by Chelsea Hurlburt

Take a look at the image above. How do you feel? What emotions are you feeling right now as you read this? How many of these emotions have you experienced just today?

It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself highly emotional or the exact opposite, we all experience an array of emotions on a daily basis – from moments of surprise and delight to frustration and sadness. Some emotions might come and go quickly, while others persist in the deepest parts of our soul and psyche.

Whether or not we like it, the truth is that these emotions impact how we think. We might like to think of ourselves as logical decision-makers, but research in psychology and behavioral economics has shown that emotions have a tremendous influence on our decision making. Emotional gut instincts can drive our thinking even when it comes to major decisions about money and politics.

All this brought me to consider the question I want to discuss here – if emotions hold such unseen influence over our daily lives, how then can developing emotional intelligence skills help to better equip my students to serve the Arab church effectively?

What is Emotional Intelligence?

To start, it’s important to understand what emotional intelligence is and is not. Emotional intelligence is not just about your personality or how emotionally expressive you are. Emotional intelligence is a set of developed skills that include being able to identify and manage your emotions in healthy ways, to motivate yourself, to recognize and relate to the emotions of others, to develop healthy relationships, and, finally, to recognize and use emotions in effective decision-making.

Practical Reasons for Developing Emotional Intelligence

These are quite obviously essential skills for those doing ministry. That’s why there’s growing recognition of the need for incorporating emotional intelligence development in theological education. Emerging research has revealed several very practical reasons for why emotional intelligence contributes to students’ success in their studies and future ministry.

1. Emotional intelligence helps students and those doing ministry get through each day’s work successfully. From managing a tough workload, to handling setbacks and stress, and overcoming lack of motivation or the impulse to give in to distractions – emotional intelligence helps us sort through how we are feeling in the moment so we can push forward on what we need to accomplish each day. Additionally, emotional intelligence helps with essential aspects of learning like focusing attention, memorizing, seeing connections, making decisions and expressing opinions. These are all influenced by emotion and essential for students to thrive.

2. Emotional intelligence helps students and those doing ministry maintain healthy relationships and build community. This is important on both a personal and community level. Emotionally intelligent people can effectively foster healthy church communities by being able to attend to emotional needs as well as being able to resolve conflicts with and between others successfully.

3. Emotional intelligence helps students and those doing ministry avoid burnout. The emotional strain of trying to meet multiple needs in a church community can be overwhelming. Emotional intelligence skills help those doing ministry be aware of their own limits and their own needs and practice the self-care that will help them thrive in ministry for the long-term.[1]

Theological Reasons for Developing Emotional Intelligence

It’s easy to see the practical reasons for how emotional intelligence is important for students and those doing ministry to succeed. But what about theological reasons? How do emotions matter to the academic study of theology?

1. Emotional intelligence starts with recognizing that emotions are from God. God has emotions, and so – being made in His image – we have emotions too. Scripture is full of references to God’s emotions including joy (Isa 62:5), compassion (Hos 11:8), delight (Ps 149:4), anger (Jer 32:37), regret (1 Sam 15:11), and grief (Gen 6:6). These emotions in God do not mean that He is unstable, impulsive, or unreliable. Rather, God’s experience of emotions is perfect. Recognizing God’s emotions helps us understand Him better, while recognizing ourselves as emotional because we are made in His image helps us understand ourselves better. Ultimately, this awareness of emotions helps us know God and relate to Him more fully as we bring our emotional selves to Him and learn from His example. This is the heart of theology.

2. Emotional intelligence helps us read Scripture. In addition to the many references describing God’s emotions there are numerous mentions of how emotions drove the actions of others in Scripture. Look at nearly any passage of Scripture and there lies either explicit mention of emotions (2 Sam 13:15; Luke 24:37, 41; 2 Cor 2:4) or implicit undercurrents of emotion expressed through the author’s tone (compare the difference in Paul’s tone with the Galatians versus the Philippians!). Recognizing these emotions helps us to understand and interpret Scripture more completely.

