Psychology and preaching

Preface

The field of educational psychology has been very thoroughly worked over, though the last word has by no means been said. The help which teachers have derived from it is very great, and no one now is considered equipped for that noble profession who has not mastered its principles. But so far as my knowledge extends there have been few serious efforts to apply modern psychology to preaching. Indeed, the statement might be made even more nearly absolute without doing violence to facts. There have been homiletical works almost without number, applying the formal rules of logic and rhetoric to sermon-making, and books on elocution are even more numerous. But the works discussing the preparation and delivery of sermons rarely, if ever, approach the subject from the standpoint of modern functional psychology. The psychological conceptions underlying most of these treatises belong to a stage of psychological thought long since past.

But there seems to be just as much reason for applying the principles of modern psychology to preaching as for applying them to teaching. And the works on educational psychology will not suffice for this purpose, although they are often suggestive and helpful to the preacher. In some respects educational and homiletical psychology coincide, but they are by no means coextensive ; and when they cover the same ground there are of necessity important differences of emphasis.

In this book some aspects of the psychology of religion are discussed, because they lie within the scope of the author's plan ; but the book is not a treatise on the psychology of religion. It is simply an attempt to make a thorough-

PREFACE

going application of psychological principles to preaching. However, it is something more than an " application." It has grown out of the author's effort to teach homiletical psychology to young ministers ; and he has found that many of them have so inadequate a grasp of psychology that a good deal of explanation had to precede the application. He has, therefore, gone more thoroughly into an exposition of the general principles of psychology than would be necessary in a book which sought only to make an application of a science already understood. He has in consequence undertaken a somewhat independent discussion of those aspects of psychology which seemed to him most important in their bearing on preaching. It is hoped, of course, that the book may secure a wide reading among ministers generally, and even among other public speakers; and it is probable that numbers of them can not safely be assumed to have a very thorough acquaintance with the rather new but fascinating science of functional psychology. It is hoped that this is a sufficient apology for what may seem to some an unduly ambitious attempt by a theological professor.

Two of the chapters have been previously published, — that on Belief in The Review and Expositor, and that on Assemblies in the American Journal of Sociology; and they appear here with the consent of those periodicals.

I feel it needless to try to express in detail my obligation to numerous writers on psychology. The names of many, but by no means all, of those to whom I feel deeply indebted are mentioned in the text or in foot-note references. I wish to acknowledge my especial indebtedness to the members of the Faculty of the institution in which I have the honor to teach, for many valuable criticisms upon several chapters which were read to them. I am also under deep obligation to the Reverend Edward L. Grace, D. D., for a critical reading of the entire manuscript and many valuable suggestions.

Charles S. Gardner.

Chapter I Page

General Controls of Conduct i

Reflexes. Structural and functional definition of instincts. Instincts not racial habits. Less rigidly organized in men than in lower animals. Native dispositions to be distinguished from instincts. Some native dispositions transmissible by heredity, others not. The conditions under which consciousness appears. Its function is adaptation to a complex and variable environment. Habit — its physical basis and relation to consciousness. Man more largely a creature of habit than lower animals. Man less controlled by habit in a more complex and changeable environment. Rationality becomes more dominant. Different theories of the subconscious. As yet comparatively little light upon the problem.

CHAPTER II Mental Images 19

Their nature. Forms of imagery corresponding to every sense. Differences in individual capacity for imagery. Conditions of the recall of images. Selection of details in recall. Inexactness of the recalled image. Images the material of the intellectual life. Relation to literary style and to practical achievement.

CHAPTER III Mental Systems . 34

Processes of organization. Concepts built up in various fields of experience. Reflective and unreflective organization, and the functions of concepts thus formed. Organization of mental images is the process of acquiring mean-

PAGE ing. Use, or functional, meanings. Theoretical, or critical, meanings. Differentiation of mental systems. Differentiating influences — occupations, organic differences, mental environments. Effect of differentiation of meanings. Practical problems involved. The problem of understanding. The problem of exposition. The problem of controversy. The problem of co-operation.

