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Summary 4 - Psychology And Christianity Booklet
About Christians
Integration of Spiritualty and Counseling (Liberty University)
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Running heading: INTEGRATED APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY AND CHRISTIANITY 1
A Review of Entwistle's Text:
Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity
Stephen N Jackson
Liberty University Online
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Running heading: INTEGRATED APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY AND CHRISTIANITY 2
Integrated Approach to Psychology and Christianity
Summary
David Entwistle book “Integrative to Psychology and Christianity,” (2010) talks about
the integration of psychology and theology as well as the study of God, religious faith, and
spirituality in reference to psychology. Entwistle points out that psychology is one of several
academic disciplines that attempt to understand human behavior. We also see that it has many
sub disciplines and a multiplicity of methodologies and perspective that will give us some type
of tool to explore various facets of what it means to be human. On the other worldview,
“Christian theology is a branch of inquiry that among other things seeks to understand what it
means to be human.” (p.3)They both provide meaningful perspectives through which we are
studying and to “understand the human behavior.” (p. 3)
The foundation of Entwistle writing is for us to gain a more comprehensively view point
of human nature. By integrating them both, Entwistle says, by “Weaving together perspective
from psychology and Christian theology,” (p. 3) He also points out that this “it can help us to
understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could with either perspective alone.” (p.
3) He communicates that several subdisciples of psychology may be relevant to the experience
of the worshipers at Spirit Filled Church of Our Lord Jesus. In many ways we see that the
foundations of science were paved in part by a Christian worldviews that allow for the universe
to be seen as an orderly place in which laws could describe the regularities found within it, based
on the premise that the world was created by a powerful, rational and personal being. Entwistle
(2010) suggest, ‘A historical survey would suggest that they have both at various times over the
past several centuries.” (p. 33)
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In this chapter, Entwistle (2010) discusses a dialogue between psychology and
Christianity is a multifaceted one shaped by historical interactions and tensions between science
and Christianity, and developed in response to particular cultural and ecclesiastical concerns. (p.
51) We also see that worldview are learned more than they are chosen, and our ability to reflect
on them is limited. Entwistle discusses some major worldviews which includes animism,
polytheism, pantheism, theism, modernism, and syncretism “in which elements from disparate
worldview are merged into one worldview.” (p. 67) There is a desire to know and understand
God’s world is a God given capacity, but the pursuit of knowledge is affected by worldviews,
human finitude, human frailty, individual and communal sin, assumption, methodological
limitations, and availability of data, among other things.
Entwistle brings to light the relationship between psychology and theology. There’s a
concerned as he mention with models based on models. He says, “That is models of how to
understand the model of psychology and the model of psychology and the model of theology that
a theology has constructed, and the realities that they represent.” (p. 153) He also discusses five
models for various ways of relating psychology and theology were proposed and comparisons
were made to other models that have been proposed. These models are Enemies, Spies,
Colonialists, Neutral Parties and Allies as Subjects of One Sovereign. (p. 154)
Concrete Responses
Entwistle list five models of Disciplinary relationships of integrationists. The first is
Enemies-Allegiance to a worldview that excludes either religious belief or the insights of human
reason. Spies-Pragmatic desire to use any means to aid human well-being, they either lack deep
commitment to any religious system, have little investment in religious doctrine, or tend to
water down doctrine in favor of promoting their vision of temporal well-being. The next one is
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Colonialists-Primary allegiance to a religious system that accepts the importance of Christian
doctrine and behavior; appropriation of psychological methods or findings that can illustrate or
buttress the claims of their theological proclamation.
Neutral Parties-Accumulation of knowledge and the protection of disciplinary
sovereignty. They tend to accept the modernist division of knowledge into discrete disciplines
that are relatively autonomous. And lastly Allies- Recognition that human purpose is ultimately
expressed when we see ourselves in proper relationship to God.
This model discerns the underlying unity of truth and using if for Godly ends are the
Allies as Subject of One Sovereign model. He claimed that “God gave birth to the subject of
psychology when he created human being.” Psychology and theology are His subject, both in
the sense that He is sovereign over them and that they should serve His ends. Both psychology
and theology rightly understand, are thus seen as allies, both of which are subject of One
Sovereign God.
Refection
Entwistle book has its positive and negative aspects. He makes it very clear about the
worldviews affect. Many obstacles can impede our ability to integrate psychology and
Christianity. There are difficulty of developing expertise in both psychology and theology, and
explored some options for improving dual disciplinary competence.
Farnsworth proposed that disciplinary involves discovery, verification, and relation. And
there is the theology of Maslow, Rogers and Ben-Shahar was examined using this framework.
When we turn attention to psychotherapy, we see that integration must take into account ethical
and professional issues, and addressed some potential advantages and concerns about religiously
based interventions. We now look at the road ahead and how integration must be a shared
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responsibility that results in personal transformation, not just theoretical knowledge, which all
things may be done for the glory of Christ.
Action
It is important to have the ability to integrate psychology and Christianity in counseling. I
will still utilize and depend upon prayer and scriptures to bring change in my client’s lives. Also
keeping the relationship between psychology and theology and implementing the five models.
But I see myself as Colonialists, would attempt to reform psychology by filtering secular
concepts through religious categories (thus rejecting the psychology viewpoint on this issue), or
by attempting to reorient the field of psychology by infusing it with Christian values.
Reference
Entwistle, D. N. (2010). Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity: An
introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models of integration.
