It is helpful to use this blog as a discussion starter for two or more people but it will also stimulate some thoughts if used by one reader. The material is used by a Sunday Study Group at Hamilton Christian Church in St. Louis, Missouri.
Human Nature and Faith
One of the theames of the bible is to put aside our normal cares and concerns with the confidence that God will provide for our needs. Today we will look at one persons theory about human nature and compare it to a lifestyle that Jesus urged us to take up. First, a take on human nature:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
One of the theames of the bible is to put aside our normal cares and concerns with the confidence that God will provide for our needs. Today we will look at one persons theory about human nature and compare it to a lifestyle that Jesus urged us to take up. First, a take on human nature:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
From Psychology- The Search for Understanding by Janet A. Simons, Donald B. Irwin and Beverly A. DrinnienWest Publishing Company, New York, 1987
Physiological Needs
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.
Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.
Needs for Esteem
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
Needs for Self-Actualization
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.
Food for Thought
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.
Food for Thought
Imagine the above as a pyramid depicting the level of human needs, psychological and physical. When a human being ascends the steps of the pyramid he reaches self actualization.
1. What do you think about Maslow’s theory; does it in any way fit with your life’s experience? What happens if we get stuck at any given level, how can it affect our lives, what might our feelings be?
2. Do you think that there is a natural instinct which causes us to both move up the pyramid and fight to not fall back a step or two?
3. According to this theory when are we really able to move beyond being self centered and reach out beyond ourselves?
4. Can some of the seemingly aberrant behaviors of individuals and even nations be explained by this theory?
2. Do you think that there is a natural instinct which causes us to both move up the pyramid and fight to not fall back a step or two?
3. According to this theory when are we really able to move beyond being self centered and reach out beyond ourselves?
4. Can some of the seemingly aberrant behaviors of individuals and even nations be explained by this theory?
Reality Check:
If Maslow is to be believed we are all hard wired with these innate needs and will strive to fulfill them. Think of a time when you were sick and how it impacted the other aspects of your life and dominated your thoughts and concerns. There have also been a number of very famous people, Michael Jackson, who took huge risks with medications, to the point of risking death, to overcome sleep deprivation. Note the highest state is self-actualization, firmly placing us as individuals and our needs in the forefront. In reading the Apostle Paul’s letters you will find Maslow’s hierarch of needs described as living by the flesh.
Jesus’ Hierarchy of Needs
Jesus’ Hierarchy of Needs
Luke 12: 29-32 "What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
33-34 "Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
Paul’s Hierarchy of Needs
Romans 12: 1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Constructing a Faith Based Pyramid
1. What do the scriptures urge us to forget, pass over, disregard in Maslow’s theory and how are we to be able to do it?
2. What can you pull out of the scriptures that might be included in the base of a pyramid which this scripture urges us to live by? What else might be added?
3. What would you fill in as the bottom of a pyramid that Jesus might be describing? How many levels would it contain? What would be included as we ascend?
4. Should we include some spiritual disciplines which might be the basis for moving up the pyramid of faith?
5. What goes into the apex of the pyramid, what does the scriptures tell us about the way in which we should experience life?
2. What can you pull out of the scriptures that might be included in the base of a pyramid which this scripture urges us to live by? What else might be added?
3. What would you fill in as the bottom of a pyramid that Jesus might be describing? How many levels would it contain? What would be included as we ascend?
4. Should we include some spiritual disciplines which might be the basis for moving up the pyramid of faith?
5. What goes into the apex of the pyramid, what does the scriptures tell us about the way in which we should experience life?
This is one groups attempt to describe the faith hierarch we are called to take up by Jesus and Paul. The journey begains as a Seeker and builds on that foundation:
God or Spirit Actualized
A Follower
A Doer
A Seeker
Focus on spiritual questions, listening and asking questions, some form of bible study, seeking a faith community
A Follower
Baptism, set example, offering self to God, participating in rituals like communion, experimenting with , prayer, learning to turn to God
A Doer
Giving and sharing, concern and action against injustice, sensitive to others needs, serving, engaging others in personal faith stories, meaningful prayer life
Recognizing what God wants & responding, focus on others, changedfrom the inside out, a credible example, confident in God’s presence, able to resist cultural influences
Closing Prayer
O God, be my refuge in every time and circumstance of need. Be my guide thru all that is dark and doubtful. Be my guard against all that threatens my Spirit’s welfare. Gladden my heart with your peace. Amen By John Baillie
Next Week’s Scriptures: Isaiah 5:1-7 or Jeremiah 23:23-29, Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 or Psalm 82, Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2, Luke 12:49-56
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