CHAPTER IV Feeling 65

Feelings and feeling-tones. Feelings and emotions. Pain and unpleasantness. Physiological and psychical factors of feeling, and their relation to one another. The cause of pleasantness and unpleasantness. The relation of feeling to desire. Feeling and habit. The feeling-tone as related to the strength of the stimulus. Intelligence and the enrichment of the emotional life. Bearing upon the practical problems of preaching.

CHAPTER V Sentiments and Ideals 94

Definition of sentiment. Sentiments classified as concrete and abstract. Sentiments classified according to their moral value. Tendency to centralize character about one sentiment. Analysis of an ideal. The ideal as a pure construction of the imagination, and as realized in a single specimen of a class. Relation of ideals to sentiments. How these emotional dispositions are developed. The great task and opportunity of the preacher.

CHAPTER VI The Excitation of Feeling 115

Ways of arousing feeling. Two ways of arousing feeling at the disposal of the orator — peculiar personal characteristics, and communication by expression. Voluntary control of the feelings. " Tearing a passion to tatters." Dramatic action — its nature and value to _ the orator. Style — especially the skilful use of pictorial language and rhythm. The importance of harmony between feelings aroused by different stimuli. Individual variations in emotional power.

Chapter VII Page

Belief conditioned by previous mental content. Six different ways the mind may react to a new presentation — compulsory acceptance; passive acceptance; positive acceptance; tentative acceptance; suspension of judgment; positive rejection. The nature of belief — acceptance as a safe basis of action. Function of doubt. The closed mind. Influence of feeling upon belief, doubt and rejection. Three classes of beliefs — primitive credulity, rational conviction, and vital assurance. Belief originating in feeling given intellectual form. Intellectual reorganization involves distress of heart. The relation of the preacher to religious doubt.

Chapter VIII

Its nature — focalized consciousness. Its function — to select among the objects of the environment and to direct action. Compulsory attention. Voluntary attention. Spontaneous attention. The orator should seek for spontaneous attention by keeping in line with the hearer's dominant interest. Its scope. Its constant shifting from one object to another. Its fluctuations. Three different wave-lengths noted.

CHAPTER IX Voluntary Action 186

Responsiveness of the living being to its surroundings. These responses leave modifications in the organism. Modes of responsiveness characterizing the vegetable, animal, and human grades of life. Increasing complexity of organisms as the grades are ascended. Corresponding psychical development. The distinctive mark of voluntary action. Life is onward-moving, forth -reaching. On the human level it is also consciously directed toward ends. The higher and more distant the end, the more voluntary the act. The problem of freedom. Is freedom an illusion, or is necessity? The relation of feeling to voluntary action. The preacher interested primarily in the character of the mental processes rather than the overt act.

CHAPTER X Suggestion 209

Distinction between normal and abnormal suggestion. Three types of organisms — the aggressive, the stubborn (or resistant), and the passive. Suggestibility varies inversely as the insistence of the organism on its autonomy. Varies inversely as the mental equipment and organization. Suggestible classes — children, women (about certain matters), those who have lived in a narrow environment, those without stable mental life. Normal suggestion should be indirect. Securing the confidence of the subject important. High emotion increases suggestibility. Importance of repetition. Suggestion as contrasted with rational persuasion, which should be the. aim of the preacher.

CHAPTER XI Assemblies 236

The accidental concourse. Psychology of the street throng. The inspirational gathering. Three stages of psychic fusion. The passing of the assembly into the second and third stages a process of inhibiting rational control. Individuals not equally susceptible to crowd-suggestion. Methods of promoting psychic fusion — close seating of the people, concerted bodily movement, singing, passionate oratory. Emotions best adapted to produce fusion — fear, anger, the tender feeling, the sentiment of liberty, the love of old things. Is the process of psychic fusion conducive to genuine religious experience? The psychology of the deliberative body.

