{"id":30823,"date":"2015-07-08T06:33:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T10:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=30823"},"modified":"2015-07-08T06:33:26","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T10:33:26","slug":"orthodox-alexithymia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/orthodox-alexithymia.html","title":{"rendered":"Orthodox Alexithymia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Richard Beck<\/a> wrote recently about a condition which he calls \u201corthodox alexithymia.\u201d Here is a sample:<\/p>\n

Orthodox alexithymia is produced when the intellectual facets of Christian theology, in the pursuit of correct and right belief, become decoupled from emotion, empathy, and fellow-feeling. Orthodox alexithymics are like patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex brain damage. Their reasoning may be sophisticated and internally consistent but it is disconnected from human emotion. And without Christ-shaped caring to guide the chain of calculation we wind up with the theological equivalent of preferring to scratch a doctrinal finger over preventing destruction of the whole world. Logically and doctrinally such preferences can be justified. They are not \u201ccontrary to reason.\u201d But they are inhuman and monstrous. Emotion, not reason, is what has gone missing.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The point is much the same one I made in a recent post that I should have called \u201cBible WarGames.\u201d<\/a> That\u2019s where the quote in the image below comes from.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Beck wrote recently about a condition which he calls \u201corthodox alexithymia.\u201d Here is a sample: Orthodox alexithymia is produced when the intellectual facets of Christian theology, in the pursuit of correct and right belief, become decoupled from emotion, empathy, and fellow-feeling. Orthodox alexithymics are like patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex brain damage. Their reasoning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[496,2081,3044,3245,8509,10355,12508],"class_list":["post-30823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theology","tag-alexithymia","tag-compassion","tag-empathy","tag-exegesis","tag-orthodoxy","tag-richard-beck","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nOrthodox Alexithymia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Richard Beck wrote recently about a condition which he calls "orthodox alexithymia." 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