incarnatus est: Emotional Questions
incarnatus est: Emotional Questions
Many Christians criticize emotion in religion, especially excessive emotions and the appeal to emotions. The search for a specific feeling whether it be an ecstatic experience or the beatific visage displayed by the praise worshippers, waving their hands or just the quiet smile that is evidence that one is feeling the Spirit can be a substitute sacrament. Emotions can become the guarantee, the proof that God is at work. Certainty is a powerful motivator and the need for it can push people to find God in the subjective feelings generated by music or manipulation or preaching or circumstance. Such emotions are eschewed (rightly) by liturgical, sacramental, "Scriptural" worship. And yet ...Do not emotions play a part in our experience of God? Are emotions themselves bad in the experience of a Christian relation to God?I've often thought that if I had the opportunity for further study after I complete my Masters of Divinity it would be regarding the role of emotion in worship. Some has been written but I haven't found any really comprehensive historical, theological, and practice surveys of the topic with a Lutheran understanding. Pr. Alms posted an excellent internal mind struggle in post form on his blog. Read the whole post here. He later discovered that Pr. Feuerhahn wrote a short article that helped address the issue here: Lutheran Worship and Emotions.
So it's not a question of whether or not our emotions are involved; it's not a matter of whether we "use" our emotions or not. Basically we don't approach God's service thinking about our emotions or our intellect or our bodies. We approach God's service, hearing his invitation and all his words, and receiving his gifts. The emotions and the intellect are involved, but in a way that we don't think about them; we come to the divine service confident and thankful that God is thinking about our feelings and about every thing else pertaining to the well-being of our lives. Then, when we are thankful for God's gracious concern and promised gifts, then the emotions are likely to be very much present in our worship, in our joyful response.So there you have it. Expectations are key here. Should we expect an emotional response to our worship? The answer is no. I like Dr. Feuerhahn's language of "are likely to be present." His illustration of the young communicant not experiencing anything in response to receiving the Lord's Supper is particularly effective. Was the Lord's Supper efficacious without a particular response of the receptor? No contribution of the receptor makes the Supper what it is. It is the Lord's gift. Yet if the receptor has no faith... if he doesn't believe that the Supper is Christ's body and blood for him, then it is receiving to his detriment. Emotion is a subjective and so a tricky thing. Pr. Alms struggles with the dangers of emotion in his post. Rather than rely on emotions as the pietists and charismatics do, we accept them thankfully when so given.
