Author: Johan (Ian) P. Verseveldt

Journal of Psychology and Christianity, Vol. 25(3), Fall 2006, pp. 216-225

Abstract:

This article examines the philosophical presuppositions of EFCT using Browning’s (1987) Christian integrative model. After an introduction of Browning’s model and a brief synopsis of EFCT, the article focuses ont hree of Browning’s integration questions as they relate to EFCT: What does the theory claim as the ultimate meaning and foundation of life?, What does the theory morally obligate us to do?, and What are the fundamental needs and tendencies that this theory purports are foundational to psychological health and survival? These questions are then applied to EFCT.

Author: Worthington, Everett L., Jr.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 25 (2), Sum 2006, pp. 155-168

Abstract:

My thesis is that findings from social scientific research can be a valid tool that theologians can use to make stronger theological arguments. I use experimental and basic-research studies of forgiveness and justice to illustrate this thesis. To illustrate, I address a theological issue—N. T. Wright’s (1997) version of the controversial reinterpretation of the doctrine of justification by grace appropriated by faith, which is known as the New Perspective on Paul. Experimental psychology can thus bolster theological arguments as do analysis of biblical texts, analysis of Hebrew and Greek language and linguistics, understanding of historical contexts (including the history of Israel, the church, and surrounding area), conversations with philosophers, theologians, and public intellectuals across situations and time, and even clinical theory.

Author: Roberts, Robert C.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 25(2), Sum 2006, pp. 127-136

Abstract:

Psychologists by definition are people concerned with how to help others live well. As such, they are purveyors of wisdom. In the days of Hellenistic philosophy, the psychologists were all philosophers. No one should think that psychology or psychotherapy is a recent phenomenon. Christianity came into a world well-populated with psychotherapies. This paper reviews Paul’s approach to wisdom as described in his first letter to the Corinthians. When the distinctiveness of this Christian wisdom is ignored, lost, or sidelined, the wisdom psychotherapists pass along to hurting people will not nurture or produce Christian character, but some other kind. The article concludes with an example of the process regarding forgiveness in the work of Lewis Smedes.

Authors: Looy, Heather; Reimer, Kevin; Seybold, Kevin

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 24(2), Sum 2005, pp. 101-104

Abstract:

Scientific studies of religion often lead to reductive, materialist explanations for religious phenomena. Yet this reduction is not necessary. Religion is a multi-leveled reality, and any particular definition or method of study can capture only some aspects. Science cannot be used to prove God’s existence or reveal God’s nature, but it can illuminate the embodied and embedded character of religion; how it is expressed within and through our bodies, over history, and within our communities. Rather than reduction, science provides various points of entry or perspectives on religion, and ultimately cannot ever fully capture its complex, communal, dynamic, and transcendent character.

Author: Reimer, Kevin

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 24(2), Sum 2005, pp. 130-139

Abstract:

L’Arche is a unique Christian community embracing the developmentally disabled and their caregiver assistants, providing a cognitively diverse context for the study of religious experience. This article considers the religious significance of a simple candle ritual in L’Arche. Based on Hutchins’ (1995) theory of distributed cognition, it is argued that problem-solving and meaning in religion are less dependent upon cognitive capacities of individual agents and more related to how knowledge is attributed to artifacts that serve as external scaffolds. To differentiate this discussion from constructivist philosophy, religious experience and cognition are considered on the basis of public language that exerts downward selection influence upon individual brains. The article concludes with methodological considerations in the study of semantically distributed cognitions relevant to the candle ritual and L’Arche religious experience.

Authors: Montgomery, Derek E.; Sandberg, Erika; Zimmerman, Alissa

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 24(1), Spr 2005, pp. 3-12

Abstract:

College students were asked to judge whether two protagonists with different beliefs were equally right or whether one could be more right than the other one. The beliefs were either about religious phenomena (e.g., whether God is all-knowing) or natural phenomena (e.g., scientific claims about social and physical occurrences). In Experiment 1, the different beliefs were conflicting, but not strictly contradictory, and in Experiment 2, they were explicitly contradictory. In both studies participants generally assumed that opposing beliefs about the natural world could differ in veracity. However, significant increases in relativistic judgments (ps < .05) occurred for competing religious claims as participants maintained that conflicting or contradictory religious beliefs were equally true. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Authors: Stanton, Mark; Tisdale, Theresa C.; Welsh, Robert K.; Houskamp, Beth M.; Tavegia, Bethany

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(4), Win 2004, pp. 313-319

Abstract:

The Azusa Pacific University (APU) PsyD provides a practitioner-scholar education in clinical psychology with an emphasis in family psychology. The reciprocal relationship between the science and professional practice of psychology is evident in both the clinical and research training offered at APU. In this article, the program’s research philosophy and education sequence are detailed. Unique features of the APU PsyD include the possibility for six methodological options for the clinical dissertation and the provision of individual and group mentoring of students by faculty. The philosophical foundation and course sequence of the program are described and examples of collaborative efforts between students and faculty are provided. The article includes a student perspective on the APU PsyD research experience.

Author: Strawn, Brad D.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23 (2), Sum 2004, pp. 140-148

Abstract:

The present article suggests three sins of omission in the clinical integration literature and illustrates an alternative approach with a Wesleyan, theology-directed clinical integration. A Wesleyan informed psychotherapy will include six presuppositions. First, it will take seriously the immanence of God. Second, its focus will be healing and not just cure. Third, it will take a holistic approach to the brain and body. Fourth, it will direct its interventions at the core motivational dispositions of persons. Fifth, it will emphasize the relational embeddedness of humanity, and finally, it will personify a telos of love. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy will be presented as a form of therapy that encompasses these six presuppositions and clinical material will be used to illustrate the therapeutic process.