Forgiveness: Key to the Creative Life: Its Power and Its Practice—Lessons from Brain Studies, Scripture, and Experience.

By Rev. James G. Emerson Jr.

Forgiveness: Key to the Creative Life begins with new information on how the brain operates in the process of forgivness.The book begins with the relation between field theory as it relates to understanding the brain. The book then develops a theory of forgiveness as a process demonstrated in both scripture and case studies. From a look atthe Kennedy assasination,the Columbine and Amish school shootings, and individual experiences, the book demonstates the process of forgiveness as leading to creativity rather than a reactive life..

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 12, 2007
• ISBN: 9781456725501

Rev. James G. Emerson Jr.

Jim Emerson began thinking about forgiveness as college student when he tried to make sense out of the split between his father and mother.  After he became an ordained pastor, Jim earned an interdisciplinary PhD at the University of Chicago that include the Divinity School, the medical school, and the counseling center of the University.  He has written on the subject of divorce and remarriage, suffering as a ministry, and creative rather than reactive living.  Jim has served as a pastor, teacher, and administrator in the fiels of faith and social service. 

Book preview

Forgiveness:

Key to the Creative Life

Lessons from brain studies,

Scripture,

And experience

By James G. Emerson, Jr. PhD

Preface by James A. Donahue, PhD, President of the Graduate Theological Union,

Berkeley, California.

Three Communities of Faith

and a Woman of Faith

To members of the Brain Studies Task Force of the Society for Pastoral Theology who prepare caregivers–clergy and lay--across the country. Without their encouragement and guidance, I would never have presented this effort for publication.

To the people of Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco whose enthusiasm at lectures on this subject encouraged me to present this material for people of faith to read. Many told me that neurological studies had contributed to the creativity of forgiveness in their own lives.

To physicist Carl York and others of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union (the GTU) in Berkeley where Kelley Bulkeley and Mark Graves lecture and write in the field of brain studies and allowed me to share in their studies and work; and to Stuart Plummer and his late wife Maxine, whose leadership in clinical pastoral education continues as a model in the field of care.

The GTU understanding of field theory, of neuroscience, and of the Divine provided the intellectual context in which the ideas of these pages could develop. Stuart and Maxine’s interest in attachment theory gave focus to me throughout the study.

To Margaret: Ours has been a marvelous experience of life together. In her years as a wife, mother, counselor, and friend she brings to us all the gift of healing, wholeness, and creativity.

Table of Contents

Forgiveness:

Key to the Creative Life

Three Communities of Faith

and a Woman of Faith

Preface

To the Reader

Why this book?

Why These Four?

A Word about the Writer

Part One

Chapter One

Our Brains and Ourselves

Chapter Two

The Fields of Play:

Chapter Three

Methods of Correlation and Perspective for Scientific Precision

Suggested Exercises In Self-awareness

Part Two

Chapter Four

The Bible and Forgiveness

Chapter Five

The Interplay of Context, Mediator, and Instrument

Suggested Exercises in Identifying the Dynamic of Forgiveness

Part Three

The Practice

Chapter Six

The Church and the Instrument of Forgiveness

Chapter Seven

Models of the Dynamic of Forgiveness

Epilogue – Concluding Reflections

Attachment One

Attachment Two

Attachment Three

Attachment Four

Acknowledgements

A Partial List of References

About the Author

Preface

The test of quality for a work of scholarly creativity is always whether it rings true to the experience of the reader. In Forgiveness: Key to the Creative Life, James Emerson is able to strike a chord that will resonate deeply not only with scholars but with practitioners and lay people alike. Emerson explores how recent research in cognitive studies correlates with insights and ideas of religion and theological studies and the other humanistic disciplines, to create greater understanding about the process of human healing.

This book is an extraordinary example of interdisciplinary research. Emerson’s experience as a scholar of religion, as well as a pastor with extensive experience with individuals in their developmental process, gives him fluency with both the scientific and theological material that is at the heart of his study. He is able to illuminate what this material really means in the lives of individuals like you and me who are navigating the vicissitudes of their life’s journey. Jim is a thinker who builds bridges, not just in ideas and concepts, but in language and illustrative example. This book is extremely well written, is accessible to the reader, and always makes the link between ideas and practice, between theory and the real world.

Emerson is an astute interpreter of cognitive theory and shows the link between the existing studies and the theological ideas and religious practices central to the experience of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a phenomenon that is intrinsic to the human condition and is present in all dimensions of experience. At the personal level, navigating conflicts requires forgiveness for resolution and growth is central to human life. At the level of institution, social group, and community, forgiveness is requisite for the successful realization of social harmony and meeting personal goals. In these pages, Jim Emerson serves as a seasoned guide through the varieties of language, intellectual constructs, and social paradigms that address issues of forgiveness.

