Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity, Third Edition: An Introduction to Worldview Issues, Philosophical Foundations, and Models of Integration by David N. Entwistle Introd

Psychology & Christianity

F I V E V I E W S

E D I T E D B Y Eric L. Johnson

W I T H C O N T R I B U T I O N S B Y David G. Myers, Stanton L. Jones, Robert C. Roberts & P. J. Watson, John H. Coe & Todd W. Hall, David Powlison

S P E C T R U M M U LT I V I E W B O O K S

S E C O N D E D I T I O N

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected] Second edition: ©2010 by Eric L. Johnson First edition: ©2000 by Eric L. Johnson and Stanton L. Jones All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Design: Cindy Kiple ISBN 978-0-8308-7661-7 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-2848-7 (print)

To Malcolm Jeeves, Gary Collins, John Carter,

Bruce Narramore, C. Stephen Evans, David Benner,

Jay Adams, Wayne Mack and Larry Crabb:

Forerunners.

An Association for Christian Psychologists, Therapists, Counselors and Academicians

CAPS is a vibrant Christian organization with a rich tradition. Founded in 1956 by a small group of Christian mental health professionals, chaplains and pastors, CAPS has grown to more than 2,100 members in the U.S., Canada and more than 25 other countries.

CAPS encourages in-depth consideration of therapeutic, research, theoretical and theological issues. The association is a forum for creative new ideas. In fact, their publications and conferences are the birthplace for many of the formative concepts in our field today.

CAPS members represent a variety of denominations, professional groups and theoretical orientations; yet all are united in their commitment to Christ and to professional excellence.

CAPS is a non-profit, member-supported organization. It is led by a fully functioning board of directors, and the membership has a voice in the direction of CAPS.

CAPS is more than a professional association. It is a fellowship, and in addi- tion to national and international activities, the organization strongly encourages regional, local and area activities which provide networking and fellowship op- portunities as well as professional enrichment.

To learn more about CAPS, visit www.caps.net.

The joint publishing venture between IVP Academic and CAPS aims to promote the understanding of the relationship between Christianity and the behavioral sciences at both the clinical/counseling and the theoretical/research levels. These books will be of particular value for students and practitioners, teachers and researchers.

For more information, visit InterVarsity Press’s website at www.ivpress.com, type in “CAPS Books”

a

nd follow the link provided there to all of the CAPS books.

CAPS statement.fm Page 405 Thursday, August 12, 2010 8:29 AM

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANS IN PSYCHOLOGY Eric L. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 A LEVELS-OF-EXPLANATION VIEW David G. Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Integration Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Christian Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Transformational Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Biblical Counseling Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

3 AN INTEGR ATION VIEW Stanton L. Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Levels-of-Explanation Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Christian Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Transformational Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Biblical Counseling Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

4 A CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY VIEW Robert C. Roberts and P. J. Watson . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Levels-of-Explanation Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Integration Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Transformational Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Biblical Counseling Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

5 A TR ANSFORMATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY VIEW John H. Coe and Todd W. Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Levels-of-Explanation Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Integration Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Christian Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Biblical Counseling Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

6 A BIBLICAL COUNSELING VIEW David Powlison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Levels-of-Explanation Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Integration Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Christian Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Transformational Psychology Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

7 GAINING UNDERSTANDING THROUGH FIVE VIEWS Eric L. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Name Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Preface to the Second Edition

It is widely acknowledged that factions in American culture have been embroiled over the past four decades in a conceptual and political battle grounded in different views of morality, values, epistemology and the role of religion in public life, a “culture war” of great importance to evangelicals (Hunter, 1991). Less well known are the similar battles waged within the evangelical community, one of which concerns the relation of psychology and Christianity.

What has led to this particular conflict? There are at least two factors. For one, modern psychology has become enormously influential in our culture and on the American church. And two, since its founding 130 years ago, modern psychology has been largely devoid of reference to reli- giousness, and often it has been downright hostile to religion, a stance that has only recently shown signs of softening. In the face of these dynamics, Christians have taken different positions regarding the extent to which they should have anything to do with modern psychology—some embrac- ing it wholeheartedly, others rejecting it just as vigorously and many fall- ing somewhere between. Few opportunities have arisen for Christians to dialogue publicly about these differences, about the value of psychology in general for Christians, and about the problems involved in psychological study and counseling practice for people of faith.

