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action accordingly, for example, Jacob’s action and their psychological capacities are accor-
was an attempt to hold power over Jesse for a dingly compromised. However, through faith
future favor, whereas Jesse‘s response was mere- in Christ, humans become reconciled to their
ly a kind of ingratiation, performed in the hope Creator, a triune God who has begun a parti-
of gaining more resources from Jacob in the fu- al restoration of their psychological capacities
ture. Because of the Christian doctrine of sin, a that is realized in Christian community and will
Christian might agree that motives of crass self- be perfected in the age to come. The Christian
interest could be at work. However, believing Scriptures give us some divinely inspired psy-
also that humans are created in God’s image, chological knowledge (but not all the psycho-
there is also the possibility that this interaction logical knowledge God has), so the Bible has a
manifested human virtue, where Jacob‘s action primary role to play in a Christian psychology,
was a sincere attempt to give sacrificially to ano- along with the work of Christian thinkers and
ther and Jesse’s response was a grateful reaction ministers over the centuries.
to Jacob‘s altruism. Such interpretive differences
will decidedly affect the kind of empirical inve- The goal for the Christian psychologist is to
stigation the respective psychologists conduct think about humans like God does. Becau-
and what they look for. se God has not revealed everything he knows
about humans in the Bible, Christian psycho-
Modern psychology has yielded great gains in logists will need to do their own research and
our understanding of many aspects of human they will also want to learn all that they can
nature, but we know now that the quest for a from modern psychology. For example, they
sure foundation for universal human know- will use all valid methods to study human
ledge that led to the development of modern beings, and natural science methods have pro-
psychology was misguided. „Foundationalism ven their worth. However, their knowledge of,
has failed, but [this] does not lead to the oppo- consent to, and love-relationship with God will
site errors of relativism or skepticism. We must provide the ultimate context for their use of all
begin with faith.“ (MacIntyre, 1990, p. 42) psychological methods and practices (Coe &
Hall, 2010). „Recognizing God is required for
A Christian Response the most comprehensive psychology“ (Johnson,
All human knowledge is founded on basic be- 1997, p. 16). In addition, believing that all hu-
liefs that cannot be proven to the satisfaction of mans are made in God’s image and confident
skeptics (Plantinga, 1983). Likewise, all psycho- that God’s creation grace is the source of all
logical knowledge entails unproven assumpti- good in culture and science, Christians should
ons and begins with faith. The Dutch theologi- expect that modern psychologists will discover
an and prime minister Abraham Kuyper (1898) plenty of psychological knowledge and contri-
argued that the enlightening effects of regenera- bute to many worthwhile activities (e.g., the
tion on Christians ought to lead to two kinds of mental health system). But their faith also leads
human science: one based on naturalism, that them to expect that there will be distortions
considers the way humans are now to be nor- in their psychology, the closer the psychologi-
mal, and the other based on Christianity, that cal topic is to the central issues of human life
considers the way humans are now to be tragi- (Brunner, 1946). To site just one example, belief
cally compromised by human sin and alienation in God (or least the divine) is ubiquitous among
from God, and therefore needing regeneration. humans, yet psychology of religion is margina-
lized in modern psychology, showing up in no
How would a distinctly Christian psycholo- introduction to psychology textbooks.
gy differ from modern psychology? It would
flow from a Christian anthropology (model Christians in psychology therefore must work
of humanity): all human beings are created in towards a psychology that is thoroughly Chri-
the image of God but they currently exist in a stian.
fallen condition, alienated from their Creator, This means, first, creatively engaging in psycho-

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