Playing with the living God: a psychologically engaged theology of participation in the triune life

Thesis

This thesis develops a psychologically engaged theology of participation in the Triune Life, making three core claims. My first claim is methodological: I argue that deifying participation in the Triune God makes use of human psychology, especially the psychological dynamics involved in the infant-parent relationship. Second, I argue that participation in the Word’s play revises a God-representation. Third, I argue that participation in the Spirit’s holding reshapes the Internal Working Model. The originality of my argument is most evident in my interdisciplinary methodology, drawing on both the theological and psychological literature. While the last fifty years has seen theology give both the Trinity and participation a substantial amount of attention, there has not been a great deal of engagement from these fields with psychology. My thesis corrects this providing a robust theological engagement with Donald W. Winnicott’s Object Relations Theory, attachment theory and Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS). Simply uniting otherwise siloed literatures across psychology and theology would be significant. In addition to this, psychologically engaged theologies of participation in the Triune Life provide important pastoral resources for the Church.

My thesis takes the following structure:

Chapter 1. Thomas Aquinas and Object Relations Theory. The first chapter establishes a conversation between Aquinas and Winnicott arguing that participation in the Triune Life brings about a revised God-representation.

Chapter 2. Augustine and Attachment Theory. The second chapter establishes a conversation between Augustine and attachment theory, arguing that participation in the Spirit revises the Internal Working Model.

Chapter 3: The Spirit Holds. Chapter three argues that participation in the Spirit can be understood as a form of holding.

Chapter 4. The Word Plays. The final chapter argues that God-representations are revised through participating in the Word’s play.

Authors: Chan Stroud, E

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xm4yopbzz
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: play; holding; psychology; trinity; participation; liturgy
• Subjects: Psychology; Theology