This book is one such opportunity, and it has been a pleasure to work on this dialogue. I wish to thank heartily the seven contributors. I have long felt a professional debt to all of them for their contributions on these matters, and I add to that a personal debt for their efforts in this project.

This second edition is distinguished from the first by the move of Stan-

8 Psychology and Christianity : Five Views

ton Jones from coeditor of the earlier edition to the representative of the integration position, with the result that I am now the sole editor of the book you now hold. Further, another view has been added to the dialogue: transformational psychology. This model had its roots in the integration tradition, but over the past twenty years, for reasons that will be explained, the various proponents of this view are advancing what amounts to a novel and distinct Christian way of thinking about psychology that must now be taken seriously.

Finally, I’d like to thank Sarah Tennant for helping with the indexes, and I want to express my appreciation for the staff at InterVarsity Press, especially Andy Le Peau and Joel Scandrett, for their guidance and sup- port throughout the different stages of this project.

I think it would be fitting to dedicate a book such as this to some of the notable forerunners who contributed to and, in some cases, helped to es- tablish the five positions found in this book: Malcolm Jeeves (levels of explanation); Gary Collins, John Carter and Bruce Narramore (integra- tion); C. Stephen Evans (Christian psychology); David Benner (transfor- mational psychology); Jay Adams and Wayne Mack (biblical counseling); and Larry Crabb (who over his career has contributed to three of the posi- tions in this book: integration, Christian psychology and transformational psychology).

1

A Brief History of Christians in Psychology Eric L. Johnson

Followers of God have always been interested in his creation. After citing the stars in the heavens, the bestowal of rain, the growth of vegetation and the feeding of wild animals, the psalmist cries out, “How many are your works, O Lord! / In wisdom you made them all; / the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps 104:24). But of all the things in creation, of greatest interest to most of us is our own nature, for we are fascinated with the wonder of ourselves. As John Calvin wrote, a human being is a microcosm of the universe, “a rare example of God’s power, goodness, and wisdom, and contains within . . . enough miracles to occupy our minds” (1559/1960, p. 54). It is not surprising then to learn that Chris- tian thinkers over the centuries have thought deeply about psychological matters, long before modern psychology arose.

Yet Christian interest in psychology has exploded over the last fifty years. Countless books have been written by Christians that describe our personalities, our boundaries, our dysfunctional development, our rela- tionships and their problems, how our children should be raised, and so on. However, in the midst of this explosion has been an intellectual crisis that the church has been wrestling with for even longer: over the previous 140 years, a complex and rich body of knowledge and practice has prolifer- ated, which has understood and treated human beings in some ways that vary considerably from Christian perspectives on human life. Since this modern psychology is largely secular, there is considerable disagreement about how much the theories and findings of this type of psychology

10 Psychology and Christianity : Five Views

should influence, be absorbed into and even transform the way Christians think about human beings. Some Christians have embraced modern psy- chology’s findings and theories with uncritical enthusiasm, naively trust- ing that its texts are a perfect reflection of human reality. Others have ar- gued that any appropriation of modern psychology is “psychoheresy,” since it necessarily poisons the Christians who imbibe it (Bobgan & Bobgan, 1987). This book will examine neither extreme but will consider the vast territory between them—specifically five well-thought-through views from evangelicals who offer a fairly comprehensive representation of the ways that most Christians (including nonevangelicals) understand psy- chology and counseling in our day.

Before summarizing the five approaches themselves, I would like to trace the historical and intellectual background for the present debate.

CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE

We ought to begin by noting that Christians have commonly understood that the natural order is the work of a wise Creator who continues to provi- dentially guide it, and that it, therefore, possesses an intrinsic rationality and orderliness that can be investigated. Discovering evidence of this de- sign brings God glory, thus its continued investigation is warranted (Hooykaas, 1972; McGrath, 2001; Stark, 2003). Indeed, it was mostly Christians in the West who founded the scientific revolution, and the main contributors to the early developments in the natural sciences— astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology—were Christians of various stripes, including Roger Bacon, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Francis Ba- con, Newton, Boyle, Pascal, Descartes, Ray, Linnaeus and Gassendi. Throughout the history of Christianity, science has been seen, fundamen- tally, as a gift of God.

