Within the Christian tradition, the Bible teaches about the inner conflict that all humans experience. This conflict is understood often as humans having a divided nature, a Divine nature and a sinful nature. The Divine part wants us to do what is good. The sinful part causes us to do the very opposite of good, namely evil, and this sinful part often acts against our will; we often can’t control it. The Bible concludes that “the Spirit of Christ” will save us from this unsolvable problem but what does this mean? That has been the million-dollar question that I have wrestled with throughout my pastoral, spiritual direction, and psychotherapist ministry. However, this past year through learning about Internal Family System (IFS) approach to psychological healing, I have discovered that I have understood this inner conflict wrong. In this blog, I want to share a different understanding of this inner conflict based on IFS which I think has significant ramifications for the Christian Church. The Inner Conflict Within the Christian Church, we have often understood the human soul as having two natures. There is a Divine Nature that is connected in some mysterious way to the realm of God or a Higher Power that is beyond ourselves that shapes all reality. From our Divine Nature arises all the fruits of God’s Spirit into our human experience like love, compassion, truth, strength, resilience, trust, will, grace, etc. There is also a sinful nature, or a fallen nature as I prefer to call it, made up of mental/emotional structures and patterns that have formed due to earthly human experiences, many of these experiences being traumatic in nature. These psychic structures within our soul block or distort the energies of God spirit flowing in our soul causing us to experience thoughts, emotions, and actions that are more fallen in nature. (see my Sept, 2021 blog “Privation: A Theory of Evil” where I unpack how sinfulness and evil arise from the fallen nature part of the human soul). When we read Romans 7 from the Bible (NSRV) which talks about this inner conflict within the human soul, we quickly map this two-nature soul model unto this text. We see the Divine Nature being expressed in terms of what Apostle Paul labels the Mind, that part of us that “wants to do good”, “agrees that the law is good”, “can will what is good”, “that delights in the law of God”, and is a “slave to the law of God”. This Mind, a mental part of us, knows the law of sin and seeks to manage our sinful nature. In contrast, our Sinful Nature is that part of us that Apostle Paul calls the Flesh. Our Flesh "does that very thing I hate”, “does the very evil I don’t want to do“, is evidence of “another war within me”, and “is captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” This Flesh part contains all the temptations, passions, and behavior patterns of our fallen nature. When we understand Roman 7 in this way with this two-sided soul model, Mind and Flesh, we get a vivid picture of the “wretched” hopeless state that all humans live in. So when Apostle Paul proclaims the solution to this inner conflict between our Mind and Flesh through the words, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”, we often hear those words in a certain way. We, as Christians, believe that somehow the spirit of Christ empowers our Mind or Divine Nature so that we now have control over Flesh and thus can manage it and live more easily the Christian way of life. Internal Family System's View of Soul When I began learning the therapeutic model of Internal Family System (IFS) a year ago, I anticipated seeing some form of this two-sided nature of the human psyche in its framework. But that was not what I found. Instead, I discovered a soul model that had three parts and a fourth aspect that IFS calls the Self with a capital “S”. Let me briefly described each of these 4 aspects of the soul within Internal Family System (IFS) which appear in every human soul. Let me begin first with the three parts which are not the Self. The first part are the Exile parts. These parts, often young in nature, contain the painful memories of our past and childhood, experiences that were not held and supported well by our caregivers in our home and school environment. The Exiles often carry intense experiences of guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, helplessness, overwhelmness, aloneness, abandonment, worthlessness, unlovableness, confusion or not knowing, etc. Since these Exile childlike parts are hard to experience and hold, we developed Manager parts whose goal is to manage these Exiles so we don’t experience their uncomfortable feelings. Managers use many different coping strategies such as numbing , repressing, conflict avoiding, withdrawing, excessive thinking, being constantly busy, people pleasing, excelling at school or work, inner criticism, becoming the expert, etc. so that we don’t feel the discomfort of our Exile parts. Our Managers seek