Attunology, and Why We Need It

I’m coining the term, attunology, because it appears we need such a word in English, and we certainly need such a focus in Christianity.

at·tun·ol·o·gy
\ ə-ˈtün-ˈä-lə-jē , ă- \ noun

Etymology: Coined from attun(e) (Middle English attonen, from ad- + ton tone, signaling alignment to a pitch or frequency) + -ology (Greek -logia, from logos, study, discourse, or underlying reason).

1. The systematic study and conscious practice of mutual resonance, relational alignment, and receptive awareness between distinct beings, whether human, animal, or divine.
2. The methodology of tracking, understanding, and cultivating harmonious connection across human, animal, or divine systems.
3. In General Theology: The study of the personal disposition, attitudes, awareness, and behaviors intended by the Creator for His followers in relationship a) with Him, b) with his authorized apostles and prophets, c) with other humans (including believers and unbelievers), d) with animals, and, not least importantly, e) within oneself. This includes the inner landscape of one’s thoughts, emotions, intentions, desires, attitudes, convictions, and behaviors, as well as the somatic connections between these internal realities and the physical body (as addressed in Somatic Internal Family Systems and other psychological modalities). Attunology applies particularly to a spirit of aware, respectful, and willingly accommodating attunement and unity, proceeding from God’s design for His creation.

Pronunciation Note: The primary entry (\ ə- \ or “uh-“) flows naturally into everyday speech, while the alternate entry (\ ă- \ or short “a” as in action) gives the prefix an active, focused emphasis when introducing the term formally.

NOTE TO THE READER: I just want you to know where this article is headed. I’m going to show you a few passages of scripture at the end ― passages that I believe should demonstrate (to those with “ears to hear”) that this attunement between God and his Creation should be a compelling topic for us. But first, I’ll write some short thoughts on what seems to be missing in the churches, and in Biblical scholarship.

The Gaping Void of Attunement in Christian Circles

In recent decades the Barna Group has famously reported the troubling fact that it is statistically difficult to differentiate the churched from the unchurched when considering their life behaviors. And it’s not only a matter of statistics, but of common experience in the churches, where one regularly hears members bemoaning the sad state of the churches, whether it’s spoken of as “the remnant vs. the compromised church,” “the falling away,” or as a lament over the loss of reverence or of doctrinal purity. It’s something of an “elephant in the room”, or even an “open secret” that so many in Christianity simply don’t live highly attuned to God, Jesus, and the principles they have promoted. That is, we all know it (or should know it) but the fact doesn’t seem to be treated with the alarm it deserves. The disattunement doesn’t seem to be the five-alarm fire it ought to be. But then, who better to fail to sound the alarm than a disattuned church?

What many consider to be “The Church” is a highly-fragmented community of organizations that are generally about the business of something in the general ballpark of being “God’s family on Earth”, or of doing God’s business on Earth ― and particularly the business of evangelism. “The Church” may bring more and more in, but it’s failing to produce droves of high-attuned, Jesus-following individuals who have done a very good job of this:

Ephesians 5: 8-10 Live as children of light … and find out what pleases the Lord.

Something’s missing. As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to find out what pleases “The Church”, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that many among them will have a personal disposition of caring deeply how the Lord wants them to live. When one considers the broad view across all the various church cultures, that just doesn’t seem to be all that strong a focus.

Modern Bible Scholarship Isn’t Helping Much: The Missing “…ology”.

Over time, a general scholarly nomenclature has developed for talking about what’s in the scriptures, as well as about what the churches do. It is the fashion that each of these terms end with “…ology” (as in “theology“, for example. The ending simply means something like “the study of” or “the science of” ― something in that ballpark. I asked Google’s Gemini to make me a short list of the most common of these terms used by Bible scholars, and here’s the result:

The Main “…ologies” Under the General Theology Umbrella

• Theology Proper – The study of the nature, attributes, and existence of God the Father.
• Christology – The study of the person, nature, and redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
• Pneumatology – The study of the person, role, and work of the Holy Spirit.
• Bibliology – The study of the Bible itself, including its inspiration, authority, and canonization.
• Anthropology (Theological) – The study of humanity, specifically our creation, nature, and relationship to God.
• Hamartiology – The study of the nature, origin, and consequences of sin.
• Soteriology – The study of salvation, justification, and how humanity is reconciled to God.
• Ecclesiology – The study of the nature, structure, purpose, and sacraments of the Christian Church.
• Eschatology – The study of end times, prophecy, death, judgment, and the final destiny of humanity.
• Angelology – The study of created spiritual beings, including angels, demons, and Satan (often sub-divided into Demonology).
• Missiology – The study of the church’s mission, evangelism, and cross-cultural engagement.

Note that while some of these terms might have ancillary connections to what I’m calling attunology, none of them addresses the subject squarely and thoroughly. I did underline “relationship to God” under the Anthropology heading — but for the record, I don’t recall ever hearing any expansive study at church about the things that fall under the attunology umbrella I’m proposing here. I even went to one church for a number of years that would surprise many of its visitors by talking constantly of a Christian’s “relationship with God”, but even so, it lacked what would seem to be now like a deep and wide foundation of all that the scriptures have to say about what God wants from us. More was needed. Just talking about it some was not enough, I believe, to make the fellowship into what would be wholly pleasing to God.

