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Christianity and Psychology – Eric Johnson — Transcript

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0:00you
0:17I let me just say a little bit about
0:19myself more that I am a trained as a
0:22psychologist and academic psychologist
0:26and have my PhD in academic psychology
0:29to be a professor at a Christian
0:31University that was my goal for many
0:34years and I did that but about almost 20
0:37years ago the Lord began calling me more
0:40directly to work in the church and in
0:42with counseling and pastoral care and so
0:4517 years ago I got called to work at
0:49Southern Baptist Seminary and and since
0:52then I've been teaching counseling and
0:54focusing specifically on the needs of
0:57the church to do counseling for in Jesus
1:01name and what that looks like and how a
1:03Christian approach to these things are
1:06is going to be different from a secular
1:08approach I was trained in a secular
1:10school and I learned psychology as if
1:13God doesn't exist right that's the
1:16that's the way it's done in our day so
1:20this week what what I want to share with
1:22you most importantly is what would
1:25psychology look like if Jesus were the
1:27Lord of psychology how would it be
1:31different how would the content be
1:34different how would the counseling
1:36process be different some of you have
1:38I'm assuming all of you are here because
1:39you've been working on this already and
1:42what I what I'm gonna do today the first
1:45day is to think about the different
1:48views that Christians take towards
1:50psychology towards the science of
1:52psychology so maybe the first question I
1:55could ask is is psychology a good thing
1:57or a bad thing it's a loaded question
2:02and I don't know of how different it is
2:05in Europe but in America it's a very
2:08controversial field psychology some
2:11people believe is is bad
2:13some Christians believe that psychology
2:14is all secular evil you know and so they
2:18just say stay away from it
2:20other other Christians are practicing
2:22psychology and they practice psychology
2:25the same way that secularists do and as
2:30if there's an
2:31God and so it creates a lot of
2:34opportunity for us to to to wrestle
2:38deeply with complicated matters I have
2:42to say that today's talk is complicated
2:47I don't know anything any simple way to
2:49work with this material because each
2:52each perspective that we're going to
2:54look at is coherent it makes logical
2:57sense but it's it has certain
3:01assumptions undergirding yet that that
3:04grounded and so we're going to be
3:07talking somewhat philosophically
3:09somewhat theologically somewhat
3:11scientifically and biblically as well
3:14all of this together so we'll just do
3:17the best we can and we'll have some time
3:18for questions and discussion towards the
3:22end well why are there different views
3:26why are there different views modern
3:29psychology came out along in the late
3:331800s and it produced a profound
3:37scientific account of human beings and
3:41developed complex ways of dealing with
3:44psychological problems without God it's
3:49a massive enterprise that has been going
3:53on for a hundred and twenty hundred and
3:55forty years now and they produced
3:59amazing amounts of knowledge and and all
4:05of this knowledge created a crisis for
4:09the church we have been doing psychology
4:13too there is psychology in the Bible a
4:18beautiful rich psychology it's written
4:21at the lay level it's not written at a
4:23scientific level but it's written at an
4:25everyday level so that normal people
4:28could understand it and then through the
4:30ages we've had various psychologists
4:33come along to develop it further Agustin
4:38Thomas Aquinas Martha Martin Luther
4:43one of my favorites is Jonathan Edwards
4:46but but there have been many great
4:48thinkers who were working on what we
4:51call psychology today for centuries and
4:54the church has developed a rich a set of
4:58forms of pastoral care and spiritual
5:02formation over these centuries to help
5:04people grow and develop and be healed
5:07psychologically and spiritually so when
5:11modern psychology came along in the
5:131800's and developed this new approach
5:17that is where there is no God it created
5:22a crisis for us what are we to do now
5:24are we wrong are they wrong are they do
5:30they have they done some new things that
5:32are good for us to learn and benefit
5:34from that that belonged to God if if God
5:39is the lord of truth then whatever truth
5:43non-christians or secularists or
5:46Buddhists
5:46discover belongs to God if it's true and
