Christianity and Psychology
Abstract
Psychology and religion are both broad fields that are impacted significantly by human experience. The position held here in this study is that Christianity can be integrated into psychology and that only the scientific ideas that go in line with the Christian beliefs should be accommodated. Christian is based on assumptions that borrow heavily from psychology. Psychology comes in to explain the human thoughts, feelings, and actions that revolve around religion. Psychology holds an entirely different position compared to Christianity. Psychology is a competing field of study that aims at changing the perspectives of Christians from their shared beliefs. Integrating Christianity and psychology is a challenging task due to the weaknesses associated with the process. Integrating Christianity and psychology is subject to several vulnerabilities. Integrating Christianity and psychology is a challenging task due to the shortcomings associated with the process. Besides, integrating Christianity and psychology is a challenging task due to the weaknesses associated with the process. Additionally, integrating Christianity and psychology has strengths that may make the process more successful.
Christianity and Psychology
Psychology and religion are both broad fields that are impacted significantly by human experience. The contribution of human behavior in both areas determines how the fields work towards achieving their objectives. Several debates have been coming up concerning the relationship between psychology and religion. Christianity is one of the religions that have been associated heavily with psychology. Christian is based on beliefs that borrow heavily from psychology. Psychology comes in to explain the human thoughts, feelings, and actions that revolve around religion. Therefore, Christianity cannot be complete without incorporating the ideas of psychology. Psychology is generally a different field from Christianity, although several ideas are viewed by both areas such as the belief in right and wrong. The position held here is that Christianity is integrated into psychology and that only the scientific ideas that go in line with the Christian beliefs should be accommodated.
The best position to hold is to treat psychology differently from Christianity. Psychology holds an entirely different position compared to Christianity. For example, Christianity is based on sin and righteousness (Schnitker, Houltberg, Dyrness & Redmond, 2017). On the other hand, psychology is based on nature and its influence on human behavior. If psychology is given different treatment from Christianity, Christian will not get confused between the two fields. Generally, psychology comes in to explain some of the happenings of Christianity. For example, Christianity is based on the commandments given by God to the Israelites. For instance, in the fifteenth verse of the seventh chapter of Romans, the writer of the epistle admits to having difficulties in keeping the commandments: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Psychology can be used to explain why Christians have difficulties keeping the commandments despite knowing that breaking the commandments is wrong. The human thoughts, feelings, and actions are defined in psychology.
Psychology is a competing field of study that aims at changing the perspectives of Christians from their standard beliefs. The incorporation of secular ideas in psychology explains why psychology does not always move in line with Christianity. In a bid to protect one’s belief in Christianity, the Christian faith should be put before any other opposing ideology. Psychology can utilize the opportunity of Christianity gaps to change the perspectives of Christians towards God. For example, Christians may easily be misled if psychology gets a way to explain the reasons for the fall of humankind. Also, the sufferings that human beings go through may give psychology an advantage over Christianity. For example, psychology may question the existence of God in the middle of the pains that human beings go through. Therefore, integrating psychology into Christianity poses a risk in that psychologists will eventually take over the truth in Christianity. The take-over by psychologists may mean that Christianity will have to change its meaning to incorporate the ideologies of psychology.
Christians have a responsibility to accept that psychology is an existing field that should not be overlooked. The secular world has always been on the move to overcome the foundations of religion. Psychology has unfortunately accepted the development of secular ideologies. Therefore, Christians should consider integrating psychology into the Christian system. Integration of psychology will be essential in ensuring that secular ideologies from psychology do not act against the performance of Christianity. The involvement of Christians in both secular and religious ideologies is crucial in creating a balance. Generally, Christianity should be used as a tool for improving the field of psychology because Christianity has been in existence for a long time.
Psychology is a field that has been developed approximately two hundred years ago to help in explaining human behavior. Christianity has been in existence for over a millennium, and the Christian beliefs have become firm among the believers (Entwistle, 2015). The integration of Christianity into psychology has the possibility of improving the field as well as doing away with the secular ideologies advocated by some psychologists. Christianity, therefore, has succeeded in providing better counseling care compared to secular psychology that does not have firm foundations for basing arguments. Besides, integrating psychology into Christianity has the advantage that counselors will be able to have foundations from both fields. For example, the ideologies held by psychologists will consider the approval of Christianity being passed. Generally, Christianity should be viewed as a field that can incorporate psychology into it since spirituality is also related to human behavior and feelings.