3. Emotional intelligence helps us live faithfully. Scripture gives us many examples where emotions were expressed in either right or wrong ways. Jesus himself showed how even difficult emotions like anger (Mk 3:4), frustration (Mt 15:16), and grief (Jn 11:35) were natural emotions that could be expressed without falling into sin. On the other hand, Scripture reveals numerous accounts of how emotions like envy, fear, pride, and anger did lead to sin – just consider the examples of Cain, Joseph’s brothers, King Saul, Judas, and even Peter who denied Christ out of fear. These difficult emotions often lie at the root of sinful behaviors like lying, stealing, and hurting others. Trying to repent from bad behavior without addressing the emotions that underlie it is a fool’s errand – the behavior emerges again because we haven’t learned a better way to handle the emotion causing it. We need to learn to identify and surrender our emotions to God, just as we surrender other parts of our lives to Him, so that He may carry out the process of sanctification in us.

4. Emotional intelligence helps us develop a more robust theology. Each and every one of us comes to Scripture with our own experiences and biases. Our present emotions and the emotions tied to our past experiences can profoundly impact which passages of Scripture we prefer to read, and which themes we feel are most important. Emotional intelligence includes being able to recognize these emotions and tendencies within ourselves, and (to some degree) set aside our biases as we interpret Scripture. Additionally, emotional intelligence helps us recognize how others from different backgrounds might respond emotionally to passages of Scripture. This understanding helps us view Scripture through multiple lenses and therefore draw more robust meaning from it. Ultimately, emotional intelligence can help us become better communicators as we preach and teach to diverse audiences.

Reclaiming the Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Theological Education

Despite the theological importance of emotions, systematic theology has long tended to neglect them. In a review of 25 major systematic theology textbooks and 65 books on discipleship and spiritual formation, J. J. Davis (2023) found that few included any discussion of emotion in reference to God or godly living.[2]  Although many good Christian educators and mentors seek to foster emotional intelligence through interpersonal relationships with students and mentees, the lack of explicit curriculum has left a critical gap in both theological understanding and discipleship.

Why have emotions and emotional intelligence remained neglected? There are various theories. Some attribute this neglect to the historic influence of some strands of Greek philosophy which viewed emotions as contrary to reason and incompatible with divine perfection. In this view, emotions became categorically regarded as problematic and ungodly. Others trace the problem to the Protestant Reformation which emphasized faith and belief as the sole requirement for salvation, sometimes to the neglect of transformed living which required attention to human emotion. Finally, the diversity found within global Christianity has meant emotional expressiveness has been embraced in some circles but viewed with skepticism in others.

It is time to reclaim a biblical understanding of emotions. One place this needs to start is in theological education. The integrated curriculum at ABTS is designed to raise up holistically equipped men and women for effective service and leadership. Every class at ABTS is built around learning objectives that include not only cognitive learning, but affective (emotional) and behavioral learning as well. All three components are essential for raising up successful leaders.

My hope is that this holistic learning leads to a renewed focus in the broader church to the role of emotions and the importance of emotional intelligence in theology and Christian living. Much more is needed to ensure that the advantages of emotional intelligence are being realized in individuals and throughout church communities. Emotional intelligence skills need to be not only modeled and transmitted through personal relationships and discipleship, but also explicitly taught in our churches.

No matter our personality or gender, we bring our emotional selves to God’s Word every time we do theology. Knowing and understanding our emotional selves, and the emotional self of God, is foundational to a healthy relationship with Him and those around us. May we learn to come to God with our whole hearts and minds to become truly transformed in His presence.

Chelsea Hurlburt lives in Lebanon and serves on the faculty team at ABTS. She is currently finishing her PhD in Intercultural Studies, with a focus on women in mission.

[1] Peter Scazzero’s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is an excellent resource for this, along with a number of other books and resources in the Emotionally Healthy series.

[2] Davis, J. J. (2023). Emotional intelligence: A missing category in discipleship training and spiritual formation? Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care, 16(2), 252–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/19397909231188367