In the video lectures for this module, Dr. Worthington and Dr. McMinn
discuss different evangelical approaches to addresses psychological
phenomena. Dr. Worthington uses the levels of explanation approach to
discuss forgiveness. To demonstrate this approach, he breaks down the
meaning of forgiveness as a response to injustice and gives the audience
a scenario where he presents four alternatives in relation to how
forgiveness is viewed, asking people to vote on the alternative they agree
with; subsequently, he has the audience try to convince the person next
to them that their alternative is incorrect, leading to heavy discussion.
Through this scenario, he shows how there is no one right answer to how
forgiveness can be described and embraced, but rather there are several
alternatives that can be justified and function together, each offering an
answer to the piece of the holistic puzzle. The idea that he emphasizes is
that while the Bible states we should forgive others, Scripture does not
provide answers as to how to go about forgiving others; that is where
psychological science comes in because it can help offer forgiveness
methods that complement Scriptural teachings. He concludes by stating
that injustice can be addressed in many different ways (Worthington).
Dr. McMinn utilizes an integration approach to discuss positive psychology
and the church. He describes science as a virtue and focuses on positive
emotion that comes from mental health, not just the negative associations
and maladies that require treatment. In order to demonstrate these
concepts, Mr. McMinn uses anecdotal references—for example, he
compares different boardgame goals as reflective of societal values and
the meaning of success. Furthermore, he compares contemporary values
with marketplace values and more virtuous ones from the past with
eulogy values; the latter are what he describes as ‘tilos,’ a focus on
selfless virtues that require the help of the Church for promotion. In this
way, Dr. McMinn describes the importance of relying on Christianity to lay
the foundation for an approach to scientific research, describing
integration. He further expands on the integration of science to promote
Christian values by describing how virtues such as forgiveness bring about
noted health benefits (McMinn).
What I learned about the distinction of these two approaches through
these lectures is that the integration approach focuses on placing the
Church as the starting point leading to scientific research that supports
Scriptural teachings and an emphasis on virtuous living. Through virtuous
living, science demonstrates that health benefits arise. Meanwhile, the
levels of explanation approach can yield similar results, but through a
different methodology/framework. In this approach, faith and science are
more dichotomous in that they complement each other as opposed to one
supplementing the other. Embracing virtues such as forgiveness are in
line with Scriptural teachings because they tell us to forgive; however,
they do not necessarily provide the answer as to how or why and that is
where scientific methods come in because research shows that
rumination/unforgiveness can lead to psychosomatic disorders and other
maladies, whereas forgiveness results in better overall health. It is not
always the case where both approaches lead to similar answers because
of the difference in their methods, but in the case of the argument for
virtuous living, the conclusions are similar, justified by both faith and
science (McMinn, Worthington).
3
References
Worthington, E. “Why you should forgive and how to do it.” The Table
Conference
McMinn, M. “The science of virtue: Why positive psychology matters to the
church.” Westmont College
