Teaching the History of Christian Psychology: Looking at the past, pointing to the future

1
Teaching the History of Christian
PsychologyLooking at the past, pointing to the
future

• Philip G. Monroe, PsyD
• Michael R. McFee, PsyD
• www.wisecounsel.wordpress.com

2
What is Christian psychology?

• Akin to asking what is psychology (what isnt
  within the scope of psychology?)
• We expect to have many permutations and
  modalities
• And yet we expect to have some distinctives
• High value of the biblical text in shaping the
  field and our gaze (different form early
  psychology of religion focus)
• Also connectivity to the stream of Christian
  thought (e.g., biblical theology/anthropology,
  ecclesiology, eschatology, philosophy, etc.)

3
Histories of psych. often contain

• Great men/celebrationist approach
• Start with the Cartesian dilemma and the
  beginnings of modernist divorcing fact and faith
  ending with James psychology of religion
• Modernist assumptions unchallenged though nods
  given to Kuhn and Gadamer
• Atomism, subfields emerging
• Primary emphasis on clinical psychology therapy
  as a field/industry (last 100 years)

4
What might be missing

• Key content areas
• Prior to Descartes?
• Pastoral care streams? Theologies of persons?
  Other disciplines? Fundamentalist-modernist
  debates
• Significant depth in area of critical thinking
  and epistemologies exposure and analysis
• Exposure to emerging models
• Key pedagogical methods
• Do students leave the course with the view to
  continued study and how it relates to their
  current practice as therapist?
• Real connections outside of the discipline

5
Missing content sufficient critical analysis of
modernism in psychology

• Criticism of Modernism, possible re-connections
  between faith and fact
• Modernist assumptions
• Fundamentalism/modernism debates
• Evangelical buy-in to modernism
• Postmodern criticisms and philosophy of science

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Anton Boisen

• Thus it is come to pass that the erstwhile Queen
  of the Sciences under whose protective care our
  colleges and even our state universities were
  founded and nurtured is today a monarch without a
  throne. The men of today worship at the shrine
  of science and give to it the same unthinking
  devotion which formerly was given to accepted
  religious dogmas. Meanwhile the term
  scientific has become a sort of shibboleth used
  commonly with only the haziest conception of its
  fundamental principles. 1
• 1 Boisen, A.T. (1936). The exploration of the
  inner world a study of mental disorder and
  religious experience. NY Harper Brothers, p.
  182.

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Responding to Descartes
8
Following Descartes, cont
9
Current Modern Dogma Division(thanks to
Descartes)

• Facts
• Objective
• Public
• Reason
• Reasonable
• Men
• Natures God
• Deist faith

• Values
• Subjective
• Private
• Emotion
• Irrational/faith
• Women and children
• Family God
• Pietism

So, where does theology/biblical studies fit?
10
Missing content theology of persons

• Theological anthropology
• Doctrine of sin/evil
• Doctrine of salvation and change
• Cornelius Plantinga
• Stanley Grenz

11
Missing content pastoral care traditions

• Early church
• Medieval church
• Puritan traditions
• American church traditions

12
Puritan Thought

• High water mark of Pastoral care!

Richard Sibbes
Richard Baxter
Christopher Love
13
Puritan Thought

• High View of Scripture
• Strong Doctrine of Sin
• Sophisticated view of Persons

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Puritan Care

• Affirmed the importance of the spiritual.
• Focused on the Gods ways in our lives.
• Studied the effects of melancholy.
• Validated the role and influence of the body on
  the mind and spirit.

15

• Spiritual Depression vs.
• Mental depression

16

• Melancholy is a dark and dusky humour which
  disturbs both the soul and the body, and the cure
  of it belongs to the physician rather than to
  the divine .... It is a humour that unfits a man
  for all sorts of services, but especially those
  that concern his soul, his spiritual estate, his
  everlasting condition. The melancholic person
  tries the physician, grieves the minister, wounds
  relations and makes sport for the Devil. ...
  Melancholy is a disease that works strange
  passions, strange imaginations and strange
  conclusions.
• Thomas Brooks (1669). A Cabinet of Jewels. Works
  v.3.

