Embedded psychologies and theologies: A foundation for critical theory in spiritual direction

The dissertation establishes a foundation for future critical theory in spiritual direction by addressing two research questions: (1) How has contemporary spiritual direction engaged developments in psychology and theology in the past twenty-five years, especially shifts in the psychological understanding of the human self? (2) How might social constructionist understandings of human identity and religious/spiritual experience change or inform the way spiritual directors understand the dynamics of spiritual direction?;Part I uses quantitative methodology to identify psychological and theological sources informing the contemporary literature of spiritual direction. The quantitative analysis is followed by a qualitative content analysis that identifies the primary psychological, theological, and anthropological themes embedded in the texts. This portion of the study concludes that (a) the contemporary literature of spiritual direction has not adequately engaged recent developments in psychology or theology, especially shifts in the understanding of the self; (b) psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theories are the primary psychologies informing the contemporary literature of spiritual direction; and (c) there is a lack of congruence between the literature's embedded theology of the self and the understandings of the self promoted by its primary psychological sources. Social constructionism is proposed as a psychological lens that could bring congruence to the psychological and theological understandings of the self in the contemporary literature of spiritual direction. Part II engages social constructionism as a cognate discipline for the theory and practice of spiritual direction, presenting an overview of social constructionist theory and examining the ways in which social constructionism has been engaged by the disciplines of practical theology, pastoral theology, and the psychology of religion. After identifying intentional and unintentional appropriations of social constructionist thought in the contemporary literature of spiritual direction, the dissertation advocates the rhetorical-responsive model of social constructionism as the most appropriate model to inform the theory and practice of spiritual direction. The dissertation concludes by proposing generative possibilities that might emerge from a mutually critical correlation of social constructionist theory and the contemporary literature of spiritual direction.