It's interesting (though I'm not sure whether I agree with it or not) that William James, in his book 'The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature' (1902) wrote this:
'I do believe, that feeling is the deeper source of religion, and that philosophic and theological formulas are secondary products, like translations of a text into another tongue...'The author in the book I'm reading ('Theological Reflection:Methods' Graham, et al) points out that certain well known characters of Christian/Church History, (i.e. Augustine and Wesley) seemed to experience learning from God through dialogue with other believers and sometimes themselves, in the form of letters and journals. They reflected on their Theology from what they had written down themselves, not just what they had read in the Bible, and this experience of 'dialogue' changed them as they reflected on it.
I'm not entirely convinced that all of that can be put down to just psychology, that they were 'learning from themselves', but I have known times in my life where I have realised something fresh and new as I looked back on my own writing in a journal or blog, or something I had written to another person, or sermon notes/bible studies I had prepared. I don't neccesarily think that's all just psychology, but I think God can work through anything, even psychology; after all, he made our minds and the ability to reason as our Creator didn't he!
Interesting...
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