Father Albin had spent the night tossing and turning in his bed. It felt too warm and too cold all at once. His limbs were achy, his throat felt dry and itchy. His mind raced seemingly non-stop.

At one point, he was definitely asleep. He recalled the dream that seemed to occur while he was in between sleep and awake. In the dream, he sat in his chair writing a sermon. In his mind he understood it to be his "Great Gift" sermon, but the words looked like a foreign language on the page, and when he spoke them they sounded like a jumbled drunkenness.

But in the dream, he still understood what they meant, what the message was. It was something transcendent that didn’t depend on particular words or language or speech. It was a feeling of understanding, of warmth. A realization.

Immediately in his dream, he was in his church. In his hand were his notes and he was delivering the sermon. But now the notes were unintelligible. He was trying to read them, and while he could make the sounds they represented, he couldn't put the story together. He felt dizzy, but persisted. The congregation looked confused. A few even appeared angry and got up to leave. He could see his nephew in the back of the church, intently paying attention.

Suddenly it was communion, and the gifts were being prepared and brought to him for blessing and the transfiguration. As he took the chalice with wine to turn it into Jesus' blood, it appeared empty. So, he tilted it all the way to get any drop, but none came for a moment. Then suddenly, he was awash in the wine, all of it dripping over his face and down his garments. The sense of embarrassment and humiliation made his skin burn.

He awoke suddenly, feeling his body burning and sweating. He often slept in his robe, as he liked the comfort of it. But now it was wet with perspiration and felt like a lead weight constraining him. His mouth was dry and sticky, thick with mucous. He looked around for any kind of water or refreshment, but found none next to his bed.

Trying to make some sense of his dream, he got out of bed to get a glass of water.

ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY

THE WORD OF GOD: HOW PROPHESY AND INSANITY SHAPE FAITH

(ABRIDGED)

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

BY

ALBIN WALENTA

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

MAY 1988

I. INTRODUCTION

It need not be pointed out that the history of the world, and especially the history of religion, is marked by a variety of fanatical, eccentric, and innovative personalities. From the earliest of days with Samuel, through modern interpretations of Mayan calendars, there have always been people to fulfill the role of soothsayer, medium, prophet, or sage. In modern times, one can study their circumstance and message.

In this paper, I plan to show how, through thorough study and analysis, that faith is shaped not only by these prophets and their prophesies, but also by various levels of insanity in both prophets and regular people. This work will illustrate how combining messages about the future with psychological dysfunction can create a recipe for faith. Through tactics of promises, fear, hypnosis, intimidation, psychosis, brain washing, and others, prophets and the insane drive flocks of people into the corral of faith and hold them there never to escape, even when the gate is open.

II. PART ONE: Early Prophets

In the oldest of days, prophets were called by a variety of names and titles. Indeed, they also varied in their calling and responsibility. Of course, they also varied in their skills. Gurus, Sages, Soothsayers, Clairvoyants, and Medicine Men, all have their roots in the same essence. These were singular members of tribes who possessed special skills not available to everyone, and when cultivated, provided a unique benefit for the tribe.

But what is a prophet? Is it a person who speaks to God? Is it someone who can predict or see the future? Is it someone who can heal, or warn of danger? In many ways, a prophet might be all or none of these things. The modern understanding of prophets, and prophesy, is arguably narrower and encompasses the basic ideas of a person who speaks to, or hears from, God, and delivers God's message to the people. In that sense, the prophet isn't so much predicting the future as much as delivering a message from a God who can see the future.

At an age we would consider still relatively adolescent, Samuel heard his name being called during the night. Once Samuel responded, the Lord told him that the sons of Eli were essentially bad people, and that Eli's family would be cursed as a result. Eli was a priest of Shiloh, and had taken Samuel on as his apprentice in training. When Eli asks Samuel about this event, Samuel responds honestly. Eli reacts by telling Samuel that God must do what is right.

When read through a modern lens, this story sounds remarkably harsh. Eli's sons were reportedly engaging in sex with women in the church, and stealing the best food for themselves. Eli, apparently, was expected to be more prudent with his sons and bring an end to the debauchery. When he didn't, God saw fit to tell Eli's young apprentice that he would be cursing and destroying Eli's family.

This story is the earliest example of prophesy in the Bible. It is also a perfect example of both prophesy and insanity, and how they influence faith and behavior. In this case, Samuel isn't making any prediction, exactly. He does tell Eli that the future of his family is in dire straits, but he doesn't specify when or how. However, he does claim that this information comes from God.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

What are we to make of Samuel's claim and Eli's reaction? If your employee came to you and said that God told him that you were not strict enough with your own children, and as a result he was going to destroy your family, your first reaction would not be the same as Eli's. Instead, you might think that the employee was not well.

III. PART TWO: Charlatans and Cults

Prophets are not constrained to live only in the world of high profile organized religion. Recognition that prophesy can bring fame and power has driven madmen through the ages to recount their own dreams, delusions, paranoias, and insights and deliver them as prophetic messages of hope and direness. Those people looking for answers, and wanting to believe in something, often latch on to the cult of personality that such "prophets" maintain.

Such charlatans as Grigori Rasputin and L. Ron Hubbard, David Koresh and Sai Baba, Charles Manson and Fred Phelps, Jim Bakker and Shoko Asahara all share a common set of behaviors that characterize at once both as madmen and gurus. All proclaimed to know the secret or path to enlightenment, the way to heaven, the price of salvation. What is the difference between the salesman selling a bottle of water as snake oil treatment that cures arthritis, Bernie Madoff promising unrealistic investment returns, and Jim Jones promising salvation by drinking Kool-Aid? The short answer is just the details of their plot, since the main story line is essentially the same. They all sought to feed their own insanity, while providing their flock with a framework for belief and faith.

