The crisis of belief and the psychologizing of religion

Abstract

"Would you object if my psychiatrist were invited to speak on one of the Sundays that you do not lead the services?" a young woman asked. During the church season I speak to our congregation at the First Unitarian Church of Westchester on 20 Sundays, with the other 20 meetings being arranged by program groups composed of members of the congregation. The young woman was serving on one of them. "Certainly not," I assured her. "As a matter of fact, you don't really need my permission in inviting any speaker." "Well," she replied, "he wants to speak about 'The Psychologizing of Religion,' and knowing of your interest in psychotherapy and your introduction of psychotherapy into the church program, he does not want you to be offended." I told her I would not be put off by anything her psychiatrist said, and in fact I urged her to ask him to speak frankly. She carried my message to the psychiatrist, and the date for his appearance was set for late spring. Although I am not obliged by my contract to attend Sunday meetings in which I do not participate, I did attend the one at which the young woman's psychiatrist spoke on "The Psychologizing of Religion." For six years, I had been running therapy groups as part of the church program, and I function as a pastoral psychotherapist with both parishioners and nonparishioners in my study in the church building. This association of psychotherapy with the church has been deliberate on my part because I am convinced that psychotherapy is one way in which the church can fulfill its role. So although I urged my parishioner to invite her psychiatrist to speak?and to speak frankly?I admit I did experience some anxiety that Sunday morning as I drove to church. I know from my own experience in therapy that a psychiatrist is an authority figure for me, and I have to struggle for a more objective perspective that relieves the anxiety. Once my head takes charge of my feelings, I can function in a nondefensive way. On that particular morning I did not want to assume a defensive posture; I