What is belief? For most of us we understand belief to be some type of mental assent or way of understanding. We group ourselves with others who hold to a similar belief and call ourselves communities, brotherhoods, cults, churches, countries, etc. For many of us who are connected to some type of community, we root our relationships in what we know, believe and understand. In other words, our movements and communities are based primarily in how we understand a certain world-view not how that world-view causes us to move to action.
While most of us have a very strong belief system very few of us will ever really let it impact how we act out our lives. We might have a very strong political view but very few of us will ever picket Washington or write a senator. Theologian, Karen Armstrong said in a recent TED speech that since the 17th century belief has been about an intellectual accent or a set of propositions. Prior to the 17th Century one who believed something engaged it. The idea of separating what one understands and how one acts out that understanding were apparently much more connected.
As a leader in the Church, I wonder if this is at core part of our struggle to move from what we understand (believe) to full and complete action (the old form of belief)?
I wonder if we spend too much time sharing our thoughts and too little time acting on them?
I wonder if we have tried to propagate a theology that’s so rooted in grace that we find very few of us truly being moved to action?
I wonder if many of us don’t integrate our thoughts and actions into a belief model because frankly, we don’t really believe what we believe?
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I think that is definetly a threshold many need to cross … of course there is always a group of people who are satisfied with appearances of what they believe, safe in the security of the acceptance of their community and never will move past it. Just have to pray for those people that God will push them a little more so they act.
Good stuff Scott.
Good stuff Scott.
In psychology there is a theory of motivation called VIE: Valence, Instrumentality, Expectancy. All behavior is motivated by rewards. Valence = is the reward something I am interested in obtaining? Instrumentality = does my behavior really influence the reward I get? Expectancy = can I translate my effort into the right behavior? Do I really know what to do? These things work together to determine how likely someone is to do something. From the Christian angle, this opens up several possibilities. If the “reward” to you is simply heaven, instrumentality is blown out due to grace. Works don’t lead to heaven, so you need to consider another angle. If the reward is “making god happy”, it gets more interesting. Probably more a valence problem there, and expectancy if you are performance focused. Reward of “following god = most satisfying life”? Low instrumentality means we don’t always believe it, and othen there is a lack of role models and guidance to show how to truly live even if we wanted to.All that to say, answers depend on what kind of belief you are talking about and what kind of behavior you’re looking for. There is no direct link between “Jesus is god” and “I will help the poor and avoid porn”; it is the intermediate beliefs that make the bridge, and this is where people are the most shaky and where churches can make a difference.
In psychology there is a theory of motivation called VIE: Valence, Instrumentality, Expectancy. All behavior is motivated by rewards. Valence = is the reward something I am interested in obtaining? Instrumentality = does my behavior really influence the reward I get? Expectancy = can I translate my effort into the right behavior? Do I really know what to do? These things work together to determine how likely someone is to do something. From the Christian angle, this opens up several possibilities. If the "reward" to you is simply heaven, instrumentality is blown out due to grace. Works don't lead to heaven, so you need to consider another angle. If the reward is "making god happy", it gets more interesting. Probably more a valence problem there, and expectancy if you are performance focused. Reward of "following god = most satisfying life"? Low instrumentality means we don't always believe it, and othen there is a lack of role models and guidance to show how to truly live even if we wanted to.All that to say, answers depend on what kind of belief you are talking about and what kind of behavior you're looking for. There is no direct link between "Jesus is god" and "I will help the poor and avoid porn"; it is the intermediate beliefs that make the bridge, and this is where people are the most shaky and where churches can make a difference.
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Hi, Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
Worker