One of the common cultural values shared within Chinese communities is to obey the authority. Christian doctrine emphasizes obedience as a response to the Christian practice of faith. Obedience, as an important practice in various forms of human relations, such as between the older-younger siblings, the parent-child relationship, husband and wife, and the employer-employee relationship. The primary object of this study is to understand Chinese Christians’ mentality and psychological connotations of the religious authority as well as the concept of obedience in both Chinese cultural and religious context. The study aims to promote the exploration of spiritual experiences in the context of Taiwanese culture in order to understand the psychological mechanisms that arise from the concept obedience in individuals. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling to select those with the most data available. Potential participants who were interested in this study were referred by church members and/or directly invited by the first author. All of them filled out the "Francis Christian Attitude Scale" and only the ones whose scores reached the targeted level were contacted for a phone screening or a face-to-face interview. Finally, three participants, between the ages of 21 and 28, two have been Christians for more than 10 years and one has been only three years, were recruited for the study and participated in several interview sessions. The study used phenomenology for research paradigm to extract and to restore participants’ experiences in religion, as well as to describe their internal explanations of religious authority. The results indicated that psychological mechanisms which promotes personal obedience are composed of (1) the formation of faith in the external environment (e.g., church, religious leaders, and religious texts); (2) how individuals’ understanding of faith (understanding of religious norms, shapes of God’s imagery, and the process of church interactions) affects the Christians’ emotional reactions of obedience, and (3) the positive and negative coping and outcomes. The external environment experienced by the participants includes the church, religious texts, and religious leaders to help shape the individual’s understanding of faith. The Christians are able to construct their own understanding of what Christianity looks like as well their knowledge and practice of the divine-human relationship and religious norms. They are also able to form their own personal image of God, and give back to the spiritual situation through positive or negative church interactions. Individuals understand the previous three dimensions via the process of self-awareness, and to choose active obedience, passive obedience, and disobedience, which followed by different emotional outcomes, spiritual adaptation, and results. In summary, three aspects have been concluded. First, God has strong impacts on Chinese Christians’ daily life, and the religious regulations transmit through family, church, and Bible. Individuals internalize religious authority into their value systems during the transmission process. Second, obedient to God may help Christians reduce risks, make the safest and proper choices, become "the man after God’s own heart" , as well as gain spiritual growth and blessings. Third, differences between religious authority and Christian values create contradictions and doubts; thus, Christians may feel guilty and regretted when breaking commandments and teachings. Last, doubt and skepticism in faith may also be removed through the verification of daily practice and newly-gained self-awareness, or be modified through communication with religious leaders in the church. Individuals grow in the process of re-examining themselves and faith. Based on the object relationship theory, the results indicated that the relationships with parents and elders in the family in Chinese society extend to the believers’ image of God as a way of honoring God. In addition, Christians practice their faith as the pursuit of moral and ethical transcendence. The passages of obedience appear not only to the members of the church as the honor of the other to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities, but also to respond to God as the honor of the other who is willing to be appointed by God. This study at the end concluded with a discussion of counseling ethics in relationship between clients and their therapists in spiritual counseling.
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