Abstract
In this article, we apply attachment theory to the grand narrative of Christian Scripture: creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. First, utilizing four key features of attachment theory—secure base, exploration, attachment behaviors, and safe haven—we attempt to integrate the “circle of attachment” with the biblical story of creation. Next, we explore the overlap between maternal deprivation, including the stages of protest, despair, and detachment, and the fall of humankind elucidated in the biblical storyline. Finally, we discuss the relationship between attachment theory and redemption and new creation within the grand narrative of Scripture. By focusing on the relationship between God and humankind found within the Old and New Testaments, we seek to expand the theological underpinnings of the attachment to God literature and conclude by offering suggestions for therapists and pastoral counselors working with Christians exhibiting disordered attachment patterns.
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Notes
In our article, we utilize the same four attachment concepts articulated by Clinton and Straub (2010), referred to as the “circle of attachment,” so as to offer a clear and succinct heuristic when applying attachment theory to the grand narrative of Scripture.
Here, we wish to highlight that theorists prior to Kirkpatrick and Shaver (1990) have written on the link between parent–child relationships and God. For example, Erik Erikson argued that a basic sense of trust is the cornerstone of religion. Still, Kirkpatrick and Shaver, to the authors’ knowledge, were the first researchers to integrate Bowlby’s attachment theory with religion.
Also see the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin in Luke 15 for examples of God’s pursuit of humankind.
“To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’”
See, for instance, Ruth 1:1. Ruth is set in the time of Judges, and because of the oppression experienced by Israel there is “famine in the land.”
Interestingly, the church in the New Testament is also “scattered.” James (1:1) and Peter (1 Peter 1:1) both use the Greek term diaspora, “scattered,” to describe the church. The church’s scattering is unlike Israel’s in that it is not due to national sin, but is like Israel’s sin in the sense that the church is still waiting for YHWH to finally and fully return to the land and dwell with God’s people. See the section below on Redemption for more on this return of YHWH.
For other examples of stages of separation, see the lament Psalms and the lawsuit protests of Israel in Malachi.
That is, men and women who confess their sin and believe in Jesus Christ.
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Knabb, J.J., Emerson, M.Y. “I Will Be Your God and You Will Be My People”: Attachment Theory and the Grand Narrative of Scripture. Pastoral Psychol 62, 827–841 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-012-0500-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-012-0500-x