5:50so they but it created this crisis what
5:53are we to do with all of this knowledge
5:56in psychiatry and psychology and
6:00psychotherapy and as a result it created
6:06different approaches to how to deal with
6:08the crisis so gee there we go
6:19the first model I want to talk about is
6:21called levels of explanation model it's
6:25the most common position among Christian
6:28psychology faculty at Christian and
6:30secular colleges in America it
6:38distinguishes these four levels four
6:42disciplines and it says that humans are
6:44best understood in terms of a hierarchy
6:48of disciplines but these disciplines are
6:53levels that should not
6:56combined therefore one's theology or
7:03faith should not affect the other
7:05disciplines and so folks that believe
7:09this are Christians but they don't let
7:12their their personal Christian faith
7:15affect their psychology I'm not going to
7:24spend much more time on it than
7:26highlighting it because I don't consider
7:30it very helpful for us it separates
7:33Christianity from psychology and
7:36psychiatry and that seems to me to be
7:41not the way to go forward though I
7:43understand there are good Christians who
7:45take this view another model that you
7:55find at many Christian graduate programs
7:58is called integration and these would be
8:01some of the leaders in the integration
8:04model it's common slogan is that all
8:10truth is God's truth and it has a key
8:14insight that suggests Christians should
8:17integrate psychological truth with the
8:20truth of the Christian faith the
8:24limitation of this model and this
8:27insight is that it seems to imply that
8:30all secular psychology is true and that
8:34we just bring it in to our faith and
8:37integrate it with Christianity what I
8:44find is that there are different
8:46different approaches to integration some
8:51you I call it strong integration is
8:54where the integration makes a real
8:56impact in what they do and there are
8:58some wonderful Christians that do that
9:01and have written books on this and I
9:04think are helpful but I
9:07have to say that the dominant approach
9:09in of integration in America I would
9:12call weak integration and this is where
9:14Christianity makes very little impact
9:16they say oh I do integration but then
9:19when you when you listen to their
9:21lectures or you see their practice
9:23Jesus is not mentioned very much at all
9:26and so I'm critical of that now of
9:30course no one claims that there are weak
9:32integrationist but but I think that
9:35honestly it's quite common among
9:37Christians who use the label integration
9:42the strengths of the integration model
9:45are that it takes science and research
9:47seriously and it allows the Christian
9:51faith to reinterpret the psychology that
9:54we receive from mainstream universities
9:58publishing houses journals it suggests
10:02that we need to reinterpret it to some
10:04at some degree and I love that it
10:09recognizes the role of what I would call
10:12God's creation grace or what many
10:16theologians call common grace the grace
10:18that we have in common with
10:20non-christians in our culture and in
10:23science it recognizes that there is
10:27common grace creation grace in
10:29non-christians that we should take
10:32captive for Christ and I agree with that
10:35too and it seeks to engage our culture
10:40and impact contemporary psychology by
10:44influencing it indirectly by publishing
10:48in psychology of religion positive
10:50psychology one of my favorite bodies of
10:53research has been done by Robert Emmons
10:55on gratitude and the psychological
10:58benefits of being grateful it's a
11:01wonderful body of literature that has
11:03emerged in the last 10 years much of it
11:05done by Christians and I think the
11:07secularist has to ask why are we
11:09grateful to whom are we grateful
11:11well from a Christian worldview
11:13standpoint we've been created to be
11:16grateful and so it's wonderful that we
11:18have found empirical evidence
11:20that being grateful makes one
11:22psychologically healthy see so
11:26integration has done some very good
11:28things in the field of mainstream
11:30psychology in America the weaknesses I
11:35are in my opinion it's it assumes a
11:40dualistic separation between biblical
11:43research and research on human beings
11:46that then has to be integrated
11:51therefore it assumes that contemporary
11:55psychology or psychiatry for those in
11:59psychiatry here are the only legitimate
12:01versions and it ignores the influence of
12:07secularism on contemporary psychology
12:10and psychiatry in my opinion it accepts
12:14too much of modern psychology and
