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Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity
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The four views of the integration of Christianity and psychology
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4MAT Review: Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity
Melissa Schultz
Liberty University 4MAT Review: Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity
Summary
In Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity by David N. Entwistle (2010), the idea of psychology and Christianity being utilized together is deeply analyzed. The author explains how psychology is mainly based on science that tests for validity, whereas Christianity is based on faith. Even with the two areas of focus having different roots, the writer builds a platform that shows how faith has made an impact and helped science grow throughout history. Entwistle (2010) continues to explains how psychology and Christianity can ultimately be integrated
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I grew up in a religious home, yet had the belief of a naturalist up until I was 12 years old. I mainly thought that my actions did not matter because after my life was over that was it and there was no form of afterlife or God (Entwistle, 2010). This belief led me to constant arguments with children in school to ignoring my parents and disobeying them often.
Around 11 years old, I realized my actions were out of control when I left my parent’s home to run away. We were in an argument about me getting a cellphone and being grounded for two weeks for not completing my chores that day. In that moment, I remember my father saying he was going to send me to boarding school because they could not handle me anymore. I told my father that he could not do that because I was going to just run away instead. Without listening to what parents had to say afterwards, I then stomped upstairs to my room and packed my necessity into a backpack. Once finished, I quietly snuck out of the house through the backyard door. I went to the park about a mile down the road and sat underneath the pavilion to think about my next plans. Within 30 minutes a police officer came walking towards me, asking if I were Melissa. I told him I was and he explained how he has seen run away children harmed by strangers, along with how my parents called him directly to come pick me up and bring me home because they saw me go out the backyard door. When driving in the back of the police car on the way home I began to feel convicted about my actions, realizing that they could not continue. It was in this moment that I knew there was more to life and that I had a purpose. Months following this life changing event, I began to reconstruct my actions drastically, became baptized, and started to develop supernaturalists
Religion has been a controversial topic among philosophers and in this paper I am focusing
This is David Entwistle 2nd edition book published in 2010 by Wipf and Stock in Oregon. Entwistle is a Christian and a licensed psychologist; he has affiliations with Molone University in Canton, Ohio serving as chair of the Psychology Department and has taught courses related to his licensed field. This book clearly is not written for any newcomers to religion. However, it was written for those interested in the integration of science and religion. The authors’ purpose for writing this book was to define the relationship between psychology and theology. There are three specific areas this book touched upon to help readers’ better approach psychology and Christianity in a personal and more professional manner: The context of philosophical issues and worldview, to help the readers become aware of assumptions or beliefs- making the reader a more critical evaluators, and to introduce and familiarize the reader with five paradigms for integrating psychology and theology.
David Entwistle’s (2010) is the author of the Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle embarks on a journey to explore Psychology and Christianity. As the title suggests several approaches that are used to define the relationship of Phycology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle begins to takes us on shows that psychology and Christianity go in two different directions and meet up someplace in the middle. This allows them to provide different approaches to understanding and studying the human behavior. Entwistle, (2010) took a new approach that has rarely been used in other books that discussed the topic of integration. Entwistle, (2010) began to talk about the relationship of psychology and Christianity
This paper will be reviewing the book “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations and models of integration, by David N. Entwistle. As the title states, this book discusses how to integrate psychology and theology. It also dives into why it is so important to be able to integrate the two. Entwistle explains that just because the two are different does not mean they should be separated, and that we have to use both our worldviews. “Weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could either perspective alone.”
Fowler, James W. Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling written by Mark McMinn and published by Tyndale House in 2011 notions towards the idealization that Christian counselors need to be privy in the most recent psychological methods as well as theological theories. “This is a book about counseling processes techniques” (McMinn, 2011, p. 150). McMinn also alluded that Christian counselors benefit from having a spiritual maturity. With having these attributes counselors are better prepared to take note of prayer, Scripture, sin, confession, forgiveness, and redemption. McMinn (2011) model flows in the direction of healing while equating to a more advantageous relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ as well as with other relationships (McMinn, 2011).
It is estimated that around a dozen U.S. children will die in faith-healing cases each year. Typically associated with Christianity, Faith healing is founded on the belief that certain people or places have the ability to cure and heal sickness, disease, or injuries. Typically this “healing” is associated by a close connection to a higher power through prayer, divine intervention, or the ministration of an individual who claims himself as a healer. Faith has been scientifically proven in the field psychology to yield benefits to health. Although faith has promised a greater wellbeing for many individual’s lives, it has yet to be a significant replacement for medication many people but relaying on faith as a means for medication.
In the first chapter of Psychology in Christian Perspective by Harold W. Faw the author talks about psychology as a subject, the different aspects of the subject and how psychology fits into the Christian world. Faw begins the chapter by describing what others think psychology and his views on psychology as well. He describes that “psychology can be described as a systematic attempt to understand human behavior and conscious experience” (Faw, 1995, p. 12). He then goes on to describe the many different types of specialties of psychology which include, neurobiological, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and psychoanalytic. These specialties are then integrated into the Christian worldview. They are all different so they all fit into
Entwistle’s book explores the links and integration between psychology and Christianity. As the title explains this book paints a picture of the conflicting worldviews and philosophical foundations that people perceive about how they can be integrated. Entwistle provides research through scholarly reflection and various models that link both psychology and Christianity together. Entwistle remarked by saying “There are many events that raise both theological and psychological questions and such events serve as useful springboards to investigate links between Christian theology and other disciplines” (Entwistle, 2015, p. 8). This statement sets the stage for the readers to understand how some events throughout history have laid the
Sappinton, A.A. “The Religion/Science Conflict”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30.1 (1991): 114-20. Print.
After reading a few of the chapters in "Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith", I feel as if I have learned more in one sitting than many in years of my life. The chapters were not life altering, but simply stated things that I have overlooked. The topics that affected me most were on living with the mysteries of faith, benefits of true rest, and the emotion of happiness. Yes, they are really in no way related, but each of these topics impacted me in a different way, and made me think about what was being presented.
The Neutral Parties model views that psychology and Christianity are independent from each other and there is no need for integration of the two disciplines. Finally, the Allies model views that there is a “unity of truth” and that all truth comes from God’s therefore both psychology and Christianity are legitimate, but under God’s sovereignty (Entwistle, 2010, p. 182). After considering the evidence from all of the various models of integrations discussed above, it seems that the allies model of integration best presents the relationship of psychology and Christianity and is a preferred approach for the integration of
At the age of 14 I had already doubted if there were a god. I had happened to be brought up in a quite religious family, and so being a child, believed in what they believed in. I had tried praying, watching for a sign that there was some sort of powerful entity there to help through hard times, and everytime I tried I heard nothing, I noticed nothing. The so called “God” wasn't speaking to me, so I took my life into my own hands. Who better to be in charge of my life, my way of living, than me. I even tried to speak to Satan, during an edgy emo phase of my life. Nothing from that end either. I do not believe in anything but death, and death only. We have all been dead before life, and I have no memories of wandering the Heavens with Jesus
Johnson, Eric L. (2007). Christ, The Lord of Psychology. In Daryl H. Stevenson, Brian E. Eck & Peter C. Hill (Eds.). Psychology Christianity Integration: Seminole Works that Shaped the Movement (pp. 42-57). Batavia, IL: Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Inc.
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION. (2009). Journal of Psychology and Theology, 37(1), 72. Retrieved April 21, 2009, from ProQuest Religion database. (Document ID: 1675034711).