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logical theory-building that is foundationally Translation of Modern Psychology Truth into
and explicitly Christian. Not only will this ho- a Christian Psychology
nor God, but it will give us a more accurate and Yet Christian psychology should not and need
complete picture of human beings. For instance, not do everything itself. So it is very interested
classic social psychology studies on conformity in the work of modern psychology. Wherever
and obedience have frequently focused on how modern psychologists have done good work
these features of social life can lead to negative (that is, work that is not very distorted by secu-
consequences such as aggression, also a con- larism), Christians should receive it with grati-
cern to Christians. However, with Christian tude (1Tim. 4:4–6). As Kuyper (1898) has said,
assumptions of human nature Christians may “What has been well done by one need not be
more readily recognize the positive role con- done again by you” (p. 159). This probably ap-
formity and obedience can play in establishing plies to most of modern psychology.
and maintaining order in culture. Some Chri-
stian psychology theory-building has begun At the same time, in another sense, what is left
regarding the emotions (Elliott, 2006; Roberts, out is everything (the triune God and his sal-
2008), personality (Spiedell, 2002), Christian vation and a Christian anthropology)! So, just
postformal cognitive development (Johnson, how much a modern, secular perspective is
1996), happiness (Charry, 2010), and Soren distorting the psychological topic in a text or
Kierkegaard’s psychology (Evans, 1990). lecture will have to be carefully evaluated eve-
ry time. This requires reading, critiquing, and
Second, this means doing empirical research wrestling with secular theories, research, and
that is grounded in the Christian faith, for ex- clinical practice that may on the surface seem
ample, studying the attribution beliefs of Chri- reasonable and appropriate, but analyzed in
stians, indwelling sin, stages of spiritual deve- the light of the Christian faith are found to fall
lopment, the identity and self-representations short of God’s comprehensive understanding.
(like old self/new self) of Christians, true sha- Because of modern psychology’s commitment
me and guilt, Christian perfectionism, same- to study empirical reality rigorously, combined
sex attraction and gender disorders, and so on, with its secular orientation, there will generally
all from a Christian perspective. So far Chri- be fewer sins of commission than of omission.
stian psychologists have begun to investigate That is, from a Christian standpoint, the pri-
just a few psychological topics like beliefs about mary problem of modern psychology is what is
sin (Watson, Morris, Loy, Hamrick, & Grizzle, left out, because modern psychologists do not
2007), beliefs about grace (Sisemore, et al, 2010; share the pretheoretical assumptions necessa-
Watson, et al, 2010), Christian wisdom (Kwon, ry to recognize features of human beings that
2009), distinctly Christian therapy (Aten, Hook, Christians do, like the image of God, sin, and
Johnson, & Worthington, 2011), Christian post- the activity of God.
formal cognitive development (Johnson, 1998),
and Christian self-representation (Johnson & To oversimplify, the Christian student of psy-
Kim, unpublished manuscript). chology will sometimes have to “translate” the
understandings of modern psychology into a
Finally, this means developing distinctly Chri- Christian psychology language-system. This
stian models of counseling and psychotherapy. requires a good understanding of Christian
More work has probably been done by Chri- psychology, the modern psychology concept of
stians in this area of psychology than any. For interest, and practice in such translation work.
example, there are models of transformational Concepts that are little distorted (like “neuron”)
psychology (Coe & Hall, 2010), Catholic psy- should be simply brought over into a Christian
chotherapy (Dilsaver, 2009; Zeiders, 2004), Or- psychology; whereas concepts that are antithe-
thodox psychotherapy (Chrysostomos, 2007), tical to a Christian psychology should be rejec-
Reformed counseling and psychotherapy ted (like Maslow’s notion of “self-actualizati-
(Johnson, 2007), and many others. on”). Most modern psychology understandings

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