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Wisdom – a broad relationality
3. ‘Beneath what our culture calls psychological disorder is a soul crying out for what only community can provide.’75
These statements make clear Crabb’s belief that what we may think of as psychological disorders can be reframed as relational problems, and that the ultimate relational healer is God mediated through His church. In light of some neuro-scientific research, it may not be easy to separate ‘spiritual area’ relational deficits and their impact upon brain development. This adds scientific weight to Johnson’s notion of weakness as ‘moral fault’ (discussed in the last chapter), and promotes the relevance of conceptualising people as dynamic wholes rather than discrete parts. So, whilst Hughes provides a conceptual partition between ‘the spiritual’ and other ‘areas’, this appears to emerge from his structural anthropology which is divided functionally, eg the spirit is the ‘area’ which relates to God. In practice, such demarcation may have a teaching and learning benefit – the complex whole is split into parts for the sake of simplicity. However, the pragmatism rather than the ontology of this position is noted.
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Relational disconnection or connectedness has been a central issue for Crabb from his earliest writings. This emphasis has the broadest explanatory power if coupled with a robust wisdom theology. This helps keep notions of relatedness broad, and so includes both the social world and the natural order. Moltmann states:
In revelation theology, it seems that God reveals himself in the events and persons of human history, and is then recognised again in nature. In wisdom theology God is perceived from the life and orders of nature, and then recognised again in human wisdom about life. Instead of God – human being – nature, the order here is God – nature – human being.76
Such a perspective helps make sense biblically of why some people, though not Christian, can lead relatively healthy and productive temporal lives. This avoids an exclusive link between salvation and wellbeing, without discounting
