Things Christian high school students need to know about psychology – before they go to college.

There are some things Christian high school students need to know about psychology – before they go to college.

It is not my purpose to write a new psychology textbook or a book about the Christian worldview. My purpose is to write about psychology via-a-vis a Christian worldview. This is a book about where psychology and the Christian worldview overlap.  It is about how worldviews matter to the study of Psychology. It is my purpose to help Christian students think “Christianly” about psychology.

It is important that students think Christianly about psychology because most students will take at least one psychology class in college. Although there are many Christians in psychology research, teaching, and counseling, psychology departments are home to some of the more anti-Christian intellectuals on college campuses. Psychology professors have high levels of atheism and many are ignorant of or antagonistic toward the Christian worldview.

It is important to think about psychology from a Christian worldview perspective because many Christian students walk away from their faith in college – you have probably read the statistics. If “walking away” has anything to do with the content of college courses, it is the worldview beliefs underlying modern psychology. 

When students leave for college they enter a culture fascinated with all things psychological. There is something very appealing about the field of psychology.  Each year Americans buy millions of books about self-help, addiction, recovery, relationships, parenting, spiritual growth, and emotional and mental health. Self-help books about recovery, addiction, relationships, parenting, and weight loss make up the bulk of the new Christian book titles. Seminar speakers, workshops, talk show hosts, and celebrities promote techniques -- that may or may not be scientifically tested -- designed to improve psychological health and well-being. Millions of Americans seek mental health services every year and Psychology’s theories influence business, advertising, social work, nursing, engineering, and any other career path you might pursue.

Psychology’s theories influence ideas about learning and child development, parenting practices, moral development, personality and self-esteem, and more. Psychology influences the Christian church. It is important to think about the relationship between psychology and the Christian worldview because psychology is controversial among Christians. Student should understand why some Christians say Psychology is inherently anti-Christian, idolatrous, or an “ungodly rival religion” while others embrace it.

Christians should think about psychology because people are hurting. Christians have long been at the forefront of meeting the world’s physical needs with food, blankets, and shelter. But are we at the forefront of meeting the world’s Psychological needs? Too often, secular community mental health centers serve more hurting people than they can handle, while Christians debate whether Biblical counseling, Christian counseling, secular counseling, or “just praying harder” is the answer. That is not right. Correcting the problem begins by re-claiming Psychology for Christ. That happens at the worldview level.

The Christian worldview is the most logical, internally consistent, and meaningful paradigm for understanding the big questions about the Mind. After all, it is God’s grandest creation. Christian students need to understand why. Instead of surrendering Psychology or walking away in the face of Psychology’s philosophies, we have a duty to put forth reasoned explanations for our worldview in every discipline, including Psychology. That’s what this book is about.