The Psychology of the Pursuit for a Sense of Power and Structural Patterns of Biblical Social Relations.

Abstract

This article attempts to reconstruct some important features (structural patterns) of social relations in biblical discourse, which is the most significant source of regulation in the social world of not only Christian communities but also outside of them in both the public and private lives of believers. An analysis was conducted on the basis of the striving for power theory by Alfred Adler and Władysław Witwicki, and on the linguistic category model by Gun Semin and Klaus Fiedler. The focus was mainly on the analysis of the concept of power and domination, preferred emotions, and a sense of social closeness as important variables regulating the social world of biblical time. The obtained results are primarily important for pastoral psychology, religious education, and psychotherapy.