Psychology and Christianity - Research Paper Example

Psychology and Christianity Introduction The book introduces the world issues and foundations of philosophy that relates psychology and theology (Entwistle 2010). The book integrates literature and gives a survey of the five paradigms of the relationship between Christianity and psychology. Entwistle, the author formulates the integration of psychology and Christianity by featuring the personal views by integrating the work of famous researchers. At the end of each chapter, there are questions to help the reader to do an evaluation, and it is a good book for students in psychology and social sciences. The book can also assist pastors, counsellors, psychologists and others in mentoring and also provides a roadmap for the readers to understand and appreciate Christian values and approaches. The book offers a variety of practical applications and theoretical insights and is a mentor to many readers (Entwistle 2010). David Entwistle provides an integrated and readable material that is easy to understand and apply in the real life situation. Anybody interested in teaching Christianity and psychology can use the book. Entwistle is an author, with a wide knowledge of Christian values and psychological issues; thus his ideas have a good flow. The book has a comprehensive review of the modern research and exercises to help nurture students in Christianity and psychology. The author is a licenced psychologist and worked in the psychotherapy department and outpatient departments (Entwistle 2010). He likes conducting research on the way patients cope with chronic medical conditions. The majority of people view psychology and theology as two opposing perspectives of thinking about issues of life and the experiences that human beings go through. In this book, the author describes theology as Jerusalem and psychology as Athens, in which psychology employs empirical study methods. Theology studies the interpretations of God’s word by human beings. Entwistle brings the two different ways together and how the two relate to human behaviour. The author talks about the worldviews as a window through which humans view the world and includes the beliefs and assumptions of the world's events. A distorted world view distorts one way of thinking, which makes it difficult to relate theology and psychology. Many people do not know the worldviews, which they hold, but Entwistle gives a discussion of five paradigms for integration (Entwistle 2010). One of the paradigms is enemies representing secular and Christian combatants, who think there cannot be any reconciliation between theology ant psychologies. The other one is the spies, who can be domestic or foreign and pay their allegiance to one way of thought and can get ideas from the other. There are colonialists interested in territories, which they did not discover themselves. The other one is the neutral parties, who just want to mind their own business and stay in their land. Lastly, there are the allies, who hold the belief that psychology and theology belong to God. In conclusion, Entwistle describes God's two books based on Bacon's work and that sometimes science and theology never match. His book ends with a wise sentence that affirms that God is the author of the truth. "We will sometimes have to live with ambiguity and uncertainty, but we affirm that God is the author of all truth…" (Entwistle, 2010, 247). Concrete Responses When I first read this book, I remembered the sad incident when I lost my niece as she was being referred to a specialised hospital. The author says that God is the author of all, triggered the sad incidents and made me take some time and ask myself a question. "What is death and how does it happen?" I did not know whether to believe in science or theology as it was confusing my mind. Science says that once you are unable to breathe in the oxygen your brain cells die, and the heart stops pumping blood denying all the organs the vital commodity. Theology argues that it is God harvesting and taking what belongs to Him. One main question that came in my mind is why God should harvest a young child when there are mature human beings some as old as seventy years. In the real sense, human beings harvest only the mature crop and not the young, which left me wondering what nature is. According Entwistle (2010), Entwistle, tries to connect and integrate theology and psychology and tries to reconcile them but in the actual sense they are two different areas with different ideologies. In my case, I could not connect the two disciplines as their views are quite different and the argument in each contradicts the other. Theology could not answer my questions fully but only left me angry with the creator. Many of my questions do not have the theological answer, as I keep asking myself, why it had to happen to the young one, when there are so many old people in the world. Psychology provided some relief as through some counselling I was able to come to terms with the tragedy. Reflection According to Entwistle's argument, in his book, it is possible to integrate theology and psychology, and relate them (Entwistle 2010). The two disciplines have different views about life, in which theology associates life with one maker and leans on him for solutions to life challenges. On the other hand, psychology has a different view of life and peoples' characters and uses the knowledge of science to explain many issues. For example in my case, theology will encourage me that it is God who gives and God is the one who takes. However, psychology will give me various stages of grieving to come to term with the loss. There is a high chance that theology and psychology cannot relate to one another, as their views of life are very different. The author's last argument that science and theology will never match is a good argument as it make sense (Entwistle 2010). Science explains how and why things are the way they are by providing evidence, but theology argues that everything originated from one Supreme Being. There is no room for questioning theory as it is in science, which leaves people with a lot of questions. The author's paradigms form the most interesting part of the book, as he describes the exact characters that exist in the world. Individuals belong to one of the five parades highlighted by the author of the book and hold to the stated beliefs. It is quite difficult for somebody to hold to two different paradigms at the same time. Entwistle is both a theologian and a psychologist, something that is quite amazing; at the way, he can believe in the two ideologies at the same time. Action After reading the book, I was surprised at how the author relates the two contrasting areas of theology and psychology. Integrating the two and relating their ideas was quite incredible, something that changed part of my way of thinking. The five paradigms of individuals fascinated me since I can now explain people's actions and behaviour in relation to them. Once you categorise people depending on their views, it becomes easier to handle them during counselling sessions. The relationship between theology and psychology helped me change my perception the two cannot integrated. I will now refer and relate the two anytime I have some counselling sessions with my clients, which I believe will have a bigger impact. The author says that God is the author of all truth, which I have the conviction that it is true as there are issues I cannot understand or change. Such issues belong to God and the idea will also improve my counselling sessions with my clients. I will enrol for a certificate course in psychological and theological counselling to improve my professional qualifications and help my counselling clients to appreciate life. I will also share my understanding of the relationship between theology and psychology with the others and encourage them to read the book. Reference Entwistle, D. N. (2010). Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity (2nd ed.). Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. ISBN: 9781556359446. Read More