This document summarizes a discussion on faith development from adolescence to adulthood. It explores how adolescents often have "superego" images of God as a strict parent-like figure who demands obedience to rules and orthodox beliefs. This superego God promises security but limits freedom and autonomy. The discussion uses the story of Jesus healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath to show how Jesus challenged the superego God by prioritizing compassion over rigid rules. The goal is to help people transition from adolescent to adult faith with more mature, authentic images of God.

1. Caféchurch 10/9/13
passage
Faith
Development
1 of 3 (or so)

2. Introduction
This is the first in a series
of sessions about faith
development – becoming
adults. This week, we will
think about the images of
God we have as
adolescents. The aim is to
become adults in general
and in our faith specifically.

3. Adulthood
“The truth is.. That for any
number of reasons it may be very
difficult for us to become mature
adults and have a mature religion.
We have to be nurtured and often
we have to struggle heroically to
reach adulthood, and the same is
true if we are to become adult in
our religion.”
“Adolescence” in this sense can
carry on through a whole life,
because becoming an adult is
hard

4. Jesus Heals a Crippled
WomanLuke 13:10-17

5. Now he was teaching in
one of the synagogues
on the sabbath.

6. And just then there
appeared a woman with
a spirit that had crippled
her for eighteen years.
She was bent over and
was quite unable to
stand up straight.

7. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said,
"Woman, you are set free from your ailment."

8. When he laid his hands on her, immediately she
stood up straight and began praising God.

9. But the leader of the
synagogue, indignant
because Jesus had
cured on the sabbath,
kept saying to the
crowd, "There are six
days on which work
ought to be done; come
on those days and be
cured, and not on the
sabbath day."

10. But the Lord answered
him and said, "You
hypocrites! Does not
each of you on the
sabbath untie his ox or
his donkey from the
manger, and lead it
away to give it water?

11. And ought not this
woman, a daughter of
Abraham whom Satan
bound for eighteen
long years, be set free
from this bondage on
the sabbath day?"

12. When he said this, all
his opponents were put
to shame; and the entire
crowd was rejoicing at
all the wonderful things
that he was doing.

13. Question
• Why was the leader of
the synagogue angry?

14. Summary
• Jesus is someone who
reaches beyond the
boundaries of us and them,
and incarnates God’s love
to outsiders, outcasts, and
skeptics.
• Jesus has a truly adult
faith, and an “unfettered”
image of God

15. The soul is one’s true spirit and, like God, it is a spirit too
slippery to capture. The uniqueness of the soul shows itself
most whenever someone seriously elects a path of
psychospiritual growth for the remainder of his or her
lifetime. It is as if psychopathology of the ego is like mud,
and the more it gets cleared away, the more the soul
underneath will shine forth in glory, in a distinct pattern of
glorious colour that can be found nowhere else on earth.14
And while I am certain that God creates a human soul
differently each and every time, this doesn’t mean there are
no unanswerable questions. Nonetheless, however
mysterious, the process of soul creation is individualized.
The uniqueness of individual persons is undeniable (except
at peril to your own soul) and cannot be explained by mere
psychology or biology.
Peck, M. Scott (2011-10-31). The Road Less Travelled And Beyond

16. Caveat
It would be easy to see the
following ideas as “wrong”
ways of being. But they are
not “wrong” any more than
they are “right” – they are a
developmental stage, which
is completely appropriate to
a certain stage in life. But
they are part of the journey
towards adulthood, not the
final word.

17. The Superego
According to Freud's
psychoanalytic theory of
personality, the superego is the
component of personality
composed of our internalized
ideals that we have acquired
from our parents and from
society. The superego works to
suppress the urges of the id and
tries to make the ego behave
morally, rather than realistically.

18. Limitations of Superego
• Can be moralizing, rather than loving
• Letter of the law, rather than spirit
• Inherited & imposed, rather than authentic
• In-group vs out-group, not all of us
together

19. Main Resource for Tonight
• Finding God Again,
John J Shea
You may also want to
read:
• The Road Less
Travelled And Beyond
Peck, M S
• Stages of Faith,
Fowler, J

20. Imaging of God
•One way of talking
about faith is by our
image of God.
•The adequacy of our
image relates to the
adultness of our faith
• Jesus “is the image of
the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation”
Colossians 1:15

21. Definition
• “Adolescing” – Shea
sees being an
adolescent as a
dynamic process which
one undertakes in order
to become an adult. It
can take a long, long
time.

22. The Superego God
“In our early development,
superego images of God –
as a parent-like, all-
powerful, all-knowing, all-
loving deity who is also
controlling, rule-issuing,
judgemental, guilt-evoking,
and at times terrifying, are
hard to avoid.… There
comes a time when… this
God becomes too narrow,
or too rigid, or too unreal, or
too inadequate to continue
holding our trust.”

23. Characteristics of the Superego
God
The superego God is a:
• Supreme Being
• God of Law
• God of Belief
• God of Dependency
and Control
• God of the Group

24. Trying To Make It Real
As we go through the
stages, see if you can
relate them to the story
of Jesus healing the
woman on the Sabbath.
What aspects of the
superego God is Jesus
offending here?

25. Supreme Being
• “This God… is a ‘God who
is simply “a being” among
other beings, part of a
series of beings, an “object”
which can be discovered
and demonstrated’”
• “Throughout the whole
time of its tenure… this
Supreme Being promises
security from harm and evil
– on condition that we can
stand in proper relation to it
and respect its authority”

26. God of Law
• “Morality and religion go
together. The God of Law is
a God of Obedience
because the essence of
morality consists of carrying
out all the commands the
God of Law imposes…. The
promise of security of the
God of Law is often
enormously reassuring to
us.”
• “An implacable judge who
has impossible and rigid
standards”

27. God of Belief
• “The God of Belief
becomes the God of
Orthodoxy. The right beliefs
easily become the essence
of religion and, therefore,
the adolescing self
possesses the Superego
God by holding the right
beliefs…. The task of the
believer involves, at most,
the mastery of objective
doctrine and teaching.”
• Along with the doctrines, a
strong emotional component

28. God of Dependency and Control
• “the God of Dependency and
Control provides all the things that
the adolescing self needs for its
growth and development, while…
[it] seems to leave little room to
the adolescing self for any use of
its own power and authority”
• “…promises to protect us from
the pain of inner struggle and
from having to make responsible
life choices, on condition, of
course, that we surrender any
serious striving toward real
freedom or autonomy.”

29. God of the Group
• “The place where the
Superego God lives, moves,
and has its being is the in
the group… the authority of
the God of the Group lies
with certain individuals who
apparently are directly
appointed for this task by
the Supreme Being. Only
those who have this
authority can speak, and
only those who have this
authority can be heard.”