Untitled Sermon

Themelios: Volume 43, No. 3, December 2018 Self-Deception in Theology

virtually all humans as constantly hiding the truth from themselves. Because of the universal phenomenon of self-deception in human experience

Themelios: Volume 43, No. 3, December 2018 Self-Deception in Theology

Self-deception is related to a wide variety of phenomena such as irrationality, wishful thinking, delusions, imperfect memory, ignorance, avoidance, hypocrisy, maintenance of self-respect, and false belief

Themelios: Volume 43, No. 3, December 2018 Self-Deception in Theology

Jean-Paul Sartre viewed self-deception as the primary means to avoid self-awareness. Sartre used the expression “bad faith” to describe self-deception because it is a false belief about oneself.

Themelios: Volume 43, No. 3, December 2018 Self-Deception in Theology

This lack of scholarship is a dangerous oversight because self-deception, a universal phenomenon caused by the fall, is intimately related to sin and detrimental to our spiritual life if left unchecked.