12:17psychiatry it says oh yes that's
12:20psychiatry that's ikite psychology and
12:23we need to integrate our christianity to
12:25some degree to that but that's really
12:28truly psychiatry and psychology that
12:33that might that makes a lot of sense in
12:35one way but the way that I'm thinking
12:37and what I'll be teaching this week is
12:40Christians want the psychology of God we
12:44want the psychiatry that God knows he
12:48has an infinite understanding of what's
12:51true about psychology and psychiatry and
12:54modern modern psychology and psychiatry
12:57only have a partial understanding that's
13:01been distorted by secularism so while I
13:04consider it to be very helpful and
13:06useful and I read much from modern
13:08psychology and some from psychiatry I
13:11don't consider it to be the true version
13:14the true version is in God and that's my
13:19goal another weakness is that based on
13:28its assumptions it minimizes the
13:30distorting effects of sin
13:33on human understanding something that
13:36reformed theologians have called the
13:38antithesis between the way a Christian
13:41thinks and the way a non-christian
13:43thinks it accepts too much in the way
13:47non-christians think about psychology
13:49and psychiatry and lastly we week
13:53integration undermines the lordship of
13:55Christ and the impact of Redemption week
13:58integrationist even when their
14:01counseling a Christian don't bring Jesus
14:04up and that makes no sense I think from
14:07a Christian standpoint I understand that
14:10we can't bring Jesus up with a
14:12non-christian who doesn't want Jesus we
14:14have to be very strategic in what we say
14:16and how we work with non-christians I
14:19understand that but when I work with a
14:21Christian counselor I want to bring
14:23Jesus into that and unfortunately with
14:26with week integration Jesus is not in
14:29the counseling even Christian counseling
14:32because they accept so much of secular
14:34psychology okay well we will have time
14:41to talk about these models before we're
14:44done in fact I'm going really fast so we
14:46should have a lot of time all right well
14:53I'm biased I I come to you as a
14:57representative of a Christian psychology
15:00model and so when I look at
15:03representatives I'm first going to look
15:05at classical representatives of
15:07Christian psychology and so Apostle Paul
15:13Agustin Julian of Norwich a wonderful
15:16female author in the Middle Ages who
15:20wrote a great book called revelations of
15:23divine love and then søren kierkegaard
15:26is a hero of the Christian psychology
15:29movement because he called himself a
15:30Christian psychologist in the 1800s and
15:34he finished his writing before Sigmund
15:37Freud was even born he is a well kept
15:41secret of Christian psychology modern
15:44psychology ignores him
15:46but he was writing psychology before
15:48Freud and so as a Christian I want to
15:51claim him and learn from him how to do
15:54psychology in the modern era as well all
15:57right well some major representatives of
16:00this approach today would be Robert
16:04Roberts as a philosopher Larry Crabb
16:06Diane Lang bird Lee Ann Payne is written
16:10about healing prayer some of you may be
16:12familiar with some of these authors John
16:15Coe is a professor of spiritual
16:17formation at at Biola and these would be
16:21people who are trying to develop a
16:23Christian psychology in our day I
16:34realize I'm going too fast and I would
16:37be happy to figure out a way to I tell
16:40I'll tell you what I'm gonna do I'm
16:42gonna post these lectures on our website
16:45for the Society for Christian psychology
16:48so you can have access to them I'll do
16:53that sometime this week I'll post them
16:54ok so you don't have to get everything
16:57down well what is the agenda of a
17:02Christian psychology number one it is
17:05the ongoing development of distinctly
17:08Christian psychological theory research
17:11and soul care practice it is to provide
17:15a Christian alternative to modern
17:19psychology where possible by beginning
17:22with the psychology of the Bible and the
17:25Christian traditions one way to
17:28distinguish Christian psychology from
17:30integration is what is the starting
17:33point what is the starting point I would
17:38argue that integration starting point is
17:41modern psychology that they then try to
17:44integrate into their their faith into it
17:47I think it's it's a different way of
17:50thinking is that Christian psychologist
17:52want to begin with the Bible and the
17:56Christian traditions to read the grey
17:59Augustine Julian of Norwich søren
18:03kierkegaard and then as it were go to
