Integrating Christian Faith and Psychology in Counseling

Introduction

Since the mid-1970s, a serious debate over the integration of Christianity and psychology has developed among Christian counselors. The integration movement arose as a reaction to psychology being accepted within pastoral counseling without criticism from a Christian perspective. Efforts to integrate psychology with Christian faith gained momentum over the following two decades, particularly after Jay Adams refused to include psychology within pastoral care (Kim, 2004). Attempting to achieve this integration is a demanding undertaking, given the different assumptions and methods of the two academic disciplines.

According to Alan C. Tjeltveit (2012), the difficult questions that arise when one takes both psychology and Christian faith seriously must be confronted directly. The areas of conflict between the two require particular attention. There is a need to understand what psychologists assume — including their metaphysical and empirical assumptions — and then to consider how psychology might be envisioned differently using the same data, interpreted in ways consistent with a Christian understanding (p. 20).

This argument shares similarities with philosophical positions presented at the fourth Mind of Christ Conference (Santrac, 2011).

Classical Greek Dualism and the Psychology–Theology Divide

Classical Greek dualism posits the existence of both a spiritual and a physical realm, separating body from soul (Pojman, 1999). Working from this framework, philosophers developed only two broad categories for understanding humanity, and this binary creates significant problems. If physical issues such as medicine are placed entirely within the material realm, then there is no need to consider morality in relation to them (Polkinghorne, 1998, p. 60). Conversely, the spiritual realm was reserved for matters that do not concern the material or mental world.

Social sciences, including psychology, have traditionally been classified under the spiritual realm within this dualistic framework. This classification has persisted into the modern world. Because psychology is loosely grouped with the spiritual realm, Christians have continued to criticize it. From a Christian standpoint, psychology does not meet the standards of Christian doctrine and cannot be held to be true and inerrant. Christians have therefore tended to reject psychology in favor of the Bible, which they regard as authoritative in the spiritual dimension. However, psychology does not properly belong to the spiritual dimension. The two fields overlap but remain very different disciplines (McCarron, 2004).

Compared to theology, psychology is an entirely separate field. If a person entered a church claiming expertise in group dynamics, that alone would not make him a theologian. His findings might supplement what a theologian says, but they would not replace theological authority. When religion adopts a dichotomous framework — separating itself from other fields of knowledge in the same way that Greek philosophy separated matter from spirit — it damages the relationship between God and the world (Jones, 1996, p. 152). The divine has a unique nature, but it is not removed from all of life. Although psychology intersects with theology, it cannot simply be treated as identical to it.

Written and Spoken Revelation

The Bible is fundamentally concerned with how one relates to God and how one relates to other people. It does not, however, claim to contain the complete truth about every dimension of human life and relationships. For example, no formal group theory appears within its pages. This point relates to what is sometimes called the two-book theory: the view that God communicates through a written revelation — the Bible — and also through a spoken revelation, which is the created world. The two should be consistent with each other, and when they appear to conflict, the conflict reflects limitations in human understanding rather than a genuine contradiction (Carter & Narramore, 1979, p. 13).

The apostle Paul addressed this topic in his letter to the church in Rome approximately two thousand years ago. Romans 1:20 (King James Version) states that God has made his existence and attributes evident through creation, rendering all people accountable to him for the truth — whether or not they have access to the written scriptures. All true knowledge, in this view, originates with God and should ultimately bring glory to him (McCarron, 2004).

Some Christians oppose psychology on the grounds that, before figures such as Maslow and Freud appeared, people managed well using only the Bible. From this basis, they argue that nothing should be added to the Bible in counseling, sometimes going so far as to claim that the insights of counseling merely repeat what Scripture has already stated. This argument asserts biblical sufficiency for counseling and thereby defeats itself by acknowledging that counseling insights are consistent with Scripture. A related question is worth asking: how did Christians counsel one another before the Bible was widely available? The answer is that they relied on what they understood of God through creation — the general revelation of God's character, of human nature, and of truth. It is evident that God has ordered the universe so that it reflects his truth. God also created human beings with the capacity to observe the world and draw understanding from it. Because psychology is the study of human beings and their behavior, it can meaningfully inform the counseling of a person as long as its findings remain consistent with Scripture (McCarron, 2004).

Conclusion

When drawing on psychology, a great deal of wisdom is required. There are real pitfalls in the field, and discernment is necessary to identify what can be appropriately incorporated into counseling practice (McCarron, 2004). At its core, human psychological distress stems from separation from God, other people, the self, and nature. God's plan to redeem humanity addresses this fundamental pathology. God has provided the ultimate model for counseling in the person of Jesus Christ, who takes preeminence in the restoration process.

Counseling is therefore understood as a two-stage process in which evangelism and sanctification are the central activities. In the evangelism stage, Christian counselors guide clients through the foundational understanding of human personality in relation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the sanctification stage, clients are helped to grow and to become more like Christ. Christian counseling is, in this sense, a process of personal growth oriented entirely toward the gospel. Education and development remain the primary pillars of Christian counseling (Kim, 2004).

References

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