Psychology and Christianity are concerned with the nature of human lives. Christianity impacts the lives of individuals regardless of their culture. Therefore, Christianity should be integrated with psychology so that the target populations may grow. Christians should use the chance of people’s belief in psychology to win more souls. Besides, religion helps in providing crucial life forecasters as well as influencing the lives of individuals. Also, Christianity can penetrate the social lives of people by expressing the beliefs and workings of the Christian faith. Generally, religion can integrate with psychology to create a way of impacting the cultural practices of individuals. Taking the position of advocating for the integration of psychology and Christianity has strengths and weaknesses.
Integrating Christianity and psychology is subject to several weaknesses. First, the two fields are always competing to control each other. Christianity, for example, cannot withstand the secular ideologies advocated by psychology (Watts, 2017). On the other hand, psychology will always be on the move attempting to take over the Christian definitions. Therefore, integrating the two fields is a challenging task that may fail at any time. Bias may quickly occur where one area decides to take advantage of the integration procedure to do away with the other field. For example, Christianity may integrate psychology to erase secular ideologies from the field. Similarly, psychology may find a way of penetrating the depths of Christianity in a bid to grow from within the field. Generally, the integration process poses a risk of developing unending crises if every field is out to move the process to its side.
Moreover, psychology and Christianity are based on different depths of beliefs. Psychology is associated with the nature of human behavior and the extent to which human nature impacts social activities. Christianity, on the other side, is based on the deeper operation of the spiritual world (Nelson & Slife, 2017). Christianity does not give human beings the allowance to break the rules of nature despite the promise of grace. Psychology, however, holds the belief that human beings have limited ability on the operation of certain ideologies. Therefore, integrating Christianity with psychology will probably cause challenges in the way that particular views are addressed. For example, psychology may not explain the depths of God’s nature, as said in Christianity. Psychology is always based on ignorance for issues that are beyond the control of human ability. Christianity, on the other side, does not believe in impossibilities since the power of God is assumed to be the solution for all problems. Generally, integrating Christianity and psychology is a challenging task due to the weaknesses associated with the process.
Additionally, integrating Christianity and psychology has strengths that may make the process more successful. First, the two fields provide solutions to problems that cannot be solved by one field. For example, Christianity offers a solution to the issues that cannot be solved by psychology (Lopez, Pedrotti, & Snyder, 2018). Therefore, the integration of Christianity and psychology saves human beings from the challenges that may come up if one field was to be considered. Besides, the combination of ideas from the two fields is essential for providing effective answers to the challenges affecting humanity. The strengths of integration are further ascertained by positive criticism from scholars. Also, the integration process saves humanity from the challenges of confusion where the field to stand by is not clearly defined. Therefore, integration is a solution to the general problems of humanity.
In sum, psychology and religion are both broad fields that are impacted significantly by human experience. Christianity should be integrated into psychology and that only the scientific ideas that go in line with the Christian beliefs should be accommodated. Also, Christianity should be viewed as a field that can incorporate psychology into it since spirituality is also related to human behavior and feelings. However, integrating Christianity and psychology is a challenging task due to the weaknesses associated with the process. Moreover, integrating Christianity and psychology has strengths that may make the process more successful.
References
Entwistle, D. N. (2015). Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity: An introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models of integration. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Lopez, S. J., Pedrotti, J. T., & Snyder, C. R. (2018). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths. Sage Publications.
Nelson, J. M., & Slife, B. D. (2017). A new positive psychology: A critique of the movement based on early Christian thought. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(5), 459-467.
Schnitker, S. A., Houltberg, B., Dyrness, W., & Redmond, N. (2017). The virtue of patience, spirituality, and suffering: Integrating lessons from positive psychology, psychology of religion, and Christian theology. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 9(3), 264.
Watts, F. (2017). Theology and psychology. Routledge.