The Scope of Christian Psychology

Posted on October 16, 2007

For a psychology and model of human change to be Christian, it must pay homage to the scope of soul-care found in God’s Word. Eric Johnson, the director of the Society for Christian Psychology, has recently published a thick tome, Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal (IVP, 2007). In chapter one of this work, Johnson surveys the scope of soul-care in the Bible with these statements:
1. God is good. “he is the plenitude of reality, beauty, greatness, and goodness, and so is the source of all true happiness and aid.” (p. 43)
2. “Flowing from his good character is God’s active care for the psychospiritual well-being of his people.” (p. 44)
3. Jesus’ work on the cross is, “the most important soul-healing event of all time…” Our forgiveness also has subjective or experiential benefits. Therefore, salvation is soul-healing in that “the indwelling Holy Spirit produces…peace, along with other soul-fulfilling states of mind and traits of character…” (p. 46)
4. The christian’s life goal is the maturing into the likeness of Christ and taking on His virtues and “affective dispositions.” (p. 47)
5. “Christian soul-healing has an inter-human dimension.” Soul-care in the Bible is not merely a “me-and-God” activity. Biblical soul-care necessitates a movement toward interpersonal healing and reconciliation of broken shalom.
6. Self soul-care is encouraged as well as the responsibility of caring for the souls of others

Eric’s brief survey reminds us of our foundation for human change and growth must be founded on multiple truthes and not just one aspect of the biblical text. Consider what happens if we build models of change on only one of these 6 statements. If we only focus on #5, we might well understand how to help individuals resolve differences with others. However, we might then neglect that it is the power of God to change and not our human agency. If we only focus on #3, we might well understand the power of the Cross to change others but then neglect the call to explore how we develop and mature as individuals within community.

While Christian psychology seeks to be faithful to the scope of biblical soul-care, Eric reminds us that the bible is general in its description of how (method) we change. For Christian psychology to mature into a practical aid in human growth, it will need to build on this foundation and develop detailed and empirically based “treatments” for human problems-in-living.

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