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Lewis on Baxter and Brooks

• In all this there is evidence enough of some
  sound psychology in the Puritan approach to
  mental depressions, especially in their real
  awareness of the distinction between mental and
  spiritual depression. It is not only amusing that
  Baxter includes into the written sermon quoted
  above several pages of medical 'remedies' and an
  amazing medley of antique potions and treatments
  it also shows an awareness that, as Thomas Brooks
  puts it in a footnote, 'The cure of melancholy
  belongs rather to the physician than to the
  divine, to Galen than to Paul',101 and that the
  foregoing counsel relates not so much to the
  condition as to the Christian in the condition.
  (p.89)

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Teaching Method

• Exposure to Puritan Thought
• Spiritual and Mental Depression
• Read through various quotes.
• Compare Mental Depression with DSM.
• Lecture on 7 reasons the H.S. allows or causes a
  Spiritual Depression.

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Spiritual Depression

• The Genius of Puritanism by Peter Lewis. Soli
  Deo Gloria Publications (1977, 1996) Morgan, PA
• 7 reasons of the Holy Spirit to allow or bring a
  depression

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Spiritual Depression Rationale

• Out of sovereignty.
• To show us the comfort, and our dependence upon
  him for them.
• To develop the various Christian graces in us.
• To weaken and prevent sin.
• To chastise for gross sin.
• To keep believers near himself.
• That believers may help others from their own
  experience.

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Evangelical Stigma

• Alternative to simplistic and pop theology
  attributions within the evangelical culture, such
  as

• unconfessed sin
• self-pity
• lack of faith
• character weakness
• lack of piety
• the effect of sin
• weakness of will
• lack of self discipline1,2

1.White et al, (2003, Spring). Christians and
depression attributions as mediators of the
depression-buffering role of Christian social
support. Journal of Psychology and Christianity,
22(1), 49 - 58 2. McCandless, J. B.
(1991). The Church Confronting Adult Depression
A Challenge. Counseling and Values, 35(2),
104-113
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Contemporary Models of CP

• Students need skills to evaluate current and
  future theoretical/practical models of change
• What does this person or model observe about the
  world, God, humans, brokenness, change and how
  things work?
• What assumptions do they make about life
• What worldview supports and encourages their
  observations?

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Teaching about assumptions

• Many significant models in psychology and
  psychiatry have been founded on an attempt to
  protect private faith in light of empiricist
  obligations
• Ex Psychiatric hospital care of the 1830s under
  Samuel Woodward. MI as a somatic disease but
  treated with compassionate moral education.
  Impact of his assumptions?

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Parallel Model (Two Book)
q
y
Psychology may challenge interpretation of
Scripture or theological formulations.
25
Overlap Model
q
y
Integration takes place in the overlap, where
both areas speak of the same things.
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Filter Model
y
q
Psychology is passed through the filter of
Christianity so what is left is pure and good y.
27
Fermentation Model
q
y
xy


Two areas put together to make a new field,
Christian Psychology
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Recasting
q
y
y
y
y
y
y
Bits of y taken out, observed, recast, and used
to enrich the theological model (or to provoke or
illustrate)
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Position Papers

• Primary Goals
• To help students prepare for in-class time.
• To direct students to specific reading.
• Cultivate critical thinking and ownership of the
  material.

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Position Papers

• Secondary Goal
• Functions as a gate keeping tool.
• - It directly addresses entitlement around
  lateness issues.
• - The nature of the task with a time demand
  allows for a readily received deadline.
• - A late position paper is either irrelevant or
  unfair to the rest of the class.

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Position Papers

• Provide brief directions that orient students
  toward the materials that they will read.
• Address those issues where students need to see
  and evaluate the evidence for themselves.
• Students compare/contrast or write out their
  personal ideas or opinions.

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What are the advantages of each type of tracking
and reflecting?

• C "I feel sad and lonely.
• T "Hmm, is this about the same when we talked on
  the phone?"
• C "Yes, I feel miserable."
• T "You sound quite distressed, is that something
  you would like me to help you with?"
• C "Yes, I can't stand it anymore. I need to do
  something. If I have to talk about this one more
  time I am going to go out of my mind."
• T "You sound exasperated, is that how you are
  feeling right now?"