Now, before I leave the terminology, let me be thorough, for the record. I asked Gemini also for a list of the less-popular “…ologies”, and found that only the last one (Koinoniology) tends to deal directly with any part of what I coined “attunology“ is coined to address:

• Mariology – The study of the person, life, and role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, particularly prominent in Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
• Hagiology – The study of the lives, writings, and veneration of the saints.
• Patrology – The study of the early Church Fathers, their theological writings, and their historical context (often closely related to Patristics).
• Israelology – The study of the theological role, identity, and future of the people and nation of Israel in salvation history.
• Satanology – The specific sub-branch of angelology focused strictly on the origin, nature, and actions of Satan.
• Martyrology – The study or collection of the histories and testimonies of Christian martyrs throughout church history.
• Liturgiology – The systematic study of church liturgy, ritual structures, and the theology of corporate worship forms.
• Koinoniology – The theological study of community, fellowship, and the organic, relational life of believers within the body of Christ.

“If it were that important, Jack, it wouldn’t have been skipped!”

It might be easy to think that there’s no way something of huge importance could be missed. One could easily think things like “God wouldn’t have let me miss that” or “God wouldn’t have let my pastor miss that”. But think again! 2 Kings 22 and following tells the story of the Law of Moses having been set aside and lost for a time! That’s a pretty big thing to lose track of, yet it happened! (Note: The Book of the Law had been right there in the Temple all along, but had fallen into disuse, such that it was not even obvious to the priests, one of whom stumbled across it one day. And had it not been for the reformer heart of King Josiah, there’s no telling how long it would have remained outside the awareness of the people!)

And if you’d like a similar example from your own lifetime, answer this off-the-wall question for me: Quick! Name the “five main senses”!

What are they ― these things that every school child for generations has memorized? They are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Right? Well, of course they are. Scientists know there are certainly more senses than these, and they debate somewhat over just what should be called a sense, but our society on the whole has decided that among all the senses, these are the ones that really count ― the ones that are worthy of educating the children about. But can somebody tell me why balance should be left off the list of “main senses”? It’s extremely important, and without the sense of balance, we would all die ― probably, this very day! But however it worked out, something that hugely important can indeed be left off the official list of important things. And so it goes with attunology!

So, Why Do We Need Attunology?

The goal of this post is simply to make the case, while avoiding sermonizing. So let me simply present a list of Bible excerpts, which I take as ample evidence that such matters are highly important to God, Jesus, and their apostles and prophets who wrote the scriptures. Judge for yourselves whether attunology deserves a sit at the Christian table of important concepts.

Remember, attunology, as it would pertain to Christian theology, concerns five main areas of being attuned:

• To God
• To God’s appointed apostles and prophets
• To other humans (believers and unbelievers)
• To animals
• To ourselves (including our souls and our bodies)

So here are just a few passages of scripture (and there are many!) to show that each of these things are important to God.

Attunement to God (and Jesus)

• John 10:4-27 …his sheep follow him because they know his voice. … My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
• Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
• Matthew 23:37 …how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
• Ephesians 5: 8-10 Live as children of light … and find out what pleases the Lord.
• Hebrews 3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, ⁹ where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. ¹⁰ That is why I was angry with that generation;  I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ ¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Attunement to God’s Apostles and Prophets

• 2 Peter 3:1-2 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
• 1 John 4:6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
• Hebrews 2:1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
• 2 Corinthians 6:11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. ¹² We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. ¹³ As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.
• Matthew 10:40 Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Attunement to Others

• 1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
• 1 Corinthians 12:24b …But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
• Romans 15:5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
• Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Attunement with Animals

• Proverbs 12:10 The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.
• Genesis 9:9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
• John 10:3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. (Note: While this is actually about human believers, we ought not miss that the metaphor of sheep and gatekeeper is presented very lovingly.)
• Job 12:7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; ⁸ or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. ⁹ Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? ¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. (Note: Job lumps humans and the other creatures together, and believes all of them should be aware of God’s actions.)
• Matthew 11:28 ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Note: Jesus shows his care for animals by using this metaphor implying a beast of burden, whose master cares for with a well-fitting yoke, and a not-overwhelming burden.)

Attunement with One’s Own Self (Body and Soul)

Because this topic is not as widely known, I have included more excerpts from scripture.

• Proverbs 20:27 The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord that searches all the inmost parts. (Note: Man has multiple “parts” that are in need of being searched out.)
• Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. (Note: The psalmist counsels his own soul, and specifically calls it “all” out, as if having the whole of it involved were important.)
• Psalm 42:5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Note: David curiously addresses his own soul, puzzling over an inner disturbance, and directing it toward hoping in God.)
• Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; unite my heart to fear your name. (Note: The psalmist is aware of division within his own attitudes or intentions, and insists on his own heart being united under God.)
• Romans 7:21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. (Note: Paul is aware of a constant battle within him and is diligent to deal honorably and thoroughly with these matters, rather than leaving them to chance.)
• Psalm 32:3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. ⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. (Note the heavy “somatic” references to his grief.)
• Jeremiah 31:20 Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy on him, saith the Lord. (Note: Even God, who has no literal bowels, uses this somatic expression, expressing grief as if through the human experience.)
• Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God…
• 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, ⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (Note: All the anxieties in the believer are to be cast on God, and this is part of the process of humbling oneself.)

Conclusion

I think this field of attunement is spread broadly throughout the scriptures, and can likely be found, however subtly, in every chapter therein. I think it’s high time the field got the attention it deserves ― the attention God wanted it to have.