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will be somewhere in between, requiring some mental health systems. So Christians are free to
Christian modification before being brought wisely consider how and where they might par-
in. Consider, for example, the concept of self- ticipate as Christian minorities in fields that are
esteem. A Christian orientation will vary greatly currently dominated by a modern majority.
from a modern approach, since Christians be-
lieve that value is ultimately established by God The Christians who have done the best at such
(and not the self). Nonetheless, there are many participation tend to call themselves “inte-
findings in the modern self-esteem literature grationists,” since they believe that Christians
that are helpful. Modern theorists, for examp- should integrate their faith with contemporary
le, have postulated that self-esteem is related psychology. Though we are more critical of the
to interpersonal dynamics. Such an insight is secular worldview influences in contemporary
thoroughly compatible with Christian ideas of psychology, we greatly appreciate their work. In
relationship, community, and interdependence. some cases they have contributed to the shape
of contemporary psychology, using modern ru-
Finally, a Christian psychology should also de- les with a Christian agenda (e.g., Everett Wort-
velop a literature that is constructively critical of hington on forgiveness and Robert Emmons
the distortions evident in modern psychology on gratitude). Moreover, significant changes
(as well as in other psychologies, e.g., Buddhist have been occurring in contemporary psycho-
psychology). Exemplary work with this agenda logy over the past two decades that should ex-
includes Vitz’s critique of Freud (1988) and of cite all Christians (e.g., a growing openness to
humanism in personality and clinical psycho- generic spirituality and religion and positive
logy (1994), Adams’ critique of Freudian and psychology’s investigations of human virtue).
humanistic therapy, and deterministic psychia-
try (1970), and various analyses of therapeutic A Pluralist Set of Psychologies
and personality models (Jones & Butman, 1991; In the future it seems likely that pluralist, de-
Roberts, 1994; Browning & Cooper, 2004). mocratic cultures like ours, helped by the post-
modern critique of modernism, will no longer
Christian psychology might seem to be out of view the human sciences as universalizing dis-
step with contemporary psychology. However, ciplines based on a single worldview. Instead,
when the discussion broadens to include philo- it will be widely acknowledged that human
sophy of science, it becomes apparent that mo- sciences like psychology require that their sci-
dern psychology is out of step, for contempora- entists utilize their worldview assumptions in
ry philosophy of science by and large rejected their work, so they should make explicit those
modernist assumptions decades ago (Ratzsch, assumptions. This is necessarily the case, be-
1986). Indeed, Christian psychology is simply cause human beings are socioculturally-consti-
taking its cue from Christian philosophy (see tuted, so, contrary to the “neutral” modernist
Plantinga, 2000), which has been paving the agenda, it is impossible to remove one’s world-
way for a renewal of radical Christian scholar- view assumptions from one’s human science
ship in all the disciplines for some time now. work and duplicitous to try. This will result in a
pluralist set of psychologies (modern, feminist,
Working with Modern Psychologists Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and so on), agreeing
Nonetheless, Christians should not hesitate to where they can (in many areas of psychology,
work with modern psychologists wherever they see above), but articulating different approa-
can. This will be easy in areas of psychology ches in those areas of psychology that are more
where worldview assumptions make little dif- worldview-dependent (e.g., personality, psy-
ference in understanding human nature (e.g., chopathology, therapy, and social psychology).
neuropsychology, animal learning, and basic
psychological structures, like cognitive and This is not as controversial as it sounds, since
emotion systems). Moreover, all members of a even now modern psychology is not as unified
culture ought to participate in its university and as is commonly supposed. The field is com-

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