CHAPTER XII Mental Epidemics 265

The sweep of a common emotional excitement over a social group. Results either from like response to same stimuli or from communication of feeling, or from both. The mental epidemic is wave-like. Each wave of collective emotion is followed by a reactionin the opposite direction. Two powerful mental epidemics can not occur at the

PAGE same time in the same group. They spread along lines of mental homogeneity. An uncultured population specially subject to extreme excitements. They occur readily as to matters about which the group has little or no experience ; but often experience is a predisposing cause. Often the prevalence in a population of a certain temperamental type renders the group more suggestible. In primitive stage of society such epidemics quite frequent; and spread readily in all directions. In the middle stage the caste system prevails and mental epidemics spread only within class lines. In modern industrial society they are less intense, more diffusive and less durable. Excessive phenomena of this type are becoming rarer.

Chapter XIII

These types real and important, notwithstanding individual variations within the type. First, the ministerial type. Breadth of the minister's occupation. Narrowing tendencies. The habit of dogmatism. Habitual gravity of tone and manner. The demand of modern life for a buoyant and happy disposition. The minister a moral pathologist. But tends to over-emphasize loyalty to the ecclesiastical institution as a virtue. Economic dependence tends to mould the type unfortunately. Spiritual leadership requires independence of spirit. Second, the labouring class type. The condition of the labourer's life as affecting his intelligence. His labour is physical, long continued, exhausting. He deals only with material reality, and that of the grosser kind. Works in a social vacuum. His leisure is brief. His life in the cities, however, stimulates intelligence. His life conditions prevent a high development of his emotional nature; and set serious limitations upon his ethical development. Relation of the minister to the labourer's problem. Third, the business type. Definition of " business man." His importance in modern life. His intellectual characteristics. Deals with quantities which can be weighed and measured, which gives him practical, non-theoretical mind, and disposes him to a quantitative evaluation of things. In ethics this type places emphasis upon the practical virtues which lie at the basis of successful business. A double standard of ethics. Religious life similarly affected. The type is non-mystical, non-theological, "practical," non-sectarian. Its influence upon the religious tendencies of to-day.

Chapter XIV

Two general factors of the environment — the natural and the human. Under primitive conditions the natural factors were dominant. Men lived in the midst of mysterious, uncontrolled nature. Human groups were small, with little communication, and with simple organization. The world was filled with non-human spirits. Natural phenomena given a religious interpretation. Under modern conditions — best represented by city life — the human and humanly controlled factors of environment dominate man's consciousness. Men have little contact with original nature. Dangers, diseases, success and failure originate largely in social conditions. Modern man's familiarity with machinery. Human contacts and the social organization preoccupy attention. The great development of science. Modern man can not tolerate loneliness. Aesthetic interest in nature develops. Life adjusts itself to the rhythms of social life rather than the rhythms of nature. Strenuousness of life increases. The , passion for achievement grows. Interest in future life declines. Scientific answers to all questions desired. The universe of natural phenomena depersonalized. Confusion as to the relation of God to the natural world. Religious interpretation of life declining. The social struggle acute, and colours all thinking. Emphasis on the ethical aspect of life and religion. Christianity born in an age not unlike this, and corrupted as the world reverted to primitive conditions. Present conditions, on the whole, favourable to the revival of original Christianity.

Chapter I

We are accustomed to think of ourselves as rational beings, i.e., as persons who are guided in our activities by rational considerations; but if we scrutinize our conduct we shall, perhaps, be surprised to discover what a large proportion of our actions are never reflected upon, but are performed under the impulsion of certain tendencies which at best are but imperfectly subject to the control of reason, even when the conscious effort is made to resist or to guide them, and which usually influence us without being consciously guided at all. After infancy reason can and does exercise a general and, in the developing personality, a stronger regulative supervision over these tendencies organized in us. But it is doubtless true that at best they influence the rational processes quite as much as the rational processes influence them; and it can hardly be questioned that in the majority of human beings they actually do more in determining the conclusions reached by thinking than thinking does in regulating them. What are the general controls of conduct?

