Dr. Troy Fenlason

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I am coming to understand paradox as essential to human growth and development. It is central to life experience and has a centering effect.  How we chose to respond to paradox can shape the course of our lives in many ways.  It is critical to the process of healing and transformation. The following is a random collection of  thoughts on Paradox that I hope will grow and refine over time.

Ambivalence

Ambivalence is rooted in the tension of opposing emotions. The experience of abuse can create intense ambivalence from opposing emotions such as desire and shame, anger and sadness, power and powerlessness. We often feel multiple emotions at the same time but are unable to sustain the intensity of seemingly conflicting emotions. Transformation occurs when conflicting emotions have room to shape each other and find harmony.

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Christian Paradox

The invitation of Christ is to a life of paradox. The Christian life is a journey through paradox. To name a few, this journey leads us through good and evil, death and life, justice and mercy, flesh and spirit. In contrast, and paradoxical to the direction of systematic theology, this perspective embraces paradox as central to human, spiritual life and does not explain it away. It is the path laid out for us by Christ himself who lived as the creator and the created, both God and human.

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Tension of Opposites

Jung coined this phrase, suggesting that much of our psychic life is focused on internal conflicts between opposing forces.  Often the less desirable or acceptable force goes underground, hidden from consciousness, to relieve the tension. But one can assume that if there is a powerfully conscious force in our lives that the opposite also exists somewhere as well. For example, a strong masculine presentation has a feminine counterpart hidden in its shadows, or a strong extrovert has an introverted counterpart desiring to participate and have influence on the whole personality. The journey of personal growth is a journey toward the center of the tension of opposites. It is precisely in the center of the tension that transformation has its potential.

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There will be many more snippets to come on the topic of paradox… as time allows…

“All opposites are of God, therefore man must bend to this burden; and inso doing he finds that God in his ‘oppositeness’ has taken possession of him, incarnated himself in him. He becomes a vessel filled with divine conflict.”

 ‘‘There is no type of existence in which opposites do not co-exist. In a sense, existence may also be defined as the coming together of opposites.”