PSYCHOLOGY AND CHRISTIANITY TENSION 1
Psychology and Christianity Tension
Author
Affiliation
Author Note
No known conflict of interest exists concerning this paper.
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Abstract
Psychology and Christianity are founded on different concepts that often conflict with each other
resulting in tension between them because they each disagree with what the other says. The
most significant reasons for the tension between religion and Christianity are based on the fact
that psychology is a science, while Christianity does not believe in scientific explanations for
various phenomena related to human behavior. The focus of psychology is on environmental
factors and how they affect human behavior, while Christianity explains human behavior through
the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Understanding the cause of tension between Christianity
and religion will play a significant role in helping establish ways through which the two can
possibly be integrated and work together to effectively meet physical and emotional human
needs. The integration of biblical scriptures and scientific concepts in understanding human
behavior requires further research to establish how best they can be integrated to help reduce the
tension between them.
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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Psychology and Christianity Tension ............................................................................................. 4
Why there is Tension between Psychology and Christianity.......................................................... 4
Tension Related to the Root of Psychology ................................................................................ 4
Tension Because of the Differences in the Basis upon which their Ideas are rooted ................. 5
Tension Caused by the Different Approaches to Meeting Human Needs .................................. 6
Tension about their Opinions on what Influences Human Behavior .......................................... 6
The tension arising from the differences in their information sources ....................................... 8
Tension Arises from how they view Each other ......................................................................... 9
Recommendation to Address the Tension ................................................................................. 10
References ..................................................................................................................................... 12
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Psychology and Christianity Tension
Psychology is a form of scientifically studying the mind to understand human thought
and behavior (McLeod, 2019). Christianity is a religion that involves understanding, believing,
and applying the doctrines of the Bible based on the life and teachings of Jesus (Christ Cox &
Thompson, 2022). The tension between psychology and Christianity arises from their
conflicting approaches to the different phenomena in human life, including those related to
human behavior. The Christian and psychological approaches conflict with each other,
especially when it comes to the understanding of human problems and how to solve them,
resulting in disagreements regarding how they view the relationship between the soul and the
spirit. Most Christians do not agree with psychology or trust it in how it explains different
phenomena because it is not based on faith and tries to explain human behavior in ways that go
against what the Bible teaches (Field, 2017). The conflict between the two arises because of the
conflicting ideologies concerning explaining human behavior. This paper presents a detailed
examination of why there exists tension between psychology and Christianity by integrating the
relevant Biblical and philosophical sources that explain the existing tension. The paper also
suggests a recommendation as to how the tension can be addressed.
Why there is Tension between Psychology and Christianity
Tension Related to the Root of Psychology
The history of psychology is rooted in ancient Greek Philosophy, and the idea was first
created and introduced by people who did not believe in God and worshipped many Gods
(Carter, 2019). This goes against Christian doctrines, with Christians believing that there is only
one God. This ideological difference is the reason why there is tension because many Christians
believe that psychology was created by people who did not believe in God; hence it cannot be
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part of their Christian practices. The tension between Christianity and psychology is because of
the differences in ideologies between the root of psychology and Christian teachings (Carter,
2019). This means that the dislike of psychology by the Christians is based on the Biblical
teachings in which they believe that since the root of psychology was not based on Christianity
and its ideas are not in line with the Christian doctrines, then psychology is wrong. As such,
Christians apply the biblical teachings about God and evil like the teachings of Jesus Christ in
Matthew 7:17, which says, " Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad
fruit” (New International Version, 1973, Matthew. 7:17). According to Christians, the fact that
the root of psychology was not based on Christian doctrines make it a bad thing hence they
believe that the root of psychology is bad making psychology itself bad.
Tension Because of the Differences in the Basis upon which their Ideas are rooted
According to Entwistle (2021), the tension between Christianity and Psychology is
influenced by the difference in the basis upon which their ideas are rooted, with Christianity
being based on faith and psychology being based on truth. There is a significant conflict
between theology and science, and with psychology establishing the truth in explaining human
behavior from scientific facts, the Christians believe it goes against the Christian doctrines where
it is believed that God is the creator of everything and science has nothing to do with how the
world is today and how people choose to behave. Christians do not agree with psychology
because it does not involve the spirit realm, as all the truths it portrays in its approaches to
explaining human behavior are based on scientific concepts which go against the religious
concepts of explaining human behavior. Christian doctrines are based on the teachings of the
Bible and the belief in God, while psychology is all about science without anything to do with
Biblical teachings. Christians believe in the Bible as the only truth, and when psychologists talk
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about scientific facts, they defy what the Bible teaches, which explains why there is significant
tension between the two.
