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What is a Christian Psychology?

ERIC L. JOHNSON, PH.D.

T he term “Christian psychology” has been used in a variety of ways to refer to things that are in some cases opposed to each other. For example, to some it refers simply to the work of any Christian engaged in the science or practice of psychology; to others it is a derogatory label applied to the work of Christians who compromise their faith by attempting to integrate it with modern psychology. The Society for Christian Psychology is trying to advance a specific understanding of the term (as the reader will see in its mission statement). B ut even the members of the SCP do not entirely agree about what a Christian psychology is. So, it would be presumptuous for anyone to think he or she could provide the authoritative definition of Christian psychology. This article, then, should be seen as simply one attempt to delineate something of what a Christian psychology might be.

The Science of Psychology Most people today understand psychology to be a science, and that is assumed by the SCP. But what is a science? A broad definition would be that a science is an intellectual discipline with its own rules and activities for engaging in a systematic, careful enquiry into a particular object of study. In the case of psychology, the object of study is individual human beings. Its activities include, along with other sciences: research, theory-building, and education and publication (the cultural dissemination of its findings and conclusions), but psychology also includes some applied activities, for example, assessment and the care of souls. All sciences are conducted within and guided by a worldview, a set of foundational assumptions regarding reality (Naugle, 2002; what Watson, 1993, calls a Christian ideological surround). Because of the complexity of individual human beings, worldview assumptions regarding human beings will not all be the same among various well-developed, but distinct intellectual communities, resulting then in different versions of psychology. Christian psychology, then, is that version of the science and practice of psychology grounded in a Christian worldview.

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