Page 8 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 3

Comment

to „The relevance and beauty of
Christian Psychology“

Eric Johnson

I very much appreciate the spirit of Romuald’s article. gists have begun to make just that case from a general
There is an enthusiasm for Christian psychology that standpoint (Slife & Reber, 2009), and given naturalistic
pervades his remarks, which I also share. He rightly re- assumptions, it follows that confirmed atheists would
cognizes that psychology—along with all the human have to consider faith in God to be a kind of delusion
sciences—are guided implicitly by anthropological and (as Richard Dawkins does), and this clearly impacts how
methodological assumptions. As a result, I might suggest they would interpret religious belief. However, Romuald
that rather than refer simply to “psychology” and distin- did not add that many secular psychologists are actually
guish between various schools within it, it might be pre- agnostic about God’s existence, rather than atheistic, so
ferable for all psychologists to make reference to the va- they would not necessarily conclude that belief in God is
rious psychologies that exist—modern/secular (the one pathological. Moreover, the widely-recognized physical
that currently dominates the field in the West), Buddhist, and mental health benefits of religious belief that con-
New Age, Jewish, and Christian, among many others—at temporary research has documented now make it quite
least in those areas of psychology where anthropological problematic to make such a claim. Indeed, evolutionary
and methodological assumptions might be supposed to psychologists who take human life and experience very
make a difference, for example, those that deal with more seriously, including religious experience, have argued
unique aspects of human beings, like higher motivation, for the adaptive value of religious belief on evolutiona-
personality, psychopathology, psychotherapy, and social ry grounds, arguing that religious experience promotes
psychology. At the same time, there are other areas of psy- cooperation, which enhances the survival of our species,
chology where anthropological and methodological as- while being personally dubious about God’s existence
sumptions would seem to make much less of a difference, themselves.
for example, in the more mechanistic aspects of human
beings, like research in neuropsychology, sensation and Romuald validly reminds us that the relation between the
perception, animal motivation, and memory processes. natural and the supernatural orders is also of paramount
There would appear to be a continuum across the field of importance to the field of psychology. Because contem-
psychology distinguishing those areas of psychology that porary psychology is so dominated by the worldview of
are more to less ‘world-view dependent.” This variability naturalism, this point is unfortunately rarely even raised.
is one reason why advocating for a Christian psychology Yet, from a Christian standpoint, everything about hu-
is so contested, even by Christians, because people can man nature is always, continuously supported by the
point to areas like neuropsychology, where Christian as- ever-active God, and for believers, their good actions are
sumptions do not seem to be so influential. entirely made possible and empowered by God through
their faith. So the relation between the natural and super-
At one point, Romuald wrote, “Universities, and espe- natural orders could be considered to be as foundational
cially Christian ones, should strive to reinterpret new to human activity as that between the biological order
psychological findings in light of the Christian concept of and the psychological.
human beings and human life.” I whole-heartedly agree
that Christian psychology should be taught at Christian I’m persuaded that a modern foe of radical Christian
universities, but it is not clear to me how much Christi- scholarship, like Christian psychology, is a kind of con-
ans teaching at state or other public universities should ceptual dualism that considers religion and science to
reinterpret psychological findings in light of Christian be dealing with fundamentally different spheres of life.
concepts, at least until Christian psychological theory I wonder if a vestige of such dualistic thinking is evident
and research starts to enter the mainstream. Before that in the following: “If psychology is not to usurp the place
can happen, Christian psychologists will need to publish of religion (cf. Vitz 1994), it should humbly acknowledge
dozens of Christian psychology studies and demonstrate that it is not competent to provide answers regarding the
empirically the validity of a Christian psychology orienta- meaning of life, suffering, and death.” This statement just
tion for explaining psychological phenomena. When that doesn’t make sense to me, since I think a Christian psy-
is accomplished, I would then encourage Christian psy- chology posits a central role for the Christian religion
chologists to offer Christian interpretations of psycholo- and revelation within its theory, research, and practice.
gical findings even in state and other public universities. All of life is religious, including all psychological reality,
Romuald rightly argues that God’s existence is of fun- so a Christian psychology includes within its science and
damental importance to psychology, whatever the spe- therapy answers regarding the meaning of life, suffering,
cific standpoint of the psychologist. Theistic psycholo- and death.

8