18:06study what we can from modern psychology
18:10but to do so on our terms understanding
18:14our worldview our psychology first
18:20secondly we thirdly spiritual formation
18:23into the image of Christ is the primary
18:27goal of human life this is our belief
18:30about what humans were made for is to be
18:33conformed to Christ and to live for the
18:35glory of God
18:37this changes everything in therapy this
18:40is a fundamentally different model than
18:42modern psychology which seeks to help
18:45people become fully functioning to
18:48flourish according to a secular
18:50understanding of a healthy organism or a
18:53healthy human being but for us its
18:56conformity to Christ for the glory of
18:59God and in the glory of God we find our
19:02greatest fulfillment this changes
19:06everything
19:07in counseling and in therapy and
19:10therefore it uses distinctly Christian
19:13resources to promote healing and
19:16development we want to rely on the holy
19:20spirit we want to meditate on Scripture
19:23in order to become to find more healing
19:26and so on these are things that we
19:28wouldn't expect modern psychology to
19:30think about but for us they are
19:32foundational the strengths of this model
19:37is that it aims to develop a Christian
19:40science of psychology and psychiatry it
19:47challenges the domination of secularism
19:51over the contemporary field of
19:54psychology through participation and
19:56engagement I am very happy that this
20:02year I'm going to be presenting two
20:05papers at the American Psychological
20:07Association I'm not going to be talking
20:12about the Bible
20:13because they don't care about the Bible
20:15so I have to be strategic and what I
20:18talk about but one of my talks is on the
20:22image of God as a personality construct
20:26okay and so from a from a theistic
20:30standpoint Jews Muslims and Christians
20:32all agree that we are made in the image
20:35of God what does that mean it means that
20:38were made for a being and and by
20:42relationship with him it organizes our
20:45personality in the healthiest way
20:48possible and so I'm trying to talk about
20:52this in a way that can get a hearing at
20:54the American Psychological Association
20:57honestly I'm always surprised when my
21:00proposals get accepted because because
21:03they're kind of a right on the edge but
21:06this year that one was accepted and a
21:07second one was accepted I'm going to be
21:10speaking in a symposium on the role of
21:13worldview in psychotherapy and what
21:19we're gonna and I have five other people
21:21most of whom are Christian I think all
21:22of them are Christian believers who are
21:24going to be on this symposium and what
21:27we're going to be talking about is right
21:29now naturalism is the only worldview
21:32allowed in psychotherapy in the West and
21:35we're going to say that's not fair and
21:38we're gonna argue for how worldview
21:41biases naturalistic worldview biases
21:45modern psychotherapy and how we want to
21:48open up to theistic world views and we
21:53and and other other worldviews will have
21:55to be allowed not just the Christian but
21:57that's going to be more fair than the
22:00current rule of naturalism in
22:07psychotherapy so I say this because I
22:11want to be involved with engaging modern
22:15psychology and challenging its
22:18assumptions I don't believe that we're
22:20just going to go off and do our own
22:22thing in our churches although we need
22:23to do that but one of the things we need
22:25to do is to challenge
22:27secularism because it's it's biased it's
22:29distorted well what are some of its
22:34weaknesses historically it has focused
22:39on Christian literature and has done
22:42very little Christian research and
22:46that's a problem in modern in
22:49contemporary science of psychology now
22:52we got a lot of literature to read
22:54because we've been around for centuries
22:56and and so this is a good thing one of
23:00the terms that's used in this way of
23:03thinking is called retrieval we want to
23:07retrieve the great literature of
23:09Christian psychology from the past and
23:12and become experts in understanding
23:16psychology from a Christian standpoint
23:18but we have to do more than that if
23:20we're going to impact our discipline so
23:24for example the next stage for someone
23:26like me would to be would be to do
23:29research on the image of God what does
23:31that look like I'm confident that we can
23:34do research on that and then that can be
23:37published in empirical journals but much
23:40of that work remains to be done so this
23:43is a weakness of Christian psychology
