Page 12 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Empirical steps toward a Christian Psychology

rying reactions to scientific psychology. John- sitions on the issues to make them amenable to
son (2010a) has sorted the various approaches a Christian worldview, all the while maintaining
of Christians to psychology into five models, af- Jesus’ lordship over all of our existence through
fording representatives of each to describe their his Word (Jones, 2010). Integrationists, unlike
models. Sisemore (2012) summarized the five biblical counselors, can freely pursue licensure
groups of views, as each is more of a “family” and practice psychology as well as participate in
of approaches than a completely separate, or- basic research and teach psychology as a valu-
thogonal approach. An image of the intertwi- able discipline, so long as deliberate efforts are
ned rings in the Olympics logo might be a good undertaken to correct any contradictions with
(though imprecise) comparison: each overlaps Scripture or Christian doctrine.
to an extent with some others, but not with all. A fourth approach is the Transformational,
The levels of explanation approach views psy- built largely on the model of Coe and Hall
chology and Christian theology as discussing (2010), which stresses that the spiritual trans-
things on fairly separate and discrete levels. So, formation of the therapist is key in the success
if a Christian is a psychologist, he or she studies of counseling. It builds on the model of the Old
or practices psychology much as any other psy- Testament sage as a model for counseling, and
chologist would, using empirical evidence and minimizes the use of modern psychology, ma-
methods to build the discipline. While faith king it most closely akin to biblical counseling
might be a motivator to practice psychology, in many ways. This approach, at least as articu-
it is kept largely on the sideline as one does so. lated by Coe and Hall, offers little discussion for
Within this family, there is discrepancy as to basic psychology, though in principle it is less
how rigidly Christianity is kept on the sidelines opposed to it than biblical counselors. Intere-
as one does psychology, but all agree that Chri- stingly, the model they build draws on the psy-
stian theology and scientific psychology are se- chological work on attachment theory without
parate disciplines addressing different levels of giving a clear rationale as to why.
explanation. The fifth model, probably fitting between inte-
On the other end of the continuum is the biblical gration and transformational, is Christian Psy-
counseling approach. Inspired by the insightful chology. Here is where our story of grace has
work of Jay Adams (1970), biblical counselors its roots. Christian Psychology (and I capita-
eschew scientific psychology at any point where lize “Psychology” to make clear that it refers to
it might trespass on topics covered by Scripture. the traditional study of the soul and not just the
So, some permit neuropsychological evidence modern scientific study of behavior and men-
to be admitted to the discussion as the Bible tal processes) is intentional in drawing from
does not comment on what functions occur in the Bible and the great Christian traditions of
which places in the brain. But the great majority understanding and caring for the soul, and gi-
of scientific psychology is dismissed, especial- ves preeminence to Christian terminology and
ly when it comes to psychotherapy. So, biblical language in doing so. Here it differs from much
counseling is strangely similar to the levels of integration in that it begins firmly within the
explanation approach in separating the two dis- Christian tradition rather than areas of overlap
ciplines virtually entirely, though one gives pro- with modern psychology. Yet, it is eager to learn
fessional primacy to psychology while the other from and communicate with scientific psycho-
values Christian theology. logy. There has been a tendency for integra-
The other three positions invite more discussion tionists to begin with psychological concepts
between the two disciplines. The oldest of the and categories and look to Scripture to confirm
three is the integration approach. Again, there is these, this likely being a reflection of the fact
variety in how integration is viewed, but in ge- that most integrationists are formally trained in
neral, the principle is that common ground can psychology but often less trained (or only infor-
be found where psychology and theology over- mally trained) in theology.
lap. Research findings from basic and applied The niche Christian Psychology offers for our
psychology can be integrated into Christian po- story of grace is because grace is not a term

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