Page 26 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 7

Christian Psychology as a Challenge

Paul C. Vitz Paul C. Vitz,

Comment on “On Ph.D. Profes-
sor and Senior
Christian Psychology: Scholar, In-

An Interview with Russ stitute for the
Psychological
Kosits“ Sciences, Ar-
lington, Virgi-
nia; Professor

Three Cheers for Russ Kosits and his under- Emeritus, New
standing of a Christian Psychology. I have some York Univer-
comments and a proposed friendly enlarge- sity. (Ph.D., Stanford University).
ment by including some of the major Catholic Dr. Vitz’s teaching and research is focused
contributions to integration psychology , but I on the integration of Christian theology,
have, no real criticisms at all. Over and over as I especially Catholic anthropology, with
read his paragraphs, I found myself saying “yes, psychology.
yes” and “hear, hear”. Articles by Paul you can see here:
http://www.emcapp.ignis.de/5/#/134
To begin my comments, I think secular psycho- http://www.emcapp.ignis.de/5/#/150
logy has already taken a major turn toward a se- http://www.emcapp.ignis.de/5/#/160
rious openness to a Christian world view –but
without really understanding that it has done
so. faith be included. Something that Kosits expli-
citly notes as relevant to the integration task.
The move, well noted by Kosits and many others,
to study the virtues and human flourishing by Here the work of John Paul II on the “Theology
major psychologists, both secular and Christi- of the Body” and the writings of other Catholics
an, is a move away from the old naturalism. This on what has been termed “Catholic Anthropo-
older understanding of science focused only on logy” can be seen as contributions to the inte-
the past and its assumed and measureable cau- gration challenge.
ses in the present. It was intrinsically only about
determinism. By moving to study the virtues, In this context we at the Institute for the Psy-
psychology has moved to study our choices and chological Sciences (IPS) have been actively de-
our purposes. In short, psychology has moved veloping an explicit and detailed Catholic/Chri-
from determinism to teleology. In doing so, stian model of the person with applications to
psychological science has expanded the mo- psychology and psychotherapy. The Model is a
dern understanding of science so as to include group effort of our faculty over a period of more
final cause as a cause- to readmit Aristotle, if than ten years. Early versions and components
you will. With this move, I believe psychology of this IPS Model have been published and the
will inevitably discover the need for an explicit basic theological, philosophical and psycho-
ethical and moral framework to truly address logical rationale is now available from IPS. In
the nature of flourishing. Also, I am convin- about a year we plan to have the whole thing
ced this new trajectory will lead psychology to available on line, free of charge. The IPS Model
rediscover the need to accept the importance is an example of what Kosits calls “transdisci-
of the transcendent. These developments, and plinary” since the model is rooted in theology
there are already early signs of them, should and philosophy as well as psychology. It is also,
they reach fruition, will allow ample room for a I believe, an example of “maximal integration”
Christian psychology. as proposed by Eric Johnson.
I would also like to suggest that the work by Ca- Very, very briefly, the IPS Model can be summa-
tholics on the integration of psychology and the rized as follows: The person has ten foundatio-
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