Tension Caused by the Different Approaches to Meeting Human Needs
Another significant source of tension between psychology and Christianity is related to
the different approaches that they each take when it comes to meeting the needs of human beings
in terms of behavioral and emotional well-being (Entwistle, 2021). Psychologists believe that
scientific ways are the best in establishing how to meet the various human needs in terms of their
emotions and behavior, while Christians believe in having faith and looking up to God and the
scriptures in the search for meaning and achievement of human needs. According to Philippians
4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (New International Version, 1973, Philippians. 4:6).
In working towards achieving the human needs, Christians base their beliefs on the actions of
Jesus as their role model as he used the Holy Spirit to intervene in helping meet the human
needs. Psychology focuses on worldly ways of getting the emotional needs of human beings, but
Christianity emphasizes looking up to God and the Holy Spirit in seeking fulfillment and their
other emotional needs.
Tension about their Opinions on what Influences Human Behavior
Psychology is of the opinion that human behavior is influenced by environmental factors,
which means that human beings are not responsible for their actions (Entwistle, 2021). This
contributes to the tension between Christianity and psychology because, according to
Christianity, the environment does not play any role in determining what we do, and blaming it
on the environment is just a way of psychology making people fail to take accountability for
their actions by making them believe that they are not responsible for what they do. According
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to the Bible in Proverbs 23:7, “Or for as he thinks within himself, / so he is; or for as he puts on a
feast, / so he is” (New International Version, 1973, Proverbs. 23:7). This means that the actions
of human beings are as a result of their thoughts and it is who they are and has nothing to do with
the environment around. Therefore, Christianity disagrees with the explanation of human
behavior established by psychology because Christians believe that human actions are a result of
their choices and that they can choose to do right or wrong (Kováčik, 2020). Therefore, saying
that a person did something and blaming it on something else in the environment is wrong
because, according to Christianity, human beings always have the free will to make a choice as
to whether to be good or bad. God said that the choice is ours in choosing life or death, which
means we have a choice to be good or bad. This is established in Deuteronomy 30:15, which
says, "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction” (New International
Version, 1973, Deuteronomy. 30:15). This means that God has given us the option of choosing
what we want to do with our lives between good and evil. This means that nothing else can be
blamed for the choices we make but ourselves. This goes against the ideologies of psychology,
which is based on the belief that our actions are influenced by other factors in the environment
and that we do not do them out of our own will. There is a lot of tension between Christianity
and psychology because psychology makes a person who does something wrong appear to be a
victim, yet the Bible provides that we all have a choice between good and bad. The conditions
that we find ourselves in as human beings are a result of the choices that we make, which is why
Christianity encourages us to accept responsibility for our actions and make better choices to
better our conditions. However, this is in conflict with psychology, which believes that we are
not to blame for our current condition and that to change it for the better, the conditions in our
environment have to change.
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The tension arising from the differences in their information sources
Another significant reason why there is tension between psychology and religion is
because of the differences in the views they hold about human behavior in terms of how they
explain their approaches (Entwistle, 2021). Christianity uses biblical scriptures as a source of
information to explain why people conduct themselves the way they do, in terms of good and
bad, and they also believe that the scriptures provide the guidance that one needs in order to
change their behavior for the better (Entwistle, 2021). Psychology holds a different belief from
what Christianity does and is more focused on basing its conclusions on explaining certain
human behavior on observation of nature and reasoning to understand why people behave in a
certain way. Their focus is on ensuring that they change a negative aspect of what they observe
to be a significant influence on behavior and implement scientific interventions to change that
behavior to one that is desirable. The tension between Christianity and religion is such that each
holds ideas that oppose the other when it comes to explaining the behavior of human beings and
the interventions that can be used to address the behavior. For example, if you ask a Christian
about how to solve a certain behavioral problem, they will tell you to look up to God and pray
for the desired result, but if you consult a psychologist, they will inform you to look at the factors
in your surrounding that influence that behavior and eliminates them.
