New Introduction

C.S. Lewis wrote, “While we are on the subject of science, let me digress for a moment. I believe that any Christian who is qualified to write a good popular book on any science may do much more good by that than by any directly apologetic work. The difficulty we are up against is this. We can make people (often) attend to the Christian point of view for half an hour or so; but the moment they have gone away from our lecture or laid down our article, they are plunged back into a world where the opposite position is taken for granted. Every newspaper, film, novel and text book under-mines our work. As long as that situation exists, widespread success is simply impossible. We must attack the enemy’s line of communication. What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects – with their Christianity latent. You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way round. Our Faith is not very likely to be shaken by any book on Hinduism. But if whenever we read an elementary book on Geology, Botany, Politics or Astronomy, we found that its implications were Hindu, that would shake us. It is not the books written in direct defense of Materialism that make the modern man a materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books."

I agree with Dr. Lewis. It is the reason that I wrote High School Psychology: A Christian Perspective. There are many excellent works that explain a Christian Worldview and there are dozens of excellent introductory psychology texts. But there are very few introductory psychology texts that present psychology’s content from Christian perspective and none (to my knowledge) intended for high school students. The overarching objective for this text is to present psychology’s subject matter from a Christian perspective in a manner suitable for high school students. My overarching goal is to prepare Christian high school students to recognize and discern the worldview assumptions underlying the teaching in college-level psychology courses.

If you go to college, there is an excellent chance you will take an introductory (at least) psychology course. The material taught in introductory psychology courses WILL challenge your beliefs. College-level psychology courses generally presume that atheism, evolution, and humanism are indisputable. Psychology departments often are home to some of the more anti-Christian intellectuals on college campuses. Psychology professors have high levels of agnosticism and atheism and may attack your beliefs as unscientific, irrational, prudish, exploitive, controlling, inhibitive, oppressive, and naïve. Many psychology professors believe that Christianity is incompatible with sound mental health and that it contributes to human suffering.

Hopefully you are probably prepared to defend your beliefs, to define your worldview, and to refute behaviorism, humanism, and moral relativism (the core philosophical assumptions of modern psychology). In psychology classes however, the core assumptions are often subtle and difficult to recognize. Psychological philosophies are presented under the banner of “science.” Assumptions that are wholly inconsistent with your worldview are thoroughly embedded in most modern psychology courses, even at some Christian colleges and universities. Students need to be able to recognize and refute the anti-Christian and anti-scientific philosophies embedded in modern psychology. Failure to recognize anti-Christian assumptions embodied in psychological theories may lead Christian students to accept ideas that are inconsistent with a Christian worldview. Psychology courses, even in Christian colleges and universities, rarely distinguish philosophical assumptions from science.

In college you will face direct challenges from straightforward anti-Christian teaching and subtle challenges from anti-Christian assumptions embedded in otherwise benign subject matter. Many Christian students often walk away from their beliefs shortly after entering college. Failing to prepare for the subtle worldview challenges in otherwise benign material contributes to that falling away.

The goal for your study of psychology, just like your study of biology, theology, history, and every discipline, is to understand God’s creation and, in the words of Johannes Kepler, to “think God’s thoughts after him.” Instead of falling away in the face of university teaching, you have a duty to put forth a reasoned apologetic in every discipline, including psychology.

This text was written as rigorous college–level introductory course. In it you must think Christianly about psychology’s concepts, and more importantly, its underlying worldview assumptions. We will not shy-away from Christian criticisms of psychology or psychology’s criticisms of Christianity. We will explore the challenges you will face in college psychology but we will not accept that those challenges are justification for rejecting the entire academic discipline. Instead, this text suggests that the study of the soul, the mind, and behavior are right and proper and that perhaps you should bring your worldview with you and become part of the future intellectual leadership of psychology.