I. Reflexes. A reflex act " is one in which a muscular movement occurs in immediate response to a sensory stimulation without the interposition of consciousness/' * This immediacy of response seems to be due to the fact that in the nervous organization, especially that part of it located

1 Angell, " Psychology," p. 286.

in the spinal cord, certain ingoing and outgoing nerves are closely connected, so that the impulse started by the sensation goes straight on through without being diverted in its course. Consciousness may be aroused and may to a certain extent be able to inhibit the responsive act; though that is often not possible. If one touches a red-hot iron he will almost inevitably jerk back his hand; and it requires the most strenuous exertion of the will to inhibit this reflex muscular action. Only for a little while can we stop the winking of the eyes, and if a cinder enters the eye we can not resist the tendency to shut the lids. Ordinarily and normally, reflex actions go on without awakening consciousness; but under certain conditions the nervous impulse instead of passing immediately and entirely through the outgoing nerve to produce a motor response, radiates in some measure to nervous centres which are located higher up and which directly condition consciousness. These reflex actions are not automatic in the sense in which the processes of digestion and circulation of the blood and other so-called automatisms are; for the latter are not in any appreciable measure subject to the immediate control of the will, however much they may be indirectly and gradually modified by conscious attitudes. These automatisms are physiological and, although of the greatest importance to public speaking, can not properly be treated in a discussion of psychological phenomena. To be sure, they might with a considerable show of reason be regarded as reflexes of a more fundamental and thoroughly organized character; or the reflexes might be regarded as automatisms a little less rigidly organized and a little more exposed to the direct interference of consciousness.

We need not dwell upon the reflexes, though they are not without interest to the speaker in some respects. As he stands before an audience he is an object of sense to them; he influences them mainly, if not exclusively, through eye and ear sensations, and many of the responses he evokes from them are of the reflex type ; and many of their movements are reflexive actions in response to the sensations arising from their physical circumstances. Especially is this true of children, who have little power to restrain these reflexive tendencies. But far more important are —

II. The instincts. Instincts may be defined either in terms of structure or of function. First, as to structure. If we think of a reflex as a direct connection or co-ordination of a nerve which receives a sensation with a nerve which controls the movement of a muscle, so that the stimulation of the first causes an immediate contraction of the second, then the best way to think of an instinct on its physical side is as a combination or complication of a number of reflexes; so that the stimulation of a nerve which receives the sensation is followed by a series of reflex actions terminating finally in an adaptive movement of the body. The dividing line between the reflex and the instinct is not easy to draw. Perhaps it is better to say that the one gradually merges into the other. But the characteristic mark of the first is simplicity, and of the second, complexity of nervous co-ordination. Second, as to function, it may be defined " as the faculty of acting in such a way as to produce certain ends, without foresight of the ends, and without previous education in the performance." l " Instincts are functional correlations of structure." Angell says : " If the activity involves a number of acts, each one of which, considered singly and alone, is relatively useless, but all of which taken together lead up to some adaptive consequence, such as the building of a nest, the feeding of young, etc., it will be safe to call the action instinctive." 2 McDougall defines an instinct " as an inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which determines its possessor to perceive, and to pay attention to, objects of a certain class, to experience an emotional excitement of a particular quality upon perceiving such an object, and to act in regard to it in a particular manner, or, at least, to experience an

1 James, " Psychology, Briefer Course," p. 391.

2 " Psychology," p. 288.

impulse to such action." * This very carefully framed definition seems to include too much in the way of intellectual process for instinctive action, pure and simple; but doubtless describes quite accurately the operation as it actually takes place in the higher animals and in men, in whom it rarely or never occurs without involving intellectual and emotional processes which are not strictly parts of it.

In brief, we may sum up by saying that an instinct is, structurally, a certain inherited, complex co-ordination of nerves; and, functionally, an inherited tendency to act in a certain way in the presence of certain stimuli. To what extent does it involve consciousness? That is difficult to say. But it seems to be well established that consciousness in any clear and definite sense of the term — what is sometimes called " correlated consciousness " — is connected only with the upper brain centres, the cerebral cortex; and in animals whose nervous systems have not developed these higher functions the instinctive adjustments are made without consciousness. Consciousness is involved just so far as the cortex is developed and correlated with the lower instinctive centres. As James says, " there is no fore-sight of the ends," and where there is no fore-sight of ends it is reasonable to suppose that there is just as little conscious realization of the meaning of the action for the organism — i.e., there is little or no emotional interpretation of the action, although the physical aspects of emotional experience are present. Sensation must be very unclear and the feeling-tones very slight, if present at all. Other things being equal, consciousness becomes more clear, luminous, intense as the scale of organic complexity is ascended ; and this is as true with respect to feeling on its conscious side as it is with respect to intelligence.