• C "I feel sad and lonely."
• T "You are feeling sad and lonely."
• C "Yes, I feel miserable."
• T "So youre feeling miserable."
• C "I can't stand it anymore. If I have to talk
  about this one more time I am going to go out of
  my mind."
• T "You feel like you cant stand this and you're
  not going to be able to take it anymore."

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Position Papers

• Grading Structure
• Position Papers should comprise a significant
  portion of the final grade with serious
  consequences for missed papers. (20-25
  suggested)
• Position Papers should not be required for every
  class session (suggested use is one third to half
  of class sessions).

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Position Papers

• Position Papers should be pass/fail.
• Given a check if accepted.
• Returned with a comment if rejected.
• Late position papers are not accepted.
• Failed position papers result in points
  subtracted from total grade (e.g. 2 points
  subtracted for each failed paper).

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Syllabus

• Position Papers Position papers are not
  miniature term papers. They are short but serious
  exercises that prepare you to read the text and
  to participate in class discussions. How long
  should a position paper be? Only long enough to
  complete the assignment- no more, and no less.
  Many position papers will be just a single page,
  others a few pages longer. But there is never a
  reason to make the paper longer than it needs to
  be. Position papers must be prepared before the
  class period in which they are due and turned in
  during class no exceptions. Attempts to prepare
  these during class and then to turn them in will
  be considered an honor code infraction. Each
  paper will be given either a check (denoting
  paper accepted) or a note explaining why the
  paper is unacceptable. Two points will be
  deducted from your final grade for each missing
  position paper (up to a possible 25 points).

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Syllabus

• Late Position Papers If you feel your paper was
  late for a valid reason, please attach a note of
  explanation (e.g. I was on my deathbed last
  night) and then turn in the paper to me. I
  will let you know whether the paper is finally
  accepted.
• .

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Irrelevance of Late Position Papers

• Late papers are irrelevant because they are a
  tool to prepare for class interaction.
• It is unfair to write using peer ideas once you
  have participated in the class discussion

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Resources

• Bibliographic
• Philosophy of science Modernist critique
• Pastoral care history and tradition
• Modern integration debates
• The new christian psychology
• Critical histories of psychology
• Theology of personhood

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Phil. of Science

• Evans, C.S. (1996). Wisdom and humanness in
  psychology (reprint ed). Regent College
  Publishing.
• Kuhn, T. (1970). The structure of scientific
  revolutions. Chicago University of Chicago
  Press.
• Mahrer, A.R. (2000). Philosophy of science and
  the foundations of psychotherapy. American
  Psychologist, 55, 1117-1125.

40
Pastoral Care Tradition

• Boisen, A.T. (1936). The exploration of the inner
  world a study of mental disorder and religious
  experience. NY Harper Brothers.
• Clebsch, W.A. Jaekle, C.R. (1994). Pastoral
  Care in historical perspective
• Coloquhoun, J. (1998). Spiritual Comfort (Don
  Kistler, Trans.). Morgan, PA Soli Deo Gloria
  Publications. (Original work published 1814)
• Grob, G.N. (1966). The state and the mentally
  ill a history of the Worcester State Hospital,
  1830-1920. Chapel Hill, NC U of N. Carolina
  Press.
• Lewis, P. (1996). The genius of Puritanism.
  Morgan, PA Soli Deo Gloria Publicatioons.
• Monroe, P.G. (2006). Why are you downcast, O my
  soul Lessons from the Puritans on helping the
  hopless. Edification, 23, 1-8. contains
  bibliography of numerous Puritan writers on
  counseling related topics
• Rogers, T. (2002). Trouble of Mind and the
  Disease of Melancholy (Don Kistler, Trans.).
  Morgan, PA Soli Deo Gloria Publications.
  (Original work published 1691)

