Page 8 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 3
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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.


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