Excerpts from:  Bowen Theory and a Biblical World View – How one Christian approaches secular thinking and knowledge?  Jenny Brown

“Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above not on earthly things.” Col 3: 1-2.

As a Christian who works in the mental health profession I am mindful of the danger of relegating a biblical perspective on the human condition to the periphery with modern psychological theories dominating the discourse........

...the Christian in psychology and mental health learns to be wary of any secular counselling that may assume moral authority in deciding and declaring what is a right and wrong way to live and behave in relationship.  This kind of advice inevitable puts itself in the place of God.  Approaches that promote the  human’s capacity to become essentially good and achieve full potential through self effort, will undermine the Gospel which is only good news because of the solution it provides to helpless state of selfishness we humans are in.  Any approach that promotes a life goal of an endless effort towards self knowledge can only be at odds with the Biblical call to love and know God with all our heart mind and strength. ................

Bowen family systems theory does not tell humans how they should live but is an effort towards science that describes (through research observations) how humans predictably react in relationships.  Just as medical science describes the behaviour of cells that distort, systems theory describes the knowable patterns of humans in their relational spheres.  (These same patterns are observed in other species).

It describes much that is not made clear in the Bible. The Bible describes the source of symptoms and disharmony in humans and their relationships---the effect of taking charge of our own destinies and ignoring the authority of our creator.  It does not describe in clear detail the emotional and relationship processes that are part of the fallen human condition.  Bowen theory describes the very same patterns of relationship and emotional symptoms in the lives of Christians as in the lives of those who are not believers.  The objective observations of what humans do in the midst of relationship stressors describes those in and outside of the church.  According to Bowen theory the key variable is a person’s level of differentiation (emotional and relational maturity).  Theory describes observations of the instinctual ways that human’s behave to reduce the discomfort of sensing discord in relationships, through losing thoughtful boundaries to create a feeling of harmony (fusion), through distancing in the face of differences (emotional cut off), side taking or focussing on a third person to return a sense of security (triangles), and being overly helpful to others at the expense of their self management (Over and under functioning). ......................

Bowen theory may be seen as part of this helpful knowledge base that is part of the generosity of God’s common grace to all humanity.  At the same time the Christian stays mindful that any explanation of the human that comes from secular thought will not reveal our greatest problem...our separation from our creator God.  There will always be limitations to human knowledge and any quest for knowledge to give meaning to life inevitably lowers our horizon to this short life and not to the world that Christians believe is to come.  The challenge, on the other hand, is not to reactively dismiss information that does not come from Biblical thought but to use our God given thinking capacity to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:5

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