According to Field (2017), Christianity rejects any ideas that explain human behavior and
nature that are not related to what the Biblical scriptures say, and psychology rejects some
Christian concepts of explaining human behavior by stating that human behavior is influenced by
the environment and has nothing to do with the Bible. Kemp (2018) argues that the main reason
why there is tension between psychology and Christianity is because of the differences in their
perception of how the spirit and the soul relate, as established from their historical debates.
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Psychology is of the opinion that the soul is the aspect of a human being that is present for there
to be life in a body, while the spirit is the non-physical part of the human body which is
responsible for decision-making and reasoning (Weger & Wagemann, 2021). Informed by this
ideology, psychology argues that proper reasoning and decision making is only negatively
affected by factors in the environment of a person, and changing that environment or moving to
an environment that fosters good behavior are the only ways to address behavioral problems.
Christianity disagrees with this explanation of the soul and spirit as defined by psychology by
arguing that the mind, heart, and imagination, which are the inner life and experiences of a
person, are what form the soul, while the spirit is also about inner life in relation to God which is
about having faith, hope, love, and perseverance. The inner life of a person and how they relate
with God is what influences the person to be who they are in terms of behavior. This means that
if the inner person has a good relationship with God, then it is likely to influence them to have
positive behavior and experiences on the outside. This explains Christianity's argument that
nothing in the environment of a human being is to blame for the decisions and behavior they
choose because God gives them the free will to choose between what is right and what is wrong
(Kováčik, 2020). Therefore, Christians believe that undesirable behavior is avoidable when
someone ensures that they live by the Biblical teachings and respect its doctrines, while
psychology argues that there is no way one can avoid undesirable behavior if they are
surrounded by factors in their environment that cause them to engage in behavior that is not
desirable.
Tension Arises from how they view Each other
There is significant tension between Christianity and psychology because of how they
view each other. For instance, Christianity argues that while psychology plays a vital role in
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generating information that is useful in explaining the behavior of human beings, the truths that
are established by the Bible carry more authority than psychology will ever be able to have.
They argue that biblical scriptures speak to the heart of the troubles that people experience and
that God understands a lot about the problems that people experience, including psychological
disorders. This is established in Psalm 56:8, which says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You
have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (New
Living Translation, 1996, Psalm. 56:8). This presents reassurance to human beings that God
knows and understands our troubles. According to Christians, the biblical scriptures provide a
more detailed description and explanations of the problems that people experience, including
mental health disorders, and provide solutions to the problems by simply looking up to God and
seeking His help and guidance through the scriptures. This is unlike psychology which only
focuses on explaining human behavior through scientific research, which according to
Christians, is not sufficient or compelling enough to help people understand the cause and
solutions to their issues in the way the Biblical teachings do. The Bible has more influence
because it is more connected to the worldview assumption about human behavior compared to
the psychological concepts of explaining behavior.
Recommendation to Address the Tension
While there is a lot of tension between Christianity and psychology because of the
differences between them, as established above, the tension can be eased by the recognition of
some of the ideas that they have in common. They are both focused on helping people by
helping them heal from what is wrong in their lives. Christianity provides Biblical solutions, and
psychology provides scientific solutions, but they both work towards the same goal, which is to
help human beings address the challenges that they may be facing in their lives (Hathaway &
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Yarhouse, 2021). This is an indicator that if psychology and Christianity work together despite
their differences, they can learn from each other as they establish interventions to help meet the
needs of human beings when they are struggling with different challenges they encounter in their
lives.
Conclusion
The various perceptional differences between Christianity and psychology, as established
above, explain the reason why there is tension between the two. They hold different views of
each other based on differences in ideologies concerning human behavior. Understanding these
differences is instrumental in helping understand the role that they each play in assisting human
beings to address their emotional and behavioral challenges. Understanding how they each can
learn and benefit from each will be vital in helping facilitate the generation of desirable
outcomes when addressing human needs. Further research into the effective integration of
Christianity and Psychology is necessary to establish how well the two can work together.
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References
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Entwistle, D. N. (2021). Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity: An introduction
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