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Christian Psychology, only
for Christians?
The Two Communicative Agendas of
Christian Psychology
By Eric L. Johnson
In my judgment, the science of Christian psychology aims
at reproducing God’s understanding of human beings, to
the best of our ability, given our finite limitations, our fal-
lenness, and our resources.
That means Christian psychologists will use all the re-
sources at their disposal: the Bible; the history of Christi-
an theology, philosophy, and pastoral care; contempora-
ry empirical research, including cross-cultural research;
everyday human experience; and philosophical analysis.
The goal will be the development of a distinctively Chris-
tian version of psychology, using Christian rules of dis-
course, and it includes distinctly Christian psychological
theory-building, research paradigms, and clinical practi-
ce. This work will be aimed primarily at the Christian
community and done in service to it.
At the same time, science is a large, culture-wide enter-
prise that involves many people from many different
Eric Johnson, USA, is Profes- worldview communities. Indeed, in our day, the majority
sor of PastoralCare at Sou- approach is modern psychology, which is secular and has
thern Baptist Theological assumed the worldview of naturalism since its founding
Seminary and the director in 1879. It is important that Christian psychologists be
of the Society for Christian involved in contemporary mainstream psychology. As a
Psychology. result, they will have to be strategic in how they commu-
Eric edited “Psychology and nicate, and they will need to respect the naturalistic “rules
Christianity: Five Views”, of discourse” that are currently mandated, which forbid
2010, and wrote “Founda- reference to supernatural psychological dynamics, if they
tions for Soul Care: A Chris- are to be active contributors to the field. This is fine - for
tian Psychology Proposal“, the sake of God’s glory to contribute to the science of psy-
2007.
chology which belongs to God - but it is important that
they keep in mind that the rules of modern psychology
are biased by naturalism, and they should not limit their
understanding of human beings.
As a result, I would argue that Christian psychologists
need a “two-prong” or a “two-track” communicative
agenda regarding psychology.
One track is engaged with the Christian community,
within which Christian psychologists can freely commu-
nicate to one another using all the available resources, in-
cluding distinctly Christian resources.
The other track is engaged with contemporary modern
psychology and follows its rules, and so limits itself to
what secular psychologists will allow. Both tracks are im-
portant, but our first priority, in my judgment, is to build
up the Christian community, the body of Christ.
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