title: Balance, wholeness, and healing in christianity.
abstract: The nature of the spiritual journey inevitably leads us to examine our fears, doubts, and conflicts, in life and in our spiritual communities. Psychology and a true spiritual theology acknowledge an unconscious part of ourselves that is the reservoir for suppressed fears, pain, and anger. Unless these conflicted emotions and related experiences or imaginings are sought out and examined, an authentic spiritual search is denied. The result will be a superficial cognitive belief-system, predicated exclusively on shoulds, oughts, and constant accommodation. To make free, intelligent, mature decisions in our search, we need always to ascertain what we want that will bring fulfillment and spiritual and emotional freedom. This can only be done if we truly own the repressed, hidden, negative memories and behavior that often become self-destructive unconscious determinants. The psychological reality is that unless we look at the shadow part of ourselves, the part that is repressed, denied, hidden and which we often find discomforting, it will surface eventually in a more unhealthy, destructive fashion.
authors.affiliation: St. Thomas University Pastoral Counseling Center in Miami, FL.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: McGarry