Emerson’s study is at its core not only interdisciplinary, but inter-religious, theoretically sound and practically helpful, creative, and inspiring as well. His ability to intertwine multiple modes of investigation and to use categories of analysis and language that bridge these different perspectives in an integrated study is a remarkable achievement. Emerson does us a service as well by bringing some of the historical theories and ideas that have been part of our intellectual traditions, but perhaps left out of the contemporary conversation on forgiveness, back into the discussion.

This work will stimulate the thinking of both scholars and practitioners who are involved with the role of forgiveness in human life, religious or otherwise. We will talk about Emerson’s ideas and be grateful to him for stimulating us to think and for bringing disparate ideas into an integrated whole. We will enjoy reading this book.

James A. Donahue

February 23, 2007

To the Reader

Why this book?

Some fifty years ago, my interdisciplinary graduate studies at the University of Chicago took me into the role of forgiveness as a dynamic in personal and community health. Seven years ago, a book entitled Forgiveness came on the scene. This book edited by Professors McCullough, Pargament, and Thoresen, and published by the Guilford Press, called attention to my book of over forty-years entitled The Dynamics of Forgiveness. They identified it as probably the first scientific inquiry into the association of forgiveness with mental health and well--being.

Between that time and now, we have had the decade of the brain (1990-2000). As I have studied the lessons of that decade and since, I have asked myself, How would I have written that earlier book had people known then what we know now about the brain?

This book is the result of that question.

The fact is that new information keeps coming so fast that any thoughts we have today may be corrected or seem obsolete tomorrow. Yet enough has happened that we can stop and ask the impact of brain studies on the functioning of the brain in the experience of forgiveness. For all of us, this effort is a work in progress – but it is a progress we should identify. Few have made that identification.

The use of such procedures as brain scans, PETs, and fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging) have confirmed some facts about forgiveness as an experience and shed new light on the dynamic process itself. Clearly, forgiveness is a powerful tool for coming to terms with life. Forgiveness, properly understood and properly used, leads to healing and wholeness in the lives of individuals and of communities.

Periodicals of all kinds now write about the brain or forgiveness – The Economist, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Time, to mention a few. Research centers such as those at Stanford, Vanderbilt and other universities around the country have produced excellent work.

Yet what interests me most at this point is the research of people like Catherine Bushnell of McGill University Medical Center in Montreal, Canada, and Tom Farrow of the Sheffield Medical Center in Sheffield, England. They have focused on either forgiveness as such (Farrow) or empathy (Bushnell) without which the dynamic experience of forgiveness is lost.

I am fortunate. Both people have shared their research. Tom Farrow has continued to share his efforts.

Every caregiver can benefit from understanding how forgiveness really works. The caregiver may be a professional or a lay member of the family who offers help to a family member. Unfortunately much of the current excitement has lost sight of work that has already been done. One would almost think that no one did anything from the days of Sigmund Freud and William James until 1990! Those of us who seek to help need access to the insights of the past and the present.

As a result, I have two goals: First, out of experience to identify what of the new information is helpful for the present; second, to say enough about the past that we not reinvent the wheel.

Kelly Buckeley and Mark Graves at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and John Hogue of Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, and Leonard Rosenman M.D. of UCSF have helped me greatly with evaluation of current brain studies. In fact, their continuing encouragement has kept me at this project. My friend of long standing, Herb Anderson now of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, has proved a source of help in not losing sight of the contributions from our own field of special studies of psychology and faith. William McGarvey, Pastor of the Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, California, read the whole manuscript and made constructive observations and comments.

I must mention Pamela Cooper-White of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, and Stuart Plummer of Denver and Fraser, Colorado. Dr. Cooper-White gave needed insights into the matter of rape and forgiveness – some of which is reported in her early book, The Cry of Tamar. Stuart Plummer and his wife Maxine added much not only to the matter of attachment theory but to my own general thinking as this book began and progressed.

I come to all of this out of a background of work with people such as Carl Rogers, Seward Hiltner, and Sandra Brown from the recent and distant past. I should also mention my indebtedness to James Lapsely, formerly of Princeton Seminary, and the Society of Pastoral Theology over the years. They have listened to my developing thoughts.

My wife Margaret, better known as Migs, and I have been so closely involved in our teaching over the past fifteen years that I had hoped we would co-author this book. Unfortunately, that was not possible. Margaret has been a creative critic. Yet, as always in such cases, I must carry responsibility for what is written.

Basically, I am a practitioner who specializes in what is called evaluative research. Evaluative research is a form of research in which the researcher is part of the experience being studied. As such, the researcher must account for his or her personal influence on the outcome of any study. I live in both worlds of practice and research

For the purposes of this book, I give few footnotes and even less of a bibliography. Instead, I give attachments and comments at the end that will refer the reader to several books that have wonderfully extensive bibliographies.

Here, for both those in the practice of any form of care, counseling, care-giving, and mental health, I offer four observations as a beginning point.

