At best, psychology as an academic discipline and as a science is relatively young and inexact. Early in the church’s history, Christian scholars were interested in understanding the intricate behavioral patterns of people. For example, Saint Augustine is often credited, even in secular universities, as being the ancient father of psychology, because he was so concerned with what we would today call introspection, trying to probe the depths of human personality.

Now, is there such a thing as a biblical psychology? There certainly is a biblical view of man, and there certainly is a biblical view of human behavior. We can learn much from the Scriptures about behavior and personality development, about emotions and their impact on us. There is a wealth of information in the Bible that can help us as we give counsel to others. We know, for example, that guilt is one of the most prevalent issues dealt with by psychologists and psychiatrists. There has never been a book more adequate to deal with the problem of guilt than the Bible.

I happen to believe that all truth meets at the top. I believe the Bible is infallible. I believe that the Bible gives us a view of man that comes from the Maker of man; it comes from the very mind of God. So we get an insight into human personality from the Scriptures that we will never find anywhere else.

Yet God has also given us nature as a textbook, and through the study of human behavior we can learn valid truths. So I think that a Christian should have one eye on the Scriptures and another eye on the best of what is being discovered through the scientific study, the experience, and the observation of professionals in psychology and psychiatry.

Some religious spiritual practices discourage questioning, studying, and exploring for oneself, but if you actually read most of the fundamental spiritual texts they encourage it, but it does take a lot of work and is much easier to just listen to what other people tell you to think whether they are spiritual or scientific gurus.

I encourage you to study as your passions lead you for yourself. I have extensively studied the Bible for 25 years, I have university degrees in Physics and Sociology, and work weekly with an amazingly gifted psychologist ( I highly recommend her book Personal Strength ~ Spiritual Joy: Bridging Heaven and Earth). The congruences regularly raise the hair on my arms because they are so amazing and the only conflicts I have run into are the result of my needing to do further study and exploration.

Although the “religion” of Scientology is very much opposed to psychiatry and psychology, for all-too-obvious reasons wink wink.