by Lana Douglas
Staff Writer
Photos courtesy of Sarah Becker
Last weekend, the Psychology Department at Bryan College received phone calls from people all over the country inquiring about the symposium, “Christianity & Psychology: Five Views.” About 300 students, faculty, community members and psychologists spent their weekend listening to Warren Brown, Jr., Ph.D., John Coe, Ph.D., Stanton Jones, Ph.D., David Powlinson, Ph.D. and Paul Watson, Ph.D. present their views of psychology and how it relates to Christianity.
The debate between Christianity and psychology has been on-going, said Dr. Clark Rose, associate professor of psychology at Bryan.
Some of the ways Christians are trying to work their way back into psychology is through the five views, according to Rose,
The five views that were discussed are 1) the levels of explanation, 2) integrative perspective, 3) Christian psychology, 4) transformational approach and 5) Biblical counseling.
On one end of the spectrum of the Christianity versus psychology debate is the levels of explanation, which says that scientists and psychologists may also be Christians. There is, however, no mixing between the two views. On the other end of the spectrum there is Biblical counseling which says that the foundation for psychology is based on scripture. The rest of the views fall somewhere between these ends of the spectrum.
“I tend to look at things from the Biblical counseling model, which says that most of what is in psychology can be found in scripture,” said Liz Moseley, director of counseling services. “I really appreciated hearing from all five views at the same time.”
Rose said that his prayer for the symposium was for people to think critically about what was being said and try to keep up with the concepts.
“The symposium was very informative, however there were times when I got lost in the psychological lingo that the speakers used,” said freshman Brianna Morales.
“Some things that were discussed were over my head…,” said Rose.
Some of the speakers, however, Rose went on to say, have tailored their lectures to their audience a little bit better.
“But it is good to be stretched and not always have our information spoon fed to us,” Rose said.
Rose will be teaching an updated class next spring called “Methods and Models of Integration of Christianity and Psychology,” which will include the five views. The DVD of the symposium is expected to be finished by the end of this year and will be available through the Bryan website.
Students who wish to learn more about the five views or would like to get more clarity about the information covered at the symposium are encouraged to look up other writings by the speakers. There will also be a free podcast available on the Bryan website sometime next week.