41
Integration Debates

• Beck, J.R. (2005). Balanced integration A reply
  to Maier Glass. Journal of Psychology
  Christianity, 24, 51-55.
• Beck, J.R. (2003). The integration of psychology
  and theology An enterprise out of balance.
  Journal of Psychology Theology, 22, 20-29
• Beck, J.R. (Ed.). (1997). Sola Scriptura. Journal
  of Psychology Christianity, 164, 293-362.
• Hurding, R.F. (1985). The tree of healing
  Psychological Biblical foundations for
  counseling and pastoral care. Grand Rapids, MI
  Ministry Resources Library. (pp 212-242 only).
• Maier, B.N. Glass, J.H. (2005). A matter of
  balance? A response to Beck (2003). Journal of
  Psychology Christianity, 24, 46-50.
• Monroe, P.G. (1997). Building bridges with
  biblical counselors. Journal of Psychology and
  Theology, 25, 28-37.
• Nash, R.H. (1993). Great divides Understanding
  the controversies that come between Christians.
  Colorado Springs, CO NavPress.
• Powlison, D. (1993). Critiquing modern
  integrationists. Journal of Biblical Counseling,
  113, 24-34.
• Powlison, D. (1996a). Competent to counsel? The
  history of a conservative protestant
  anti-psychiatry movement. Unpublished doctoral
  dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
• Powlison, D. (1996b). Modern therapies and the
  Churchs faith. Journal of Biblical Counseling,
  151, 32-41.
• Powlison, D. (2000). Affirmations and denials A
  proposed definition of Biblical Counseling.
  Journal of Biblical Counseling, 191, 18-25.
• Powlison, D. (2002). Does the shoe fit? Journal
  of Biblical Counseling, 203, 2-15.
• Serrano, N. (2003). A history of the Christian
  Association of Psychological Studies 1954-1978.
  Paper presented at the 2003 CAPS National
  conference.
• Smith, William P. (1996). Authors and arguments
  in Biblical counseling A review and analysis.
  Journal of Biblical Counseling, 151, 9-20.
• Smith, Winston T. (2000). Dichotomy or
  Trichotomy? How the doctrine of man shapes the
  treatment of depression. Journal of Biblical
  Counseling, 183, 21-29.

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The New Christian Psychology

• Roberts, R.C., Talbot, M.R. (1997). Limning the
  psyche Explorations in Christian psychology.
  Grand Rapids Wm. B. Eerdmans.
• See www.christianpsych.org for articles and
  bibliographies.

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Critical histories of psychology

• Cushman, P. (1990). Why the self is empty Toward
  a historically situated psychology. American
  Psychologist, 45, 599-611.
• Cushman, P., Gilford, P. (1999). From emptiness
  to multiplicity The self at the year 2000.
  Psychohistory Review, 27, 15-31.
• Cushman, P. (1995). Constructing the self,
  constructing America. Reading, MA
  Addison-Wesley.
• Dawes, R. (1994). House of Cards psychology and
  psychotherapy build on myth. New York Free
  Press. Ch. 8 on reserve
• Morawski, J. (ed.) (1988). The rise of
  experimentation in American Psychology. New
  Haven Yale Univ. Press.
• Pickren, W.E. (2000). A whisper of salvation
  American psychologists and religion in the
  popular press, 1884-1908. American Psychologist,
  55, 1022-1024.
• Robinson, D.N. (2000). Philosophy of psychology
  at the turn of the century. American
  Psychologist, 55, 1018-1021.
• Tweny, R.D., Budzynski, C.A. (2000). The
  scientific status of American psychology in 1900.
  American Psychologist, 55, 1014-1017.
• Wozniak, R.H. (1992). Mind and Body Rene
  Descartes to William James. Washington APA.

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Theologies of personhood

• Burke, T.J. (ed.) (1987). Man and mind A
  Christian theory of personality. Hillsdale
  College Press.
• Gregersen, Niels, H., Drees, Willem B., Gorman,
  Ulf (2000). The human person in science and
  theology. Grand Rapids Eerdmans.
• Grenz, S.J. (2003). The social imago The image
  of God and the postmodern (loss of) self. In C.
  Wilkins (ed.) The papers of the Henry Luce III
  Fellows in theology, vol. VI of Series in
  Theological Scholarship and Education.
  Pittsburgh, PA ATS.
• Grenz, S.J. (2001). The social god and the
  relational self A Trinitarian theology of the
  Imago Dei. Louisville Westminster John Knox.
• Sedgwick, Peter. (2001). Descartes to Derrida An
  introduction to European Philosophy. Malden, MA
  Blackwell.
• Schrag, Calvin O. (1997). The self after
  postmodernity. New Haven, CT Yale University
  Press.
• Schults, L. (2003). Reforming Theological
  Anthropology After the philosophical turn to
  relationality. Wm. B Eerdmans.