There is within the Christian community a number of people who believe that psychology is heresy because it is not built upon Biblical principles. Here I want to briefly discuss my personal theology of the role of the Bible and say how I believe it works within psychotherapy.
During college I moved away from a purely Biblical perspective on faith. I realized that there was a lot of wisdom to be gained from rational thinking and philosophy. But now that I am in seminary I have returned to the Bible as the locus of my faith in God because I realize that rational thought needs to be built upon the structure of Biblical principles.
The Bible was not written for the culture we find ourselves in today. That causes frustration for many readers who truly want to apply the Bible to their current situation. But I believe that the Bible does have many things to say about our lives today. The Bible "is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
I believe that psychology teaches us ways to interpret the Bible to find a culturally relevant way of life. For example, the Bible teaches us that God is our Father and psychology has shown us that parents are the primary shaping force in our lives and therefore seeing God as our Father can allow us to reshape our conceptions of our early life experiences. Another example is that the Bible tells us many things about who we are (i.e. child of God) which are useful for use as a better form of self-talk.
For me, the Bible is not a didactic moral code but a living narrative which those of us who believe today join. The Bible is the story of God's working for the salvation of His people, and that story continues with us today. Seeing the Bible as a narrative, rather than a blueprint for living, allows us to rethink our identities and see ourselves as descendants of the believers who, though they were from a different culture, have something to say about human nature that transcends culture.
3 comments:
someone once said that the bible is HIS-story and my life is MY-story. as i look into history to understand the mystery of god in me and me in him [ie, jesus!], i find myself in HIS-story again.
one of my favouraite books is 'the story we find ourselves in' by brian d maclaren [of new kind of christian fame]. it is the second book in the series and is i think the best bible overview i have ever read. a must read for anyone looking to the bible and indeed life as 'narrative' - we write with HIM and the output is worship.
...and maybe even the story of healing for our damaged selves?
In my own attempts to understand psychology in a biblical framework I have given a lot of thought to Proverbs and to the parables of Jesus. Both gave bits of advice which we would call "common sense" or "good psychology" such as "Don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough worries of its own." That's an insight common to all people, Christian or not. In scripture, God doesn't discount such gems concerning human behavior. Instead He incorporates them into the overarching story of redemption.
I'm new to the Christian blogosphere and came across your site in a blog search using "bible" and "psychology" as key words. Interesting who you discover is "out there" in the big wide world!
I'm glad you were able to find my blog, Ted. I agree that the Bible is full of nuggets that are good for psychology. But I would add, and you might have been touching on this, that the entire Bible is instructive in how we should live, which is psychology. Just as Rob said, part of what we learn from the Bible is that we are part of a bigger picture of God's people. Keeping that in mind allows us to avoid the self-centeredness that seems to be quite prevalent nowadays. I'm glad to hear your interest in psychology and the Bible and I hope that you continue to visit.
Post a Comment