CHRISTIANITY AND PSYCHOLOGY

According to most introductory textbooks in psychology, psychopathol- ogy and coun seling (and even some history of psychology texts), the founding of psychology occurred in the mid- to late-1800s. As we will see, though, that was the founding of modern psychology. A little more investigation reveals that there was a tremendous amount of ref lection, writing, counseling, psychological theorizing and even some research

A Brief History of Christians in Psychology 11

going on during previous centuries (Brett, 1912; Klein, 1970; Leahey, 2003; Watson & Evans, 1991). Unquestionably, the form of this older psychology was different in many respects from the empirically and sta- tistically oriented psychology of the past hundred years. In contrast, this older psychology relied much more on the philosophical and theological ref lections of Christian thinkers and ministers. Nonetheless, this was genuine psychological work and it pervades the history of Christianity (and all the major religions; see Olson, 2002; Thomas, 2001), even if most of it was characterized by less of the complexity evident in modern psychology.

The first sophisticated psychologies in the West were developed by Greek philosopher-therapists like Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus. They at- tempted to describe human nature, including its fundamental ills and its reparation, on the basis of personal experience and rigorous reflection in light of prior thought (Nussbaum, 1994; Watson & Evans, 1991). These thinkers explored topics like the composition and “inner” structure of hu- man beings—memory, reason, sensation, appetite, motivation, virtues and vices, and various ideals of human maturation. The Old and New Testa- ments themselves contain material of great psychological import, and in the case of Paul, we might say with Brett (1912), a strongly religious “protopsy- chology.” However, in contrast to the more rigorous writing of contempo- rary science, the reflections in the Bible belong to the category of “folk psychology” or “lay psychology,” since they do not constitute a systematic and comprehensive exploration of human nature generated for the purpose of contributing to human knowledge (Fletcher, 1995; Thomas, 2001). Nevertheless, because Christians believe the Bible to be specially inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16), revealing matters of essential importance, Christians have usually accorded the Bible’s teachings on human nature with a unique authority regarding how to think about psychological matters.

After the New Testament era, the Bible and the intellectual contribu- tions of the Greeks both contributed to the psychological theorizing of Christians for the next fourteen hundred years. With only a limited grasp of the value of empirical study, the major teachers and writers of the early church and medieval periods were convinced that Scripture and rigorous reflection on it provided the surest route to psychological knowledge. Not surprisingly, then, the best psychological work by Christians was the result

12 Psychology and Christianity : Five Views

of biblical and philosophical reflection on human experience. Though largely concerned with matters of faith and life, people like the

desert fathers—Tertullian, Athanasius, Cassian, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory the Great—wrote with often penetrating insight into the nature of the soul and soul healing. However, Augustine, with his massive intel- lect, is widely recognized as the first great Christian “psychologist” (see Watson & Evans, 1991). Steeped in the Scriptures and the thought of the earlier church fathers, Augustine’s understanding of human beings was also f lavored by the philosophical tradition inspired by Plato. Neverthe- less, his work on love, sin, grace, memory, mental illumination, wisdom, volition and the experience of time provides a wealth of psychological in- sight and suggestions for further investigations.

Strongly influenced by Augustine but much more systematic (and, therefore, more directly helpful for developing psychological theory) was Thomas Aquinas (Watson & Evans, 1991). This meticulous thinker de- voted his life to relating the Christian faith to the thought of another bril- liant but mostly nonreligious philosopher, Aristotle. Aquinas unified the best of the Augustinian and Aristotelian traditions and produced an influ- ential body of psychological thought, covering the appetites, the will, hab- its, the virtues and vices, the emotions, memory, and the intellect.