to always be in control so that our Exiles are kept out of our awareness. Managers are very proactive in nature anticipating what could trigger our Exiles and thus develop coping strategies design to keep our Exiles out of our awareness. The third type of part within the IFS soul model are called Firefighter parts. They are similar to Managers in that they seek to protect us from our Exile experiences. However, unlike our Manager parts, Firefighters are reactive in nature and so they react to distract us or break the overwhelming pressure we are experiencing inside due to our Exiles being active. So when our Managers fail to control all the emotional energy of our Exile, our Firefighter parts come to the rescue. For examples, some of us have a Firefighter that causes us to “blow our temper” or become violent when things become too much. Others turn to addictive Firefighters like drinking alcohol, eating/snacking, drugs, overworking, etc. when this internal pressure becomes too much. Other firefighter parts include eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia), dissociation, schizophrenic experiences, cutting, and suicide ideation. IFS teaches that each of us, as humans, are born with multiple parts that work in harmony inside us until life experience changes that balance. None of us grew up in perfect families and holding environments and so these different parts get energized and begin to take on beliefs, emotions and roles within our soul like Managers, Exiles, and Firefighters to keep our internal familiy system in balance. When our soul’s internal world becomes overly intense, these parts often become quite polarized and in conflict with one another. As a result, our Managers are working hard to control both our Exiles and Firefighters. When we compare this 3-part IFS soul model to the 2-part common Christian soul model, some interesting insights arise. It is easy to see how the Exile parts and Firefighter parts of IFS map onto the Fallen Nature or Flesh of the human soul. But what about the Mind and Divine Nature part of the Christian model of the human soul? How does this aspect map onto the IFS model of the Human soul? "Mind" Part as an IFS Manager It may be shocking to some of my Christian readers but this Mind part that Apostle Paul describes in Romans 7 fits well the description of a Manager part in IFS. This Mind part that “wants to do good” “delights in the law of God” and is a “slave to the law of God” is trying so hard to manage our Fallen Nature. Based on IFS, this Mind part is clearly a manager part that is trying to control all the seemingly uncontrollable dynamics of the Flesh described by IFS through its understanding of our Exile and Firefighter parts. This realization has forced me to rethink what we, as Christians, are describing when we say that humans have a Divine Nature. If the human Divine Nature is NOT that Mind part within our soul that is trying to do good and follow the ways of Jesus, then what is our Divine Nature? That is a very good question and is the reason why I wanted to write this blog. So much of what the Christian tradition teaches is based on this understanding of Divine Nature, that desire to want to be a loving and truthful person who models their life after the life of Jesus. That desire is why we strive so hard to transform and manage our fallen human nature. That desire is why we attend worship at church, read the Bible, practice prayer, meditation, and contemplation, and do other spiritual practices. It is hard to imagine, as a Christian, that this desire and all the motivations that come from that desire is not part of our Divine Nature. However, IFS would suggest that this desire is a sign of our Fallen Nature, a sign of one of our managers at work striving to manage our life based on a certain principles, what Apostle Paul aptly describes as the “law of God” (Rom 7: 25). Indwelling Christ Dynamic It is interesting to note that Apostle Paul saw this inner conflict between our Mind and Flesh as a hopeless situation. He writes, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” However, Apostle Paul saw hope for this hopeless situation, namely a spiritual dynamic that he called “Christ Jesus”. It is clear in this text and what follows that Apostle Paul is not talking about the historical person of Jesus Christ. Rather, he is referring to what is called the Indwelling Christ dynamic that Apostle Paul describes both here in Romans 8 but also elsewhere in his New Testament writings (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17-19; 1 Cor 3: 16; 1 Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 6: 16; Gal. 4:6). The IFS model also does not see this ongoing conflict between our Managers and our Exiles and Firefighters as a hopeless condition either. Rather, Richard Schwartz, the developer of IFS, and thousand of IFS practitioners since, have discovered a soul dynamic that they label as the Self. Let me first summarize