In the 1960’s, American psychiatrist Aaron Beck made a crucial discovery in his research on depression. He noticed that all of his depressed patients had a similar set of thought patterns. He called those “cognitive distortions.” Many of those are familiar to us, like maximizing bad news, minimizing affirmations, catastrophizing, black and white thinking, emotional reasoning (if I feel it strongly it must be true), and so on.
Dr. Beck theorized then that if he could change thoughts, there would be changes to the feelings of depression. This was a catalyst in the development of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), where we understand thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to be intertwined, and where a change in one of those three affects the other two.
Paul seems to allude to this in Romans 12:2 where he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The world around us has its own patterns, and God has his. The world seeks to form us and so does God, each after their own pattern. Each wants to shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
In this verse, Paul chooses to begin the process of our formation with our minds. I have tried to find equivalence between what the Bible calls heart, mind, and spirit with our modern notions of cognition, emotion, and self. It is not an easy task. There is too much overlap and the definitions of each bleed into the others. Rather than pursuing those definitions, keeping it simple helps me more. It seems Paul is saying that there is renewal to be had in the mind that affects overall transformation. It is tempting to think that in modern language, and according to Dr. Beck, if we change our thoughts and beliefs, feelings and behaviors will follow.
That is both right and wrong.
It is wrong in that cognitive changes by themselves don’t create complete transformation. It is evident that forcing change through cognition alone can create suppression and denial of emotions, and eventually contradictory behavior. I am reminded of Dr. John White, a Christian psychiatrist and author, who spoke of a neighbor who was depressed. He kept drawing for her a well known (at the time) diagram of a train, with facts being the engine, which pulled the train car of faith, which pulled the car of feelings. While this diagram worked for new believers who needed to not think that their faith depended on their feelings, it did not work for his neighbor. One day she committed suicide.
On the other hand, it is right in that changes to our beliefs about life, from cognitive agreement all the way down to beliefs that are held below consciousness, will indeed create transformation in our feelings and behaviors.
So the key question then becomes how do we bring about this renewal of our minds that extends beyond simple cognitive agreement to deeper core beliefs that we hold about life, about ourselves, about others, and about God?
Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective, but not for everything. Trauma, shame, and attachment issues are often better addressed with other forms of therapy. This should not be a surprise because Scripture also talks about other forms of change. Second Corinthians 3:18 talks about change that comes from spending time in the presence of God. James 5:16 talks about change that comes from confession of sins to one another. And this is by no means a comprehensive list.
Deeper change, therefore, may require more than cognitive approaches. The renewal of our minds lead to transformation, but other practices lead to transformation also (see some of my other articles and stay tuned for more 😊 ). We would do well, therefore, to live a life of discernment, responding to God’s invitations in all the dimensions he leads us through for our transformation.