It is worth underlining that the two greatest intellectual lights of the church’s first fifteen hundred years, Augustine and Aquinas, drew heavily in their theological and psychological work on the philosophical traditions of the two greatest (non-Christian) Greek philosophers—Plato and Aris- totle respectively. And the distinct approaches of Augustine and Aquinas contributed to genuine differences in thought and orientation, though these differences have sometimes been exaggerated (MacIntyre, 1990). In a very real sense, the works of both represent an “integration” of Christian and non-Christian psychology, though Aquinas was engaged in such inte- gration more self-consciously than Augustine, who was more explicitly working out the differences between Christian and pagan thought (be- tween the “City of God” and the “City of Humanity”).

Many Christians in the Middle Ages in addition to Aquinas wrote on psychological and soul-care topics, including Bernard of Clairvaux, Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, Anselm, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, William of Ockham and

A Brief History of Christians in Psychology 13

Thomas á Kempis. The more philosophically inclined writers typically focused on concerns like the structure of the soul and knowledge, whereas the more spiritually inclined focused on the love and experience of God and spiritual development. The latter was the special focus of the monas- teries and the priests, and the healing of souls was understood to be central to the mission of the church—long before modern psychotherapy came on the scene (McNeill, 1951; Oden, 1989).

The Renaissance, Reformation and Counter-Reformation released a new psychological curiosity in the church. For example, Reformers like Luther and Calvin reflected deeply on sin, grace, knowledge, faith and the nature of the Christian life, and Catholics like Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross and Ignatius of Loyola described spiritual development with unparalleled clarity. However, similar to much of the work of earlier Christians, the main focus of this quasi-psychological writing was more pastoral than scientific: the cure and upbuilding of the Christian soul. It was, according to Charry (1997), aretegenic, directed toward the shaping of one’s moral and spiritual char acter and the enhancement of the believer’s relationship with God, and in some cases, it addressed what would be considered “therapeutic” concerns today (such as the resolution of severe “melancholy”).

In the Reformation traditions this pastoral psychology reached its zenith in the Puritan, Pietist and evangelical movements. Writers like Richard Baxter, John Owen, George Herbert, William Law, John Ger- hardt, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards and John Newton developed so- phisticated and nuanced understandings of psychospiritual problems— like sin, melancholy, assurance and spiritual desertions—and how to promote spiritual healing and development in Christ.

In addition, Christian philosophers after the Middle Ages continued to reason carefully about human nature in works of great psychological sig- nificance, including such luminaries as René Descartes, Giovanni Vico, John Locke, Bishop George Berkeley, Thomas Reid, Bishop Joseph But- ler, Gottfried Leibniz and Blaise Pascal—some of these are recognized as figures who influenced the later founding of modern psychology.

Possibly the most significant Christian psychology author since the Middle Ages was Søren Kierkegaard, who used the word psychology to describe some of his works, and who wrote some profound psychological works. Over the course of a decade, he brilliantly described (in sometimes

14 Psychology and Christianity : Five Views

deliberately unsettling ways) the nature of personhood, sin, anxiety and despair, the unconscious (before Freud was even born!), subjectivity, and human and spiritual development from a deeply Christian perspective. Kierkegaard is, as well, the only Christian thinker who can be considered a father to a major, modern approach to psychological theory and ther- apy—existential psychology (though he would have vigorously rejected its secular agenda).

So if we define psychology broadly as a rigorous inquiry into human nature and how to treat its problems and advance its well-being, Chris- tians have been thinking and practicing psychology for centuries. Believ- ing that God had revealed the most important truths about human beings in the Bible, they learned there that God created the world and that hu- man beings were specially created in his image. But they also learned that something was terribly wrong with human beings—they were sinners and needed to be rescued from their plight, for which they bore responsibility. Because humans were created in God’s image, they were endowed with reason, so they could apprehend truth in the Bible and in the created order. In the Bible, they found God’s norms for human beings and his design for the f lourishing of human life through the salvation obtained through faith in Christ on the basis of his life, death and resurrection. Using this world- view, Christians were able to contribute novel and significant psychologi- cal insights in such areas as the nature of human reason, sensation, mem- ory, attention, the appetites, the emotions, volition, the unconscious and the experience of time. In addition, Christians developed hypotheses about moral, spiritual and character development; the role of God and grace in human and spiritual development; the nature and impact of sin; techniques for overcoming sin and brokenness (the spiritual disciplines, as well as herbal remedies and common-sense helps); the psychology of religion; the relation of free will and determinism; biological and social origins of psy- chopathology; body-soul relations; and even some of the bases for scien- tific research. Thus, Christians had a broad and rich tradition of under- standing human beings and treating their problems long before modern psychology came on the scene.

