Page 115 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

The Society for Christian Psychology

for Christians in psychology is that the intellec- to produce distinctively Christian theories, re-
tual leadership of the West was changing hands search programs, and soul-care practice, where
during the very time that scientific methods be- appropriate, in areas that are more world-view
gan to be applied to the study of human nature. dependent (e.g., motivation, personality, psy-
As a result, the Christian community in general chopathology, therapy, and social relations),
seemed to lose the interest in science they once where a Christian perspective would be ex-
had, perhaps recognizing that it was becoming pected to yield qualitatively different ways of
increasingly influenced by modernity that used interpreting human beings. Recognizing and
secular standards for what counts as know- utilizing one’s communal perspectives will like-
ledge. The challenge for Christians interested in ly become increasingly important in the general
psychology in our day is to break free of these field of psychology in the future, because of the
intellectual restrictions and learn again to think growing recognition that a community’s world-
for themselves, not by retreating into an isola- view assumptions affect not only what we can
ted world that is hostile to the perspectives of see in the human sciences, but also the develop-
others, but by learning how to think in Chri- ment of the objects under investigation.
stian and theocentric terms about God’s crea-
tion, while fully engaged in conversation with E. Johnson: To add to this short summary of our
contemporary culture, science, and technology. approach to Christian psychology: As a result, I
Given the legacy of fundamentalism as well as do not expect one single Christian concept, but
the dominance of secularism in contemporary rather Christian psychologies. We try to invite
psychology, we realize this will not be easy. as many Christian denominations and traditi-
ons as possible to contribute to our Society. For
To develop what we believe will be a more valid example, we have already had, besides contri-
psychology, Christian psychologists will look to butions from the Protestant area, a Catholic
the Bible and the Christian tradition as orien- issue of Edification or articles from an Ortho-
ting guides for our investigations. In addition, dox background. I think that we will never be
we will read, learn from, and interact with the able to cover the complexity of human beings
psychological knowledge of other communities and the complexity of individual perspectives
(obviously the modern), and, where we can, we on human beings in one approach. But, I have
wish to contribute to a general body of psycho- to say it again, dialogue will help and Christian
logical knowledge that can exist irrespective of psychologies should be not against but for one
communal perspective. In many areas of psy- another.
chology, no substantial differences will be found
between the psychologies of different intellectu- A. May: One last question, which, of course, has
al communities (e.g., in the more mechanistic to be asked at every 10th birthday: what about
aspects of human nature, like neural transmis- the next ten years? Do you have particular ex-
sion, memory formation, infant emotional de- pectations? Hopes? Concrete plans?
velopment, and so on). However, we also seek

Can Psychology Be Christian?
CCT Conversations
Eric Johnson and Siang-Yang Tan

Listen to Eric Johnson (interview
with Siang-Yang Tan, Professor of
Psychology, Fuller School of Psy-
chology)

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