Why Are There Guilty and Neurotic Christians?
If Christian faith can reduce a sense of guilt or guilt proneness, why are there guilty-and neurotic-Christians? Allport (1955) suggests a few sources-the arresting forces of training, producing infantile, self-serving and superstitious religious belief; religious insecurity, leading to compulsive rituals of reassurance; and extremely rigid training in home or church. It will be helpful to classify potential reasons into six areas: ecclesiogenic neurosis, inadequate understanding, convoluted thinking, inferiority feelings, attraction of neurotics, and actuarial explanation. I . Ecclesiogenic Neurosis. The German psychiatrist Klaus Thomas coined the term ecclesiogenic neurosis (1965) to describe the induction of neurotic symptoms in individuals who are expected to live up to moral standards of the Church without having or before gaining the necessary saving faith (Harnik, 1978). The unreasonable-at a particular point in time-demands of the Church, or of a moralistic Christian family, ma
