle in which inner opposition is broken,
perhaps only after violent mental and emotional effort. Even
when the victory has been won its possession is not left
undisputed. The contest between faith and doubt is continually
renewed while life lasts; for spiritual development, like physical
growth, is the outcome of a dialectical process between the
creature and the forces of the world.
Wonder and Doubt
In one of his books Lilius, the Finnish psychologist, discusses
the significance of wonder in the formation of concepts. He sees
in it an emotional attitude which causes our attention to be held
by events that we have not wholly comprehended or accepted
as familiar. Wonder is aroused by anything that cannot be
co-ordinated with our present knowledge without question or
resistance.
Lilius maintains that, during early childhood, wonder is a
general driving force with a strong religious element in it. It can
thus have a positive effect in encouraging religious development,
while influencing the individual in many other ways also. As
each new phase of growth begins, wonder is aroused and
speculation occurs about events that hitherto were accepted
without question. What is observed can no longer be absorbed
into the individual’s world of thought without opposition. It
arouses wonder and doubt at the same time.
For this reason periods of doubt form a normal part of
personal development. We have an inherited aptitude for
belief; that is to say, a degree of credulity is natural in us all. It
is a component of our spiritual structure without which we
should be helpless. It is not only in relation to religion that our
thinking must start from pure assumptions. Without them we
could not begin to think at all.
When we accept an idea, we do so not merely because it
appeals to our common sense but also because nothing challenges
1 De växandes känsloliv, Stockholm, 1922.
120
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