how Apostle Paul describes this Indwelling Christ dynamic based on Romans chapter 8. Then, I will summarize how IFS has come to understand the Self. When I do so, you will see some remarkable similarities between the two. Apostle Paul describes this Christ dynamic as nonjudgemental for there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). It is interesting to note the IFS has discovered a Self dynamic within all clients that is nonjudgemental, curious, and compassionate in nature. Furthermore, this Spirit of Christ “sets us free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8.2) for God has done what our Mind, under the control of God’s Law, couldn’t do because it was weakened by the Flesh (Rom 8:3). But how does this Christ dynamic free our Mind from its obsession to follow the law of God, an obsession that is an aspect of our fallen nature? Next, Apostle Paul describes an interesting quality of our Mind, especially since we will see this same mental pattern within the IFS healing process. When our Mind is connected to the things of the Flesh, we lived according to the Flesh; when our Mind is connected to the things of the Spirit, we live according to the Spirit (Rom 8: 5). When our Mind is set on the Flesh, we experience death; when our Mind is set on the Spirit, we experience life and peace (Rom 8: 6). In other words, what our Mind is connected to determines what we experience and how we behave. But how does our Mind connect to this Christ dynamic that opens the doorway to the life of freedom and all the qualities of Spirit that give us life? Apostle Paul says it this way: “if the Spirit of Christ who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, it will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you (Rom 8: 11). These words are profound for they help us see how our Divine Nature can connect directly to the spirit of Christ dwelling within our soul. The church historically has made a major assumption that the indwelling of this Christ Spirit happens after birth, that we are not born with this Christ dynamic already potentially dwelling within the seat of our soul. Even with the Mennonite Christian tradition, which I identify with, this is true. As a Mennonite Christian, I was taught that while all humans are born with a good divine nature, aspects of our human nature still fell or become sinful during our life. As a result, our tradition teaches that people need to come to believe in Christ, seek healing for our fallen nature, and follow the ways of Christ. This is the spiritual purpose of adult baptism within my Mennonite tradition. Through the symbolic act of baptism, we invite the Spirit of Christ to dwell within our soul, and in doing so, we are able to live more of our life from our good Divine nature. What if the Spirit of Christ already dwells within our soul when we are born, and that this Christ dynamic is the Divine nature of humans that is waiting to be discovered? There is actually a place in the Bible where the gospel writer John has Jesus actually teaching this, although I have never seen or heard it interpreted this way. Jesus teaches that God is the vinegrower, that Christ is the vine, and that we, as humans, are the branches (John 15: 1-2). If we take this literally, this means that when we are born, we are already connected to the vine of Christ. Jesus goes on to say, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15: 4-5). The question this text raises is not whether we, as humans, are connected to the vine: that is a given. All humans are. The question is whether we are abiding in this Christ Spirit that flows from the vine to our branches. If we are abiding in Christ, or using Apostle Paul’s language, connected to the Christ that dwells within us, then the fruits of Christ will manifest in our life. If we abiding in something else, we will produce no good fruit and eventually will be pruned. You are probably wondering why I am making such a big deal about this different but rare understanding of Christ within the Christian Church. It turns out that the Self within IFS works exactly this way. IFS has discovered that “we are all born with a Self. It does not develop through stages or borrow strength or wisdom from the therapist, and it cannot be damaged” (Schwartz and Sweezy, Internal Family Systems Therapy 2nd Ed, 2020. p. 43). In Schwartz’s book, “Many Minds One Self” (2017), he goes into great detail to help people see how the concept Self found within IFS appears in all the world religions including Christianity. However, the reason people struggle in discovering and experiencing this Self within them is because their Self can “be occluded or overwhelmed by <their> parts. We call this blending. When a part blends fully <with our Self>, we see the world through its eyes. When a part blends partially, its perspective influences us. When polarized parts blend, we live in the midst of an ongoing debate and have no peace of mind. But when