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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
religious sentiment is such an organised system of emotional
tendencies associated with the idea of God.
In some such terms the psychologist can explain the psychic
occurrences associated with conversion; but he cannot answer
the question. Is there a reality corresponding with the idea of
God? We affirm the reality of God by faith. His existence
cannot be proved by demonstration. For this reason, as Dimond
says, the essential nature of a conversion experience is not
accessible to analysis.
Religious thinking begins with an affirmation of the reality of
God. It employs terms other than those of the psychologist and
a different point of view informs it. The religious term for the
phenomenon we have been discussing is ‘the order of Grace’, or,
more correctly perhaps, ‘the order of conversion’. A comparison
between the psychological and religious viewpoints is of value
and will now be made.
The Order of Grace
No responsible spiritual counsellor can fail to appreciate that
deep wisdom is enshrined in the old teaching concerning the
order of Grace. Here conversion is regarded as a phase or link in
a continuing process. The religious and psychological
experiences that precede it coincide with the states of Grace preceding
the perfect work of Grace, to which they are organically
related. This concept throws new light on many religious
experiences and the nature of the spiritual life as a whole.
Perhaps the point will be made more clear if we say that the
work of salvation is a process that occurs in a definite order and
is subject to its own law. While this order is demonstrable, its
stages do not occur in a temporal sequence. They interlock and
permeate each other. The process of development has no limit.
It is never concluded.
If one acknowledges that there are different states of Grace,
one should also acknowledge that there are different grades of
faith. Divergent views about this was one of the causes of the
opposition between John Wesley and the Herrnhuters. Wesley
insisted that faith did not invariably or necessarily mean the
full certainty of faith.
During the Christian centuries many different opinions have
been held’ concerning the number of definable stages of
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