Harry Avis writes:
"A counselor who accepts the Bible as the final authority and who encounters
a situation in which psychological theory is in conflict which the Bible,
must rely on "authority". Unfortunately, Biblical authority often conflicts
with psychological theory hence the these discussions."
I would make two points: 1) if the Bible is so unambiguous as to be the
authority that Harry describes, how have Christians ended up with the number
of denominations they have today? To see the authority of an inerrant
scripture as being simply going to the Bible to find out what it says about
something and then telling the client to do that, ignores the fact that the
teachings in the Bible are very complex and not easily reducible to the
jargon of the fundamentalists whether they be Christians or atheists. But so
is life. If life had been boiled down to a few platitudes, there would
certainly be no need for counselors. Even if you believe in the authority of
the Bible, understanding of the scripture will still require thought and
discernment and often people of good will end up on opposite sides of many
issues. I wonder if that means that what they each believe is true for them
or if it indicates that one or both of them must be wrong?
2) What are some examples of where biblical authority conflicts with any
psychological theory worthy of the name theory (in other words, a
psychological theory grounded in empirical data)? If there are any, of
course, they are cases where one person's reading of the Bible (which could
be mistaken) disagrees with some aspect of a psychological theory (which may
be based on no research or research that is methodologically flawed or not
replicable). In any case, I am always interested in hearing of specific
instances where someone believes that a psychological finding is in conflict
with the Bible. It usually turns out to be something that has somehow come
to be connected with psychology (thank you Sigmund Freud) that has no basis
in empirical, psychological research.
Rick
Dr. Richard L. Froman
Psychology Department
John Brown University
Siloam Springs, AR 72761
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych/froman.htm
