How helpful & appropriate is the contemporary use of "I feel?"
If one compares the language of the English Versions of the New Testament with that of contemporary expressions of Christian Faith, one notices the scarcity of the use of the verb "to feel" in the NT (and OT/Apocrypha) in contrast to the abundance of its use today.
If one listens to the way people speak today, even people who are renowned for their intellectual ability, one notices how often they use the word feel and they use it where other verbs (e.g., believe & think) would be obviously more appropriate and meaningful. Often an academic or scientist is asked. "What do you feel about [a scientific claim/ theory etc]?" What is being asked is a question about his intellectual judgment and he supplies this in reply but does so by beginning, " I feel that."
If one listens to the teaching, preaching, speaking, testimonies and popular ditties in churches (both evangelical and liberal, charismatic & formal) one notices how often faith, hope, conviction, commitment, consecration and service are introduced by and described through the verb " I feel."
In the NT of the KJV it occurs only 3 times and translates three different verbs - Acts 17:27; Ephesians 4:19 & Hebrews 4:15.
In the NT of the NRSV it occurs only 3 times and again translates different verbs - Romans 15:14; 2 Cor 11:2; 1 Thess 3:9.
I do not want to suggest that no account is taken of the feelings/emotions in the New Testament for such a statement is false. But it is significant that there is no clear use of "I feel" in the Bible.
What I think is significant is the basic psychology at work in the two different contexts.
In the Bible the whole person is one who thinks, feels, intends and acts. If there is a logic to this it is that truth (or error) enters the soul as knowledge, elevates or depraves the emotions/affections and guides or empowers the will to action. The Gospel does not primarily come to a person via his emotions or affections but is addressed to him as a thinking, responsible being who is being called to be obedient unto God his Lord. Thus the biblical Christian rarely says " I feel" but often says, " I believe, trust, receive, obey, think," and so on. Certainly deep feelings are aroused when the Gospel by the work of the Holy Ghost touches the affections and desire for God's glory and man's salvation are aroused and kindled, and of such feelings the Christian testifies. Such affections are important for true religion (as Jonathan Edwards magisterially pointed out) is in the affections - desire, love, joy, peace and so on. Yet these affections must be and are moulded and guided by right and true knowledge and faith.
Today, with the dominance in the West of the psychotherapeutical culture and of personal subjectivity in terms of self-understanding and definition, it is assumed that the feelings are central to what we are and that they are the initial meeting of the individual person with other persons and with the world around. Thus "I feel" functions in a comprehensive way to cover all motions of the mind and soul. If we ask a young college person "Who are you?" the answer will often be in terms of "I am the person with these unique feelings that are mine and no one else's." (50 years ago the answer would have been in terms of human relations - identity through belonging to family and tribe.)
When the feelings are elevated above the mind in logical, practical, and cultural priority and are not seen as powerful forces that need to be tamed & harnessed for good purposes (or else they will serve evil), then we are in great danger of having an highly experientialist religion which is merely that, wherein Truth, as being the Person of Jesus Christ and right statements concerning him, are secondary or even lost. And it is this Truth that saves!
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
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