Instinct is sometimes called racial habit. This has the sound of a felicitous phrase, and seems to give an insight into its real nature ; but it also seems to imply the transmis-

1 " Social Psychology," p. 29.

sion of acquired characters from one generation to another. How else could a race consisting of a succession of distinct persons acquire a habit? But the weight of scientific opinion is decidedly against this assumption. It is, therefore, better not to speak of instincts as racial habits, notwithstanding the very obvious superficial likeness; for they seem to constitute a class of phenomena quite different from habits. One of the characteristic marks of a habit is that it is not transmissible by heredity, whereas one of the most characteristic marks of an instinct is that it is hereditary. A habit is acquired in and by individual experience ; an instinct is given at the beginning of experience — certainly so far as the individual is concerned. The problem of the origin and perpetuation of instincts, since they are racial traits, is one with the origin and perpetuation of species; and these are problems which do not come within the scope of a psychological discussion, though they do have a most important bearing upon the philosophical interpretation of the instincts.

But important for this discussion are the facts that they are racial traits, that they are inherited and that they are the most significant controls of conduct with which the individual begins his career in the world. There are, however, individual variations in instincts. The same instincts are far from being equally strong in different individuals, though they are all present in all normal examples of the species. The instinct of flight, for instance, is very strong in some, and very weak in others; and so with all the instincts. One instinct may be dominant in one, and a quite different instinct dominant in another individual; and by reason of the dominancy of one or another of the instincts, the same stimulus may provoke a different instinctive response in different individuals. The situation which produces self-abasement in one may excite self-assertion in another. The fact of individual variation in the strength of the instincts is too much a matter of every-day observation to require emphasis here.

A fact not so obvious but quite as important is that the instincts can be modified in their strength by experience. Habit — which will be discussed in a later section of this chapter — reinforces some and weakens others. A person born with the fear instinct dominant may, by cultivating persistently his weaker instinct of pugnacity or aggressiveness, overcome to a large extent this original handicap. One born with the appropriating instinct in normal strength may by the formation of the proper habit very much reduce it, and develop a character of great liberality and generosity ; or magnify it until it becomes the supreme principle of conduct and so develop a character of unscrupulous covetousness. While, therefore, instincts are in a certain measure fixed, they are far from being absolutely unchangeable factors of experience. The environment in which the person lives, especially the part of it which he is brought into direct relation with, acts as a selective influence, stimulating some of his instincts and developing them to greater power; and, by leaving others without stimulation, inevitably condemns them to be weakened through atrophy. By way of application it may be remarked in passing that preaching is one method, and may be a very effective one, of bringing the person into more vital and stimulating relation with certain most important phases of his environment and thus may gradually but powerfully modify the strength of his various instincts.

Another fact of prime importance is that the instinctive organization of the human species is much less definite, fixed and rigid than that of the lower animals. The instincts of inferior species can hardly be modified by experience. However, it may be done within narrow limits in the case of those which stand highest among the sub-human orders of life; but as the scale is descended this capacity becomes more limited, until finally at the lower end it reaches zero. But in man the instinctive organization is, if the crude expression may be tolerated, very much looser, and is subject to the possibility of almost indefinite modification, though, of course, it cannot be annulled. The instincts are, then, and continue to be, most important factors in determining responses to the environment; but they are far from being so dominant as in the lower ranks of life, and do not act with anything like the same precision and invariability. It may be true, though the statement cannot be made dogmatically, that in the history of man's development his instincts have on the whole become less definite, less rigid in the regularity and uniformity of their action, and more modifiable. With the higher development of the race they certainly do play a less dominant role as controls of conduct. This does not mean that they are destined to disappear with the continued advance of mankind ; but that other controls of conduct will become relatively stronger.

