Model of Personality
Hughes and social ontext: psychosocial and social learning theory The three core longings, as inferred by Hughes from the Genesis story, correspond with Erikson’s first three stages of psychosocial development, from which Hughes appears to have derived them. Hughes articulates his three foundational longings in unfolding developmental terms. Not all would agree with this stage hierarchy approach. Stern challenges the belief that pathology arises from developmentally sensitive periods. Others have critiqued stage theories like Erikson’s on cultural grounds, regarding them as a Western imposition that does not allow for variation of cultural experience. Additionally, it is important to note that if Adam and Eve are to be regarded as prototypes of current human experience, there are, from a straightforward reading of the creation narratives, significant differences between them and ourselves as contemporary people. Firstly, Adam and Eve did not enter life from a context of ‘fallenness’; secondly, they were initially devoid of corporate community; and thirdly, they start life as ‘fully functioning adults’, and so do not develop through childhood as we are compelled to do. These differences alert us to the dangers of inferring too many correlations from the ‘Garden’ context to our contemporary experience, beyond the most general and profound. In this light, the attempt of Hughes and Crabb to illuminate issues relating to our core sense of self (spiritual nature) pre- and post-Fall are reasonable and laudable; for as Brunner states:
The most powerful of all spiritual forces is man’s view of himself, the way in which he understands his nature and his destiny; indeed it is the one force which determines all the others which influence human life.85 Contemporarily, therefore, a person’s view of themselves will in part emerge from the specific localised and variable conditions into which they were born. By grasping this issue of profound difference when compared to Adam and Eve’s origins, a framework through which we may understand individual difference of personality is provided. Regarding contemporary development, 67
The_bible_wisdom_and_human_nature_text_RPT.indd 67
27/03/2019 14:13
