Jim Guineee said
> Your typical Christian psychologist likely accepts as much of
>psychology as s/he can, until it contradicts with her/his religious beliefs.
>
This must make me (and many others) atypical then. I have listed Ian
Barbour's 4 approaches to the science-religion dialogue before (see
his book "religion and Science"). But for completeness:
1) Conflict (one must be wrong)
2) Independence (two separate approaches)
3) Dialogue (we should talk, and find where we agree and disagree)
4) Integration (science explains religion, or religion explains science)
There are religious folks and secular folks who take each position.
And of course, people in some positions think people in the others
are foolish.
But I have found the categories by Richard Neibuhr (from his book
Christ and Culture) to be more helpful lately. His categories are:
Christ against Culture: Those who think the two are always opposed.
Christ of Culture: those who take the values of culture as basic and
try to find them in Christianity.
Christ above Culture: those who try to synthesize cultural values
with Christian theology/anthropology
Christ and Culture in Paradox: those who live in and with the
tension and try to understand it
Christ the Transformer of Culture: those who try "to convert the values
and goals of secular culture into the service of the kingdom of God."
I suspect there are similar differences of approach in other
religions. So, there is NOT a "typical Christian" position on these
things. There likely is a typical Christian fundamentalist position:
Christ against Culture.
Hanging around Lutherans (and Benedictine monks) has made me more a
Christ and Culture in Paradox type. This ends up making me suspect
to both fundamentalists and secularists. Which is a nice place to be.
Folks in each of these positions are likely to view sin, guilt, etc.
and its relationship to psychology in different ways.
-Chuck
--
- Chuck Huff; 507.646.3169; http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/
- Psychology Department, St.Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
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