1)   Field theory from physics, both as a reality and as a metaphor, can help our understanding the dynamic activity of the brain and of forgiveness. Field theory gives us a common ground for seeing science and religion as related, not opposites.

2)   Capacity for creativity stands at the heart of the dynamic of forgiveness and must be part of any definition--at least for communities of faith that have roots in Abraham (Islamic, Judaic, and Christian traditions).

3)   The dynamic of harmony as understood in Asian thought, and particularly Confucian cultures, must be seen as part of the experience of forgiveness–not just the guilt-innocence model of Roman law.

4)   And, forgiveness as an experience that leads to a doctrine must be the starting point. Too often we seem to begin with a doctrine into which we try to force an experience. The drive for wholeness and wellness requires a dialogue between practice and doctrine.

Why These Four?

Forgiveness serves as a dynamic foundation for personal and social health–and provides for that health in us as individuals and us as parts of a community.

Those communities may be our own internal fields of feeling, thinking, and acting or the wider fields of our families, our closest friends, our places of work or play, and our communities of faith. (Studies by Farrow and Bushnell demonstrate the point.)

Equally important, the dynamic of forgiveness frees us to deal creatively with insults, threats, and betrayal rather than just react. I have come to understand the role of field theory in a way I never did before. Field theory gives us a metaphor, and more than a metaphor, that helps in understanding brain functions.

Field theory also becomes the basis for a dialogue between faith and science. Faith and science then become partners, not enemies, in ones faith and practice.

My conviction about field theory grew out of recent studies done on Michael Faraday -- a nineteenth century physicist whose work became basic to such legendary figures as Planck and Einstein. I will say more about Faraday in the section on field theory. Here, I simply commend the recent biography by James Hamilton, A Life of Discovery (Random House, 2002) and the portrait he gives of Faraday.

As we will note later, Kurt Lewin’s work of the days before and after World War II became famous for his application of field theory to social issues. That work demonstrates the fact that our communities are as much in need of the dynamic of forgiveness as any individual.

A Word about the Writer

I am a reader of works on cognition and neuroscience. I am not a professional in either field. My practice of ministry and my roles as an administrator of social services use the insights of pastoral theology, social psychology, and neuroscience.

My studies were interdisciplinary. In fact, my parents were interdisciplinary as is my wife and as our grown children

Amongst them all we have lawyers, administrators, and social workers, who have background in education, business, and theology. Family experience ranges from work in the inner city to dealing with the damage done by hurricanes and tsunamis. Some of our family have built in habitat for humanity, others have operated at the highest levels of government, and still others have done basic research that has received international interest.

My Experience with this Dynamic Itself

My first efforts in the dynamic of forgiveness came when I studied the issue of divorced people who wanted to get on with their lives and, ultimately, marry again. This focus grew out of the failed marriage of my own parents.

Out of my work with the subject biblically, psychologically, and sociologically, I came to the conclusion that a person could marry again only after he or she had experienced forgiveness.1 I coined the term of that experience, Realized forgiveness. Perhaps that is why the dynamic experience of realized forgiveness has fascinated me the rest of my life and why my studies back then resulted in my definition of forgiveness as related to creativity.

Creativity is a power, and its use takes different forms. Around the world, some cultures do not have the word forgiveness in their language. I think particularly of some tribal groups in Africa and some areas of China. However, those cultures do speak of freedom – especially the freedom for creativity. Where the word forgiveness does not exist, we still find words and processes that describe the power of forgiveness that takes on increased meaning for social thought. That creative power is a tremendous resource. Based on both psychological evaluation of case studies and biblical study, that theme of creativity continues as central to human life whether or not a culture has the word forgiveness.

This Book

This book divides into three parts and an epilogue. I have added some material as attachments that I hope may be useful.

The first part reviews the basic organization of the brain and addresses specific fields within the brain – shame, memory, and empathy. This section ends with discussion of methods for evaluating case studies or events that come from the Bible and from human experience. The perspectival method of Jerome Feldman, a specialist in cognitive thought at the University of California, is important here. Equally significant for this book are the methods of correlation by the late Paul Tillich, a philosophical theologian of the last century, and Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

The second section then discusses the process of forgiveness itself. After a look at the biblical contribution to understanding the process of forgiveness (Chapter IV), I move on in Chapter V to examine three events taken from the Bible and three from current life. Biblical cases, if I may use that term, involve Job, Jesus, and a man Jesus healed. Case events include the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Columbine school shootings, and the shootings in the Amish school. The section closes with a look at ways in which Christian communities of faith have tried to make forgiveness real

The last section on the practice of forgiveness divides into two chapters. Chapter VI looks at significant events in church history that focused on the realization of forgiveness in personal life. Chapter VII then looks at selected life situations – in business administration, in life under oppression, in pre-marriage counseling, in worship, and in a death. In the epilogue, I touch on the implications for future thinking in several areas such as architecture and the use of space. To have