Heather Looy, "Psychology at the Theological Frontiers," PSCF 65 (Sep. 2013) 147-155. PDF

This article is an invitation to dialogue about the foundational assumptions of North American psychology, and the implications of those assumptions in research and practice. Mainstream psychology uses a positivist notion of science to systematically study human experience and behavior. This “view from without” is a valuable means of obtaining certain kinds of information about ourselves. However, the unwillingness of many in the field to acknowledge the basic worldview assumptions that lead to the prioritizing of positivist science can limit and distort our human understanding. These problems include an extreme objectivism, bad reductions that leave out essential aspects of human experience, and decontextualized and individualized approaches to human distress. This type of science is also used to study religion and faith as variables rather than as foundational contexts, to push for a transhuman future, and to increase our disconnection with the natural world. Christians are called to make explicit, and where appropriate challenge, the foundational assumptions of psychology, to integrate the standard “view from without” methods with rigorous methods that take a “view from within,” and to reflect on the priorities of the field in light of Christian theology

Duane Kauffmann, "Biological and Environmental Constraints on Knowing the Self," PSCF 65 (Sep. 2013): 156-162. PDF

 In the context of dialogue between psychological science and Christian faith, Heather Looy offered a critique of the assumptions and practices of psychology, especially as they pertain to self-understanding. In response, this article offers a brief review of research findings pertaining to automaticity, situational effects on behavior, and heritability components in belief patterns, and argues that this empirical work provides both insights into, and constraints on, self-understanding. The concluding section identifies issues and questions requiring attention as the dialogue Looy initiated continues.

Russell D. Kosits, "Deeply Engaged and Strongly Perspectival? The Impasse in the Psychology-Christianity Dialogue and It's Missional Resolution." PSCF 65 (Sep. 2013): 163-178. PDF

Christians in psychology tend to do two types of scholarship: (1) deeply engaged, weakly perspectival research, in which the work is done for mainstream audiences but Christian beliefs remain largely implicit, and/or (2) strongly perspectival, relatively disengaged research, in which Christian beliefs are made explicit but the work is done for a nonmainstream, typically Christian, audience. Though both of these types of scholarship are essential, there appears to be a paucity of (3) deeply engaged, strongly perspectival research, in which the work is done for mainstream audiences yet with an explicitly Christian perspective. That this is the case, why
it is so, and what we might do about it, is explored in this article

Editorial: Matthew S. Stafford, "Psychology, Neuroscience, and the American Scientific Affiliation," PSCF 62 (June 2010): 73-74.  PDF 

This special issue was developed with two goals in mind: first, to continue the long tradition of the ASA and PSCF in publishing quality, academic discussions in science and faith; and second, to serve as a resource that ASA members might use to engage their Christian psychology and neuroscience colleagues. It is anticipated that a common point of contact, such as this special issue, will open opportunities to invite your colleagues to attend the annual meeting or at least to visit the website to learn more about the society.

Thaddeus J. Trenn, "Conscious Experience and Science: Signs of Transition," PSCF 62 (June 2010): 115-121. PDF

 Available neurological correlates of personal conscious experience can often be detected, identified, and measured objectively. Substituting neurological correlates uncritically for personal conscious experience per se, if unintended, would constitute the error of reductionism. If intended, such substitution reflects decisions already taken on basic and highly contentious issues concerning the acceptable nature of the human person, offering no middle ground. Should personal aspects of individual conscious experience be disregarded out of hand simply for not being in conformity with available standards of objective scientific measurement? This logical quandary presents a serious bifurcating challenge bearing significant implications for current research in neuroscience cum neurophysiology, as discussed in the article...

D. Gareth Jones, "Peering into People's Brains: Neuroscience's Intrusion Into Our Inner Sanctum," PSCF 62  (June 2010): 122-132.  PDF 

“Peering into the brain” has a number of connotations: from directly examining aspects of the functioning of an individual’s brain and hence what that individual may be thinking, to investigating the power of neuroscience to provide insights into characteristic features of our humanity. This article picks up on these different connotations and surveys several areas in neuroscience that raise issues of relevance for the Christian community. This is the domain of neuroethics, with particular reference to the prospects opened up by brain imaging and, in particular, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)....

Faw, Harold. "In the Image of God: Exploring Links with Cognitive Psychology", PSCF 58.4:310-314 (12/2006).

Constructive, ongoing conversations between cognitive psychologists and theologians are both possible and valuable. Indeed, these two fields need each other as they pursue a balanced understanding of the most complex  portion of God's creation of ourselves. Reasons for cooperation include the significant ways in which our cognitive capacities reflect those of our Creator, the rational nature of the theological enterprise, and the corrective reminders biblical theology provides concerning our creaturely status in God's world.

Trenn, Thad, "Science and the Mystery of the Human Person," PSCF 58.3: (September 2006): 216-225.

 "Traveling with haste, in the unerring security which transcends all objects, instructed by the Spirit Who Alone can tell us the secret of our individual destiny, man begins to know God as he knows his own self. The night of faith has brought us into contact with the Object of all faith, not as an object but as a Person Who is the center and life of our own being, at once His own transcendent Self and the immanent source of our own identity and life." --Thomas Merton.

Peter Rust, " Dimensions of the Human Being and Divine Action," PSCF 57 (September 2005): 191-201.

 Humans are three-dimensional, body-soul-spirit entities, but nevertheless unitary, indivisible persons. Animal behavior includes deterministic and random constituents. It may be modeled in terms of information systems, containing regulatory loops. Goal settings for these may be fixed, as in ìlowerî animals, or governed by internal adaptive supervisory systems freely selecting from alternative routines, as in conscious ìhigherî or soulish animals. A meta-supervisor in humans provides self-consciousness, free will, conscience and spiritual behavior. As with space, each further dimension includes the previous one, but cannot emerge from it or be reduced to it.

Views on Biblical Counseling  The articles offered below reflect the tensions that may arise when one seeks to counsel or find a counselor within a Christian context.