ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the self may exist in ways that might link it to distortive and destructive theologies. Pathological shame as an expression of dysfunctional relationships is also visible in other kinds of destructive relationships, as witnessed in testimonies of shame that results from psychological, physical and/or sexual violence. A theology or a conception of the human self that is ignorant of these features and their dynamics will be less capable of taking seriously the impact of shame upon people who, in some way or another, experience shame as entangled with their religious beliefs. In more explicit terms, sometimes the self in Christian theology is identified first and foremost as an unredeemable sinner. Norwegian pastoral theologian and counselor Berit Okkenhaug has, with good reason, problematized a purely legal or judicial understanding of reconciliation, and accordingly also the preaching of sin and grace as a solution to problems related to shame in the self.