parts unblend, the Self is immediately present and available” (Schwartz and Sweezy. P. 43) This property of blending is what I think Apostle Paul is describing when he describes what happens when our Mind is connected to Flesh and to Spirit. When our Mind is connected to the things of the Flesh, we lived according to the Flesh, (our Self blends with the Flesh parts); when our Mind is connected to the things of the Spirit (our Self unblends from the Flesh parts), we live according to the Spirit (Rom 8:5). Since the Self is the source of healing within the IFS system, and not the therapist, the developers of IFS have done a lot of research in understanding how Self interacts with the Manager, Exile, and Firefighter parts of our Soul. They have discovered what are called the 8 C’s and 5 P’s of Self. As a therapist, we know the client is speaking from their Self if one or more of these qualities are present to some degree: a curiosity toward what they are noticing, a feeling of calmness inside, an air of confidence as they validate and comfort their various parts, an awareness of connectiveness, possess a clarity in what they are noticing, a sense of creativity and openness, embody a courage that allows them to be protective of themselves and others, and finally a having a nonjudgemental compassion toward all of your parts despite the painful roles they may be playing in your life ( Schwartz and Sweezy. p. 50-53), The qualities of presence, perspective, patience, persistence, and playfulness are other traits of Self when they appear in our client (https://www.therapywithalessio.com/articles/self-in-ifs-therapy-what-it-is-what-are-the-8-cs-and-the-5-ps-of-self). If our client expresses attitudes contrary to these traits of Self, then we know that our client’s Self is blended with one or more parts of their Soul. A major part of IFS therapy involves helping client unblend their Self from their various parts. However, this issue of Self blending with parts is also true for everyone for everyone has parts, including therapists, spiritual directors, and pastors. A major part of the training to be a IFS therapist involves learning to unblend from our own parts for they will often arise in session and interfere with our counselling and client’s healing process The 8 C’s and 5 P’s of IFS echo of the spiritual fruits that Christian often associate with God’s Spirit, but IFS notes that that there are many other qualities of Self that can arise too. The reason IFS focuses on the 8 C’s and 5 P’s is because these are the important ones for healing to happen. In conclusion, Schwartz states that “the Self exists, cannot be damaged, can often be accessed quickly, knows how to heal, moves to correct inner and outer injustices with an open heart, and becomes the good attachment presence for parts and people alike” (Schwartz and Sweezy. p. 54). In summary, I have attempted to help you see how the evidence-based framework of Internal Family System brings new understandings to how Christians can understand the inner conflict found within our soul. IFS helps us sees our Divine nature differently. Seen through the IFS lens, our Divine nature is not the Mind part of us that seeks to manage our fallen or sinful nature. Rather, our Divine nature is the dynamic of the indwelling Christ that resides within us right from the day we are born. Within IFS, the dynamic of the Self echoes of the Indwelling Christ dynamic and follows many of the ways we, as Christians, understand the Spirit of Christ interacting with our lives. Much more can be said about this connection between IFS and Christianity. What excites me as a Christian psychotherapist is that through IFS we now have a contemporary evidence-based psycho-spiritual model that can help us, as Christians, along with the Bible, Christian history, and various Christian theologies, to understand how prayer and spiritual healing and transformation actually happen through the dynamics of the Indwelling Christ.
Questions to Ponder: 1. How would you describe the inner conflict within your soul, between the Mind part and the Flesh part? When has your Mind been able to manage your Flesh part? When has it failed you? 2. The IFS model helps us see that the Mind part within our soul is not our Divine Nature but a fallen manager part whose goal is to manage our Flesh or fallen nature. How does this view of the Mind part differ with your theology? How is it freeing for you? 3. Apostle Paul describes the Christ dynamic as the secret to us being freed from this battle between the Mind and our Flesh. How have you understood/experienced this Christ dynamic? 4. IFS has discovered that we are born with the Self or Indwelling Christ dynamic, and thus this dynamic is the essence of our Divine Nature. How does this new IFS insight differ with the theology you have been taught? How is it freeing for you? Gord Alton MDiv RP CASC Supervisor-Educator
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