III. Native dispositions form a distinct class of psychic phenomena. Sometimes they are classified as instincts ; but improperly so, unless instincts should be regarded as including all inborn tendencies. It seems better not to confuse them with instincts. The latter are definitely organized and specific nervous co-ordinations. Native dispositions are not; they are only general tendencies of the nervous constitution. One may, for instance, be conservative or radical; irritable or placid; thoughtful or heedless; brilliant or dull; queer or normal, etc., etc. The dispositions do not control conduct as the instincts do, by the automatic setting off of a pre-formed series of nervous co-ordinations. When a disposition is active the specific motor responses may vary greatly according to other conditions; but the disposition will impart to the act its characteristic quality and direction. The conservative under the control of his disposition may perform a great variety of specific acts, many of which are similar to those of the radical whom he is opposing, but manifestly they have a very different meaning.

Some of the native dispositions are transmitted by heredity and some are not. Unquestionably many racial and family traits belong to this class of phenomena and are so transmitted ; but it is equally obvious that children often have constitutional dispositions which are peculiar to themselves. If under the head of native dispositions must be classed many general traits of an hereditary character, so also must many personal traits which seem to represent so many individual variations.

It is needless to speak of the importance of these dispositions. They are extremely important factors in every human relation; and until one's native dispositions are known, it is idle even to guess what responses he will make to many stimuli. For a leader of men they are of the utmost significance. But they are so very different in different people and in the same person are often compounded in such puzzling ways that few generalizations concerning them can be made, and the study of them in individual men alone can greatly profit. It is especially the preacher's duty to study them with care.

IV. Consciousness. Consciousness is so intimate and familiar a fact that we seldom stop to consider the marvel and mystery of it. We can not define it, for any term we can use in the definition involves it. It does not exist as an abstract reality. We can not be conscious except as we are conscious of something. Concretely it occurs as sensation or image or feeling-tone, or all combined. Sometimes it is used as practically synonymous with responsiveness to environment; but this use of it is vague, and implies that it is a property of every form of matter; for matter in every form is in some sense responsive to environment. Such an idea of consciousness is, therefore, unsatisfactory and leads to confusion of thought. It is better to use the term in the ordinary acceptation, as inward awareness. It may be described as an inward light which falls upon the stream of experience. Let us think of it as experience become luminous.

It is important to consider the conditions under which it appears. Parallel with the decrease of the definiteness and dominance of the instincts in the higher orders of life, and most notably in man, runs an increase in the complexity of the nervous organization, which is truly wonderful in the brute world, but in man, and especially in highly developed men, becomes phenomenal. If we think of a nerve as a line along which a stimulus is transmitted, the highly complex nervous organization of a cultured man presents a system of such lines all but infinite in its intricacy, comprehending subordinate and sub-subordinate systems, and all so inter-related that a stimulation affecting any part of it will spread to larger and larger areas, according to the degree of its intensity and to the general condition of the organism; and it often radiates along these myriad paths of conduction until it involves the whole system. This increase in complexity of nervous organization is the physical basis of a corresponding increase in the number of possible reactions upon the environment. In a simple reflex act there is just the one reaction possible. In a purely instinctive action the reaction is more complex than in the reflex, but there is still no alternative. But with the increase of the complexity of the nervous organization the organism more and more acquires the power to retain and revive the impressions made by past reactions and to utilize them in some measure in making subsequent responses. At the same time the various sensory areas become linked up together. Thus with the power to retain and revive past impressions and the linking together of the several sense centres, it becomes possible for the organism to react in several different ways to the same stimulus ; and it is not only possible, there is a tendency for it to do so. Naturally these tendencies often conflict with one another, and some means of resolving the conflict is needed. It is just here that consciousness makes its appearance. These conflicting motor tendencies create a general tension in the organism, which, as we shall see, is the physical basis of feeling; and the means of resolving the conflict is the revival of past impressions, which always appear as mental images; and these, as we shall see, constitute the elements of the intel-