23:45and there is always a danger of forming
23:49a Christian psychology ghetto that
23:52doesn't interact with contemporary
23:55culture and I I'm aware of that most of
23:58my work over my career has been it been
24:01done with the Christian community all my
24:05books most of the work in books that I
24:07have done is further to the church for
24:09Christians and I think that's really
24:12important I think that's most important
24:14is is for the church but a weakness of
24:18this model is that we only work in the
24:20church and we don't challenge our
24:21culture so I acknowledge that there are
24:24some weaknesses with Christian
24:25psychology I also want to mention the
24:30biblical counseling model major
24:34representatives of this model some of
24:37you would would know
24:40though one of them is is here at this
24:43conference and Welch and he's a
24:46wonderful guy and biblical counseling
24:52'he's common slogan is the sufficiency
24:54of Scripture the key insight is that
24:59scripture is all we need for Christian
25:01counseling because it is what I would
25:03call God's sole care guidebook
25:06and every Christian knows that the Word
25:08of God is the first place we go when we
25:12have psychological needs this is basic
25:15to the Christian faith the limitation
25:18however is that it seems to imply that
25:21the Bible is scientifically sufficient
25:24and that its content directly addresses
25:28all consoling matters comprehensively
25:31and that seems to be a distortion of
25:38what God gave us the Bible for I would
25:41argue I want to distinguish however two
25:45major orientations that biblical
25:49counselors take towards these issues one
25:52I would call traditional biblical
25:54counseling it is generally opposed to
25:57psychology to licensure to psychotropic
26:00medication and other Christians in the
26:02field I should I should say and it tends
26:06towards a superficial view of sin and
26:08repentance as if if you just repent
26:11throw your mute from your sin that will
26:14cure your problems and I don't have time
26:18to prove these points but you can find
26:21it in the literature there's another
26:24kind of biblical counseling however that
26:27I will term progressive biblical
26:30counseling it's more open to psychology
26:32medication licensure and other
26:34Christians in the field and it has a
26:36more sophisticated understanding of sin
26:39and the importance of human
26:41relationships as well as our
26:43relationship with God and I want to make
26:46it very clear I love to work with
26:48biblical counselors and
26:50a progressive biblical counselors are
26:52happy to work with people like me
26:54because we we are honest they recognize
26:57we're on the same team but we have
26:59different callings the strengths of
27:03biblical counseling is that it takes the
27:06Bible's role in soul care most seriously
27:10it's wary of the influences of a secular
27:13worldview on modern psychology and it's
27:16against syncretism and this is so
27:19important biblical counseling is warning
27:22us
27:23don't become secularized by modern
27:26psychology this is so important for us
27:31it strives for a God centered approach
27:35to soul care that sees sin as our worst
27:38problem and Christ's work on the cross
27:41and the resurrection as the cure for the
27:45sin sick soul this is beautiful this is
27:49the Christian faith and it puts the
27:53focus for soul care in the local church
27:55and I think the local church is the
27:57place that all Christian soul care where
28:00it begins its weaknesses is it has
28:08tended to little explore the
28:11relationship between creation and
28:13redemption it focuses mostly on
28:16Redemption and it doesn't it hasn't
28:19thought as much we're written as much at
28:21least about creation and creation is
28:24important because we're all created and
28:26and were created as thinking beings
28:29emotional beings volitional beings with
28:32bodies and a body so unity and all of
28:35these things are very complicated and
28:37modern psychology has studied the
28:40creation a lot and so if we ignore that
28:45our creational nature and we only focus
28:49on Redemption we're not going to have
28:51much to say over against modern
28:54psychology and psychiatry that's that's
28:57a danger if biblical counseling is the
29:00only approach the Christian Church takes
29:02in
29:02our day it rightly emphasizes the
29:06antithesis between God and the world the
29:08church and the kingdom of this world and
29:11its effects on modern psychology but so
29:14much so that it has tended to neglect
29:17the implications of creation grace or
29:20common grace in science and its presence
