Interesting insights on the necessary interaction between reason and emotion.
Interesting. I think there has to be a healthy balance. It is definitely possible to be overbalanced in either direction.
Sonia
Yes, that’s part of what I got from it too.
I was thinking that reason and emotion balance each other, but both should be under the higher authority of love.
Sonia
It is an interesting article. In my own theology I see emotion and reason as inseparable but agree with the Greeks, though I’d qualify their stance with the idea that emotions don’t corrupt reason per se, it is corrupted emotions which force their way into and misdirect the reason. This notion of varying degrees of corruption of the emotions doesn’t seem to be taken into consideration in Dr. Beck’s article. Assuming reason and emotion to be two aspects or modes of a single power, either could conceivably subvert the other. This seems to me to be concordant with the doctrine of a fallen human nature.
Thanks for posting. Very interesting.
Sorry to come late to this post but I am new to the forum.
This morning I had a conversation with a friend concerning two seemingly opposite aspects of encountering God, by experience and by the Word, with the idea that experience is emotional while the Word is intellectual and reasonable. We talked about right brain – left brain studies indicating that the right brain functions in the past and future while the left brain is focused on “The Now”. E.g. The left lobe is logical and the right lobe is emotional.
My argument is that according to the scripture that says we must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him – experience and emotion come first. That being said, because emotions can lead to wild and crazy places, it is the solid written Word that keeps one on the road to lifelong growth.
I personally know the tremendous difference between those times when I am emotionally engaged in the scriptures I am reading and those times when I am not.
I think it may be different for different people, Felix. I used to think that I must be a far-right-brained person, but every test I take puts me smack in the middle. I guess that’s a good thing, even if I am an artist by trade. 
The thing is, though, we are not segregated into right or left brain, body, soul, spirit, etc. We are integrated persons (although the Word pierces even unto the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit . . .) For people who relate most to intellectual pursuits, maybe Abba does come to them in this way first. After all, it was He who built them. Naturally He can come in any way He chooses and perhaps He would choose to develop that other hemisphere.
I’d say that my preferred response is emotional, however mostly for me, it’s both. But then, as I said, I’m in the middle. It would be interesting to hear from folks as to their own primary response, or first response to Father.
Then there’s the argument (which I tend to take) that the truly important response to Him is going to be spiritual. Both emotion and intellect are responses of the body/soul, and the body should be the servant and tool of the spirit. The response of the body is going to be hard for us to distinguish from the spirit, though. I guess that’s why we need the word/Word – to help us discern whether we are experiencing an emotional/intellectual response to what’s happening in our spirits, or whether the physical response is primary (and therefore not perhaps a direct response to what God is doing in our hearts.)
I’m probably blathering here, and not sure if I’m making sense, but these are my musings for the moment. 
Blessings, Cindy
Cindy, I read a few of your blogs and like them very much.
Thanks, Felix! 