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Editorial

We are moving together

Werner May The Question of Truth
The effects of post-modern thinking, of glo-
balisation and the technological revolution
in communication have brought movement
into the contending ideological positions of
the first 100 years of psychology.
Christian Psychology is on the move
When, and by whom, the term Christian Psychology was used The Modern, which is dated from the begin-
officially for the first time can hardly be traced. The German ning of the natural sciences, proceeds on the
theologian Franz Delitzsch published in 1855 “A System of Bi- premise that reality can be examined, on the
assumption that there is an absolute truth
blical Psychology”. James Stalker’s “Christian Psychology” dated – only one truth is possible – and precisely
probably from 1914. Leander Keyser’s “A Handbook of Christian this must be discovered. This basic attitude
Psychology” appeared in 1928. All three were theologians, and was also adopted by psychology as soon as
the last two are Americans.. Associations of Christian psycholo- it presented itself as a science – the moment
gists, i.e. of psychologists who consider themselves Christians, of birth is given as the founding of the first
psychological laboratory by Wundt in Leip-
with varying positions within the spectrum of psychological and zig in 1879. Here, however, a dubious situa-
Christian thinking, have appeared from time to time, particular- tion soon developed in the 100-year course
ly the Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) in of psychology, namely that, while searching
the USA since 1956, as have authors writing on this topic (inclu- for objective facts, for the true view of man,
ding Gary Collins, Larry Crabb). But for a long time there was his experience and behaviour, different
schools with thoroughly divergent points of
debate about whether an explicitly Christian psychology exists. view were formed: initially there was Depth
In 1986 IGNIS, the German Association for Christian Psycho- Psychology (S. Freud, with his book “The
logy was founded. In 2001 the Institute of Christian Psychology Interpretation of Dreams” in 1900), follo-
in South Africa was formed, followed in 2003 by the Society for wed soon by Behavioural Theory (Pavlov,
Christian Psychology in the USA, all three institutions founded Skinner, Bandura, Kanfer), with Empirical
Psychology continuing since beginnings in
by psychologists. The exchange of ideas and personnel within Leipzig, and, finally, Physiological Psycho-
Europe during the same period led to the official creation of logy, which is now experiencing its modern
today’s European Movement for Christian Anthropology, Chris- continuation in Neuropsychology.
tian Psychology and Christian Psychotherapy. The founding of a Religion, of whatever variety, was treated
worldwide movement is now the next step. during this period either as a neurosis (e.g.
Freud, God as projection), or was excluded
and ignored, as part of metaphysics, with
Applied Psychology which experimental science had nothing
Psychology is not just a science (see inset: The Question of to do. Negative evaluations of religion were
Truth) in which human experience and behaviour are conside- normal.
red theoretically, providing orientation and exercising influence The transition, an abandoning of the Mo-
from the top down, as it is done in other scientific fields, but has dern was induced by Humanistic Psycho-
achieved its place primarily through practice. Psychology has ta- logy (Allport, Maslow, Rogers), from ap-
ken on tasks for society in the social and health services of many proximately the middle of the last century:
countries and in this overlaps with and is part of a fundamental relativism and subjectivism qualified the
Christian calling, i.e. to care for the broken hearted and to bring question of truth. And the question of pur-
pose was posed again; religious experience
good news to the poor. was again taken seriously (e.g. as peak ex-
This leads almost inevitably to contact with Christian faith, an periences or in Maslow’s famous motivation
exchange taking place not only on an ideological and theoreti- pyramid). C.G.Jung was then the one who
cal, but also on a pragmatic and practical level. The attraction consciously put religious experience back
here of psychology, of whatever complexity, lies in its capacity at the centre of psychology, although as a
spiritual mixture from all world and nature
for differentiation, in its claims of truth based on the trust of religions. Victor Frankl, the founder of logo-
western society and politics in science, and in its claim to help therapy, also belongs to this transition.
and heal (therapeutic action). Although it has so far not succee- From the 70s onwards, religion was accep-
ded completely satisfactorily in this area (see Research in Psy- ted as a basic human need, but seen from a
chotherapy). Christian approaches to therapy on the other hand relativising
point of view: all religions have something
claiming practical legitimatization, in contrast, have appeared in common (the parable of the elephant),
to be too distant from the questions raised by individual cases, the differences are irrelevant and lead only
more ideological rather than practical, one-sided, inflexible and to separation.
lacking in experience. From around 1980, the so-called Postmo-
dern replaced the Modern (Lyotard, 1979):
Christian Psychology All truths are true, mine and yours, even
if they are contradictory! Communication
The former scientific director of the IGNIS Institute, Peter Hüb- theories and constructivist approaches pro-
ner, who died in 2003, wrote in the 1990s: “It is necessary to vided the basis for this in psychology as well
go somewhat deeper into the connection between science and as elsewhere (Watzlawik, Maturana). Chris-
world view, between psychology and concept of man. Every sci- tianity is true for Christians, but the other

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