Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Psychological Analysis of Messiah











Think and Make It Happen by Augusto Cury is basically a self-help book with a slight twist. It includes something I've never seen before - a psychological analysis of Jesus - brilliant idea I think.
Cury offers twelve steps/techniques to take charge of your thoughts, putting yourself on the stage of your life instead of in the audience watching and just letting your life happen. He brings his own unique psychobabble to the book but he does explain what he means; one idea is "editing your memory windows". He points out that our negative experiences are constantly dredged up - triggered in a myriad of ways - which leads to reacting the same unhelpful way over and over because of the negative spin we put on each new situation. He shows how to recognize that happening, then what steps can be taken to edit that memory or at least edit the effect it currently has on one.
After each step, he shows Jesus as the model of living out these practices, demonstrating that Jesus was the most psychologically healthy man to ever live. Cury examines Jesus' way of dealing with horrible situations, his way of dealing with praise and acclaim, and how he deals with, helped, and encouraged others. Cury's steps are explanations of what Jesus did and how that will look in our lives now, how it can be applied practically. Loving one's neighbor for example, something we hear we should do - Cury discusses not what to do to be loving, but how that comes about internally.
This book comes across to me as a blueprint for working with the renewed spirit the Father gives us instead of concentrating only on constantly fighting our selfish nature. He advocates positive action and response as opposed to instinctual reaction.

2 comments:

  1. This is a great and thought provoking post that you put on! I especially love where it says that Jesus was the most psychologically healthy man to ever live! That's why we are to model our loves after his!

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  2. That was wonderful, wasn't it? I can say that because the author said that in the book and it really struck me.
    People who call Yeshua "God" seem to prefer to concentrate on his divine nature and ignore, refute, or denigrate his human nature. I think his human nature is of major importance because that's what we have - he was showing us that we can live a holy life, he was a man (human) as we are.

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