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EMCAPP

What is a in most psychology journals and publishing houses. Be-
cause of its broad acceptance, it is difficult to even raise
Christian Psychology? 1 the issue of versions of psychology, since it is so pervasi-
vely assumed today that modern psychology is the only
By Eric L. Johnson legitimate version of psychology. However, this simply
is not true. To provide an extant, non-Christian examp-
le, there is a substantial, distinct literature of Buddhist
The term Christian psychology has been used in a variety psychology (e.g., see De Silva, 2001; Kalupahana, 1987;
of ways to refer to things that are in some cases opposed Rygal-Mtshan, 1987; Welwood, 2002).
to each other. For example, to some it refers simply to the
work of any Christian engaged in the science or practice Distinctive Features of the Modern Version of Psycho-
of psychology; to others it is a derogatory label applied logy
to the work of Christians who compromise their faith by Modern psychology is distinguished by its adherence to
attempting to integrate it with modern psychology. The the world-view of modernism. Two of major sets of as-
Society for Christian Psychology is trying to advance a sumptions that constitute the modernist world-view are
specific understanding of the term (as the reader will see positivism (see Stroud, 1992) and secularism. Together,
in its mission statement). But even the members of the positivism and secularism maintain that publicly verifi-
Society do not entirely agree about what a Christian psy- able, empirical investigation and reason are the only le-
chology is. So it would be presumptuous for anyone to gitimate sources of knowledge (certainly not the super-
think he or she could provide the authoritative definition natural). Confidence in the validity of these two sources
of Christian psychology. This article, then, should be seen makes plausible the ideal of a universal knowledge, that
as simply one attempt to delineate something of what a is, an unbiased knowledge solely based on empirical evi-
Christian psychology might be. dence that could be recognized by all rational, well-trai-
ned humans, supposedly regardless of world-view. Based
The Science of Psychology on modernism, modern psychology has attempted to de-
Most people today understand psychology to be a sci- velop a universal, secular body of knowledge regarding
ence, and that is assumed by the Society. But what is a individual human beings. To achieve this aim, modern
science? A broad definition would be that a science is an psychology followed the lead of the natural sciences and
intellectual discipline with its own rules and activities for eschewed all axiological assumptions (those dealing with
engaging in a systematic, careful enquiry into a particular values and ethics) and metaphysical assumptions (those
object of study. In the case of psychology, the object of dealing with the nature of things), and sought merely to
study is individual human beings. Its activities include, describe how human beings appear to us and what in-
along with other sciences: research, theory-building, and fluences them, without reference to transcendent norms
education and publication (the cultural dissemination and ontological categories.
of its findings and conclusions), but psychology also in- Modern psychology has been flourishing for over 100 ye-
cludes some applied activities, for example, assessment ars, and it has developed an extremely rich and varied
and the care of souls. All sciences are conducted within literature describing human beings. However, in keeping
and guided by a world-view, a set of foundational as- with its world-view, it is universally secular. Christianity,
sumptions regarding reality (Naugle, 2002; what Watson, in contrast, has its own legitimate, rational world-view
1993, calls a Christian ideological surround). Because of (and has been around a lot longer than modernism!).
the complexity of individual human beings, world-view Consequently, it does not need to submit it‘s own thin-
assumptions regarding human beings will not all be the king about knowledge to the world-view assumptions of
same among various well-developed, but distinct intel- secularists. On the contrary, it has some of its own crite-
lectual communities, resulting then in different versions ria for what counts as knowledge, providing it some dis-
of psychology. Christian psychology, then, is that version tinct sources of psychological knowledge (e.g., the Bible,
of the science and practice of psychology grounded in a the Christian tradition, and the Holy Spirit).
Christian world-view.
Two Communities of Scientists?
The Hegemony of Modern Psychology The great theologian and Christian leader Abraham Kuy-
If this is true, we would expect that a Christian psycho- per (n.d.; 1998; who was also prime minister of Holland
logy would be distinguishable in at least some respects in 1904-08) recognized just such complexity regarding
from versions of psychology that derive from alternati- the contribution of Christian thought, when he wrote in
ve world-views, for example, Buddhist, Islamic, Marxist, the late 1800‘s of two kinds of science. Following Augusti-
postmodern, and most importantly, modern psychology, ne—and much of the Christian tradition after him—Kuy-
the version that has been the most successful in the West per believed that history is composed of fundamentally
in laying claim to being the only viable version of psy- two groups of humanity, Christians and non-Christians,
chology there is. With few exceptions, it is the only ver- and that the former are distinguished from the latter by
sion taught by psychology faculty at American colleges having been regenerated and given a new orientation to
and universities, and it is the only approach represented reality, the whole of which Kuyper called palingenesis
(from the Greek word for regeneration).
1 First published: SCP Newsletter 2005 Vol 1, Issue 1. publ. by AACC

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