Introduction to the Special Section: Scripture and Psychology

Abstract

The special section on and Psychology contains four articles that were presented in an earlier form at the and the Disciplines conference held at Wheaton College in May 24-27, 2004. The event was jointed sponsored by the Wheaton College Faith and Learning Program, the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Center for Theological Understanding, and the Christian College Consortium, with the stated mission of ... offering the opportunity for the Christian scholars across the humanities and social sciences disciplines to dialogue with their colleagues in Biblical and Theological Studies to promote uses of in that go beyond simplistic, reductive proof-texting and vaguely thematic appropriations of Scripture. The mission statement for the conference also indicates that this dialogue would ensue within the framework of common evangelical assumptions about the nature of including ... the trustfulness and final of the Bible, and the idea that the authority of Scripture can serve a truly functional and not merely nominal role in Christian scholarship. Finally, conference planners speculated that a richer dialogue between the fields of Biblical/Theological Studies and the other disciplines may ... more profoundly inform biblical and theological scholarship (Scripture & Disciplines Conference, 2004). Consistent with these goals, several presentations were delivered by the psychology discipline group. Some or these presentations addressed general topics about the theoretical and methodological role of in a Christian psychology. Others focused on various applied issues related to the engagement of and psychological science. I provided a summary of different approaches to relating and psychological science and evaluated each of these in light of the task of integration (Hathaway, 2005). I concluded my paper by raising five issues which require further attention if Christian psychological is to take seriously the challenge and calling of engaging the Word of God in our discipline. Hill (2005) discussed the role of in light of psychology as a science. He compared epistemic differences between the function of as an in Christian and the epistemological nature of psychology as a science. He described the shifting 'boundary' issues that influence the interface of these two domains of thought and praxis as well as their regnant epistemologies. Van Leeuwen (2005) emphasized the importance of the common hermeneutical observation, contrary to the view of naive literalism, that there is no unmediated reading of scripture (p. 2). She then applied this hermeneutic emphasis to the debate between gender egalitarians and hierarchicalists, which is particularly relevant to our work in psychological integration. Garzon (2005) categorized a range of explicit uses of in traditional clinical settings. He illustrated some of these 'Scripture interventions' with a composite case example based on his clinical and research experience. …