LATE MODERNISM AND THE “NEW PSYCHOLOGY”

Modernism is generally considered to be a worldview or framework of

A Brief History of Christians in Psychology 15

Western thought that arose in the 1600s, advanced considerably in the 1800s and became dominant in the West during the twentieth century. To some extent, it was a reaction to the religious conflicts that had dominated Christian Europe since the Reformation, reaching a sad denouement in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Modernism’s main assumptions in- clude the following: 1. Special revelation and tradition can no longer be regarded as ultimate

authorities, because appeals to such sources obviously can not resolve the serious religious-intellectual (and societal) conflicts confronting Europe.

2. Human knowledge must be based on a more sure foundation, and that foundation is presumed to be located in human reason especially but also in human consciousness and experience—basically all aspects of the individual self.

3. The goal of human knowledge is universal understanding, obtained by objective means that all interested parties can use, thus privileging no one perspective and granting a fundamental epistemological equality to all.

4. The natural sciences are held up as the model for human understand- ing, since they demonstrate the power of human reason and observation (experience) to yield universal knowledge. The natural sciences are characterized by the combination of careful empirical investigation with the application of mathematics (one of reason’s most powerful tools), which can yield formulas that correspond to causal relations in the world, as demonstrated magisterially in Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica. Modernism can be broken down roughly into two periods. The phi-

losophers Descartes, Locke and later Kant (among others) were primary contributors to early modernism, which was distinguished by philosophi- cal explorations based on the above assumptions, as well as on continuing adherence to some measure of religious faith, usually Christian (Hume would be the main exception).

However, by the middle of the 1800s, late modernism was developing as a result of four new, largely interrelated, intellectual trends. The most sig- nificant for our purposes was the widespread secularization that began to appear in the West during this period. As with any complex and controver-

16 Psychology and Christianity : Five Views

sial concept, understandings of secularism differ. According to theistic phi- losopher Charles Taylor (2007), there are three facets: (1) the exclusion of religious discourse from the public square, including government and sci- ence; (2) the reduction in religious belief and practice; and (3) the increased viability of other worldview options. Smith (2003) argues that secularization has been nothing short of a revolution, promoted by an avid, growing in- tellectual elite, who perceived current Christian attitudes and beliefs as regressive (i.e., characterized by censorship, moral repression, and anti- evolution and anti-intellectualist sentiments). It was also fostered by many cultural and psychological factors, like the theory of evolution, positivism, common-sense realism, a new economic power-class, changing academic standards, and anti-Catholicism and division among Protestant leaders.

As a result of such dynamics, explicitly religious speech, values and norms were gradually evacuated from public discourse and relegated to religious institutions and the private sphere. This process is by no means complete, and is still being contested, particularly in the southeastern United States. However, by most accounts, the revolution has been over for many decades (with a few “faith-based” qualifications) in the centers of intellectual and therapeutic power in the West—that is, in its educational, government, medical, social welfare, mental health and media institutions (Marsden, 1994; Smith, 2003; Taylor, 2007).

Evidence that the revolution is over abounds. For over a century, the majority of the West’s most influential authors, thinkers, scientists and celebrities have not been religious, and of those who have been, their reli- gion has generally not been public. On the contrary, many of the shapers of Western culture over the past hundred years have publicly dispar aged traditional religious perspectives (e.g., Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, H. G. Wells, John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins). Perhaps the most telling example of this revolution is the shift of European and American institutions of higher learning, which have so markedly moved from their Judeo-Christian origins to secular sensibilities. Institution by institution, colleges and universities have shed their original commitments to glorify- ing Christ and proclaiming the Christian gospel to embrace a secularized definition of mission and identity (Marsden, 1994; Smith, 2003).

Doubtless, some secondary benefits have accrued in Western culture