While it is probably incredibly damaging to the ego to be a failed charlatan, it must be overwhelming to be the leader a group of people who believe in you, as you lead them from town to town, state to state across the country. It must be overwhelming to be run out of each town and continue to lead the group to a desolate area of Utah. It must take a special kind of insanity to continue this path, to ignore any moral righteousness, or to believe that it is morally right in the face of so much dissension.

But also, it must take a complementary kind of insanity to continue to follow such a movement. What does it take to leave your home, and follow across the country? To be run out of town after town? To settle in a desolate area with essentially nothing? To maintain belief and faith in some cause or framework that you might only barely understand. And yet, this is the origin story of the Mormon religion.

IV. PART THREE: Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

Mainstream society recognizes the name of Sigmund Freud almost as a caricature. His legacy has become something of a parody of a small number of ideas he posited about relationships within the family structure and sexual behaviors. In the actual scientific community, however, he is a giant. His early work on anatomy and neurology, as well as his immense work on the study of the mind and consciousness can hardly be overstated in its importance.

Of most significance to this discussion are Freud's concepts of the id, ego, and super-ego. The id being that part of the psyche that controls and influences instinctual behaviors. The super-ego being the part of the psyche that assigns values to behaviors. The ego being the part that coordinates behaviors such that they meet the needs of the super-ego and the id.

Most people have a casual understanding of the ego, as its common use is often prescribed in discussions involving celebrities, cults of personality, and other people in positions of power. It's not uncommon to talk of someone with a large ego, or someone who needs to keep their ego in check. These are coarse and vague understandings of the concept.

Regarding faith and insanity, these concepts are critical. The id is what drives behavior toward results that please instinctual and physical needs. One can easily see that an individual with a proper balance of id, ego, and super-ego will be able to manage their behavior appropriately. They will eat when hungry, but not more. They will have sexual desire when appropriate, but not more. They will see themselves and others with values and build relationships based on those values.

But what happens when they are out of balance? What happens when someone has too much id and too much ego and not enough super-ego? Imagine the instinctual desires when they become magnified. Imagine the values and judgements when they are diminished. This leads to behaviors that are driven by instinctual and primitive desires. A cult leader who is driven to have sex with his female followers. A CEO who is driven to be in charge. While this type of person isn't devoid of emotions, they simply understand emotions in a different way than others. Their emotions are driven by their primitive id, and lack the value judgement of the super-ego. More importantly, their psyche assumes others process emotions like they do, so they frequently behave toward others as if they also have no values or judgements and as if they too are driven by their id, driven by their primitive desires.

But what about faith and belief? What drives the followers of these sociopaths to believe them, to continue to have faith in their snake oil? These followers have a predilection for hope, for the future. They have an instinct in their id to feel good about a promise, about a prophesy. And they overcompensate for the leader's lack of super-ego by overestimating the value of the promise. And the leader, often recognizing this complementary psyche is more than willing to take advantage of it.

The leader provides the followers with a prophesy they can believe in. The followers assign value and judgement to the prophesy. The followers provide a commitment back to the leader, which feeds into his id, because it feels good to him. The leader's ego continues to push prophesies, because it feeds his good feeling. The followers continue to assign value to the prophesies. And so, it continues in an endless cycle. The overconfident insanity of the leader feeds the under confident insanity of his followers by providing prophesies they can assign value to.

V. PART FOUR: Modern Society

In religion, in politics, in science, in social circles these behaviors are evident. What distinguishes religion from politics? From science? Essentially, the difference is the prophesy. The basic structure and mechanisms are the same whether it's a priest promising salvation, a scientist predicting the outcome of an experiment, or a politician promising a great future. They are all making prophesies. When the prophesy is received, others try to determine its value. When the prophesy comes from an authority, people assign it a higher value. The prediction of a university scientist is regarded as more valuable than the prediction of a 3rd grader. The value of a religious prophesy is often regarded as amongst the highest value, particularly for those with an existing predilection to believe in a God or creator.

What are we to do with this understanding? Are we to assume that all prophets are insane sociopaths? Are we to conclude that all believers are simply weak minded? Are we to continue to propagate this social structure and encourage ongoing prophesy and belief?

Or is there some good or positive change we can affect? Can we start to understand why people believe? Can we start to help them recognize the difference between Jim Jones leading them to death, and Jesus leading them to everlasting life? And if so, how can we do that?

We must start by understanding how their super-ego works. We must understand how they judge prophesies and promises. And we must understand why prophesies that are detrimental achieve a higher value than those which enrich their lives. To change someone's values you must change their perspective. This requires nurturing. It requires teaching. It requires demonstration. Sometimes it requires allowing them to pursue their values in a way that lets them see it for what it is, to let them see the inappropriate value they have assigned to it.

I propose that churches and church leaders start now to create a vision for their community where they can understand the nuances of the values in the community, and where they can nurture those values. And when there are individuals who exhibit confusion and misalignment of those values, they must act to nurture and educate them. I further propose that communities identify individuals who lack or have degraded value systems. Unfortunately, there appears to be limited recourse to introduce values into such individuals. Therefore, they must be observed and monitored, and if their behaviors exhibit the biases of the id and the ego, they may need to be removed from the community, else the community risks a battle of prophesies between the church leaders and the sociopath, the cost of which is too high to bare.