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The relevance and beauty of being observable despite the existence of many theories
of personality.” (p. 60)
Christian Psychology Christian Psychology as a Science

Psychology is based on a set of anthropological and me-
Romuald Jaworski thodological assumptions. Ultimately, the sources of the
differences between the various psychological schools
should be sought in these assumptions, which are, howe-
Christian students of psychology are bound to face a ver, not always clearly articulated, and often remain hid-
confrontation, or even a conflict, between the theories den or overlooked. Christian psychology offers a view of
of materialisticallyoriented academic psychology and the the human psyche from the Christian perspective, and
truths of Christian theological doctrine (cf. Szyszkowski one based on the assumptions of a Christian anthropo-
1998). Discussing the problem of integration of psycho- logy.
logy and Christianity, John Shepard (2002) observes that The assumptions and paradigms adopted in psychoana-
psychology today is the main battlefield of an ideological lysis and other psychological approaches concerning id,
war. Contemporary psychology is clearly dominated by ego, superego, archetypes, cognitive networks, or chakras
ma-terialistic, rationalistic, deterministic and relativis- are not necessarily more heuristically effective than the
tic tendencies as well as by the assumption that people Christian concepts of sin, grace, and salvation. It should
in their actions are not conscious, free, or morally res- be remembered that for centuries it was the Christian
ponsible. Christians cannot accept these philosophical view of man that successfully served as a useful theoreti-
premises, which remain contradictory with the truths of cal and practical paradigm.
their religious creed. Christian psychology comes into contact with other per-
The 20th century saw significant progress in psycholo- spectives within this rich scien-tific discipline both at
gical thought and the development of various schools the university and in the therapist’s office. Universities,
and that have contributed greatly to the understanding and especially Christian ones, should strive to reinterpret
of human beings. Despite their major achievements, psy- new psychological findings in light of the Christian con-
choanalysis, behaviorism, humanistic psychology, and cept of human beings and human life. In interpreting hu-
transpersonal psychology have been found to exhibit man existence, one may not disregard the spiritual sphere
limitations which ought to make one seek new ways of or the goal and purpose of humanity.
comprehending and helping humans. Particular schools There is a relationship between the adopted ontological
differ in the goals they set for themselves, their scope of model and empirical theory (M. Utsch, 1998). Zimbar-
research, and their methods of diagnosis and therapy. do observed that every psychological theory is based on
Within Christianity there are various positions concer- some assumptions. Herzog spoke of the “hidden models
ning the value of psychology in general and psychothera- of man” underlying scientific psychological theories.
py in particular. At one extreme, some claim that only the Thus, beliefs implicit in an ontological model of human
Bible may be used for determining truth and that psycho- nature should be distinguished from knowledge explicit-
logy is not to be trusted. At the other extreme are those ly derived from a given psychological theory.
who are willing to accept theories offered by contempora- Whether implicitly or explicitly, psychology is always
ry psychology even if they are clearly at odds with a bi- based on a worldview. As McMinn (1996, p. 16) aptly
blical interpretation. In between these two positions are put it, “beneath every technique is a counseling theory,
all manner of possible viewpoints (see Johnson & Jones and beneath every theory is a worldview.” Indeed, what
2000). Many Christians oppose psychology because they distinguishes particular schools of psychology is the fact
believe that it is ineffective, while others question its sci- that each of them is founded on different (often mutually
entific nature. Many psy-chological facts may not be de- contradictory) philosophical assumptions and world-
scribed in the manner typical of the empirical sciences views.
and studies must often rely on subjective data. On the
other hand, it would be incorrect to say that psycholo- Objectives of Christian Psychology
gy is nonscientific, as it has gathered a wealth of useful Today, it is necessary to redefine health and disorder as
information about how peo-ple live, think, struggle and well as normalcy and pathology in light of a Christian
act (Johnson & Jones 2000, p. 110). However, this does anthropology and empirical psychology. The paradigm
not mean that it is an easy thing to obtain accurate data of the statistical norm, which is currently dominant in
from observations and to interpret them appropriately. psychology, does not sufficiently take into consideration
But instead of dismissing psychology, one should rather human nature as it actually is, and it is obviously based
consider the limits within which it is competent, valuable, susceptible to cultural influences. For example, casu-
and effective. al, uncommitted relationships might be considered the
Against this background, Christian psychology is not norm in a culture, while marriage might be taken to be
only justified, but also relevant, rich in scope, and metho- pathological.
dologically valid. Another objective is to show the relationship between
psychological life and the sphere of spirituality. Just as
Prof. Krystyna Ostrowska (2006) says: “There are two psychophysical studies contributed to the explanation
reasons for which the devel-opment of psychology ins- of psychosomatic disorders, today the study of disorders
pired by Christian religion, theology, and philosophy is in the spiritual sphere (sin) may contribute to the deve-
desirable. They are of an academic and practical nature. lopment of noopsychosomatics. Certain efforts in this
The practical reason arises from the problems faced by direction have already been made in the field of Frankl’s
contemporary man, such as the loss of meaning of life... logotheory, and by a Polish developer of his theory, the
The academic reason is the reductionism of the human Rev. Prof. K. Popielski (1993).

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