29:24in modern psychology so it tends to
29:28throw out modern psychology and not try
29:32and take advantage of the treasures of
29:35knowledge that God has given our culture
29:38through contemporary science in modern
29:42psychology and it's thus far has
29:45demonstrated little research and little
29:47interest in research and in
29:49psychological science all right well if
29:55you think about these four views these
29:57are four views that Christians take
30:00towards psychology and psychiatry on the
30:04one side the first side we might simple
30:06oversimplify them and say the first
30:09model is all science no Bible there are
30:15some representatives of the of the
30:18biblical counseling approach that when
30:19we read their literature you might get
30:21the impression that they believe that
30:23Christians should focus on all Bible and
30:27no psychological science and the two
30:32positions in the middle would be some
30:36synthesis of some Bible some science
30:41I think that's an accurate way of
30:43thinking about it though it isn't fair
30:46to every representative of these of
30:48these four views but I want to ask where
30:53do we go from here and I want to make a
30:56plea for peacemaking in a very
31:01controversial area of the church in our
31:04day we are all brothers and sisters and
31:08each group has something to contribute
31:10to the dialogue even the levels of
31:13explanation approach in my opinion
31:15makes sense when you're talking about
31:17neuropsychology there is no necessary
31:26incompatibility between three of these
31:29models integration Christian psychology
31:31and biblical counseling there is just a
31:33difference in calling in focus and
31:37location in the culture integration does
31:42research and professional counseling in
31:45the public square where they work with
31:47non-christians and they have to be very
31:48savvy in how they live and work as
31:52Christians in the public secular world
31:54and I applaud people who do that and who
31:58do it well with integrity as a Christian
32:00biblical counseling tends to do
32:03practical work in the local church that
32:06is Christ centered and Bible based all
32:09pastors should be biblical counselors in
32:12my opinion and work out of the Bible
32:15which is God's sole care guidebook for
32:17the effort for all Christians in
32:19everyday life in Christian psychology in
32:24my opinion its location is in Christian
32:27institutions of higher learning
32:29Christian universities and to some
32:33degree Christian seminaries because
32:36we're wanting to develop a science of
32:38psychology that's based in a Christian
32:41worldview if you want more information
32:48about these models let me direct you to
32:52if you can see that first of all
32:54psychology and Christianity five views
32:57and I'm leaving out one of those views
32:59or collapsing it into Christian
33:01psychology but you can order this on
33:04Amazon
33:05five use book and this is a book that
33:09I've written foundations for soul care
33:11which in Chapter three I just I
33:14distinguish biblical counseling
33:16integration and Christian psychology and
33:19this is also subtitle as a proposal for
33:23a Christian psychology approach so I
33:26have you you could say that I have
33:28dedicated
33:29good part of my career - trying to
33:32promote dialogue between these different
33:34models because all of them have some
33:36value and and each of you need to think
33:39about where is God or where has God
33:41called you or where is God calling you
33:43more in the public square
33:44more on working in Christian
33:46institutions more working in the local
33:48church and I think you will naturally be
33:50drawn to one or more of these models all
33:55right oh and then I also want to mention
33:58that I'm a representative of the Society
34:01for Christian psychology which is trying
34:03to develop these things in the States
34:05you can look up our website and and
34:08there's also another group of Christian
34:11psychologists in Europe called the
34:14European movement em cap stands for
34:17European movement of Christian
34:19anthropology psychology and
34:22psychotherapy and they have a wonderful
34:24journal called Christian psychology
34:27around the world that that is online and
34:30you can find out more about what's
34:32happening in Europe regarding Christian
34:34psychology art I should also mention the
34:39Society has a journal that you can find
34:42on our website
34:44Society incight org which I should have
34:47had up here and these will provide some
34:50resources for further reflection

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