When I was a psychology student and in my “learn everything about Christianity” phase, I discovered a book called “The Integration of Psychology and Theology”. Then I forgot to ever read it. By the time I eventually started reading the book, it logically shouldn’t have meant anything to me. But I found value in how the book was written and how it approached both topics.
Integration… does exactly what you would expect; it talks about why people perceive conflicts between psychology and theology, and whether these conflicts can be overcome. It was written by the Rosemead School of Psychology, an APA-accredited University which aims “to train clinical psychologists from a Christian perspective”. The book lays out four potential ways in which someone can view psychology and theology:
- Psychology and theology are in direct and irreconcilable conflict, so one must eventually override the other.
- Both fields appear to have common ground because psychology is a subset of theology.
- Psychology and theology are like two trains on separate tracks, which don’t need to interact or to confront each other.
- Psychology and theology are separately valuable fields which have the potential to work together based on their underlying principles (This is the book’s main argument).
Sinead Harold 