Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 179:714 (Apr 2022)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: John A. Adair

BSac 179:714 (April-June 2022) p. 231

Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

John A. Adair

Editor

“Including Multiculturalism, Social Justice, and Peace within the Integration of Psychology and Theology: Barriers and a Call to Action,” John M. McConnell, et al., Journal of Psychology and Theology 49.1 (2021): 5–21.

This article presents a persuasive argument for the importance and inclusion of multiculturalism, social justice, and peace into the practice, research, and training of mental health professionals. This timely argument highlights the obstacles many clinicians, researchers, and academicians face when attempting to balance their faith beliefs with their guiding occupational ethics. Often Christian mental health professionals face competing values between Christian settings and mental health licensing boards and credentialing groups. The article contains compelling evidence that the ethical imperative for social justice, multiculturalism, and peace is an ethical obligation for both mental health professionals and Christians alike. The authors encourage mental health professionals to utilize a “multicultural orientation,” a central component of which is cultural humility, “which involves an accurate understanding of one’s own cultural limitations and a continuous commitment to multicultural development . . . characterized by cultural openness, intellectual curiosity, and rejection of social dominance” (10). In other words, one should aim to enter spaces without the firmly held belief that one’s own cultural value system and experiences are always right and that those who have differing experiences and cultural values are wrong. Humans tend to seek certainty. While this is natural when faced with ambiguity and anxiety, it can sometimes lead to becoming entrenched in one’s values, opinions, and beliefs. This rigidity is to the detriment of the individual and the community as it leaves little room for growth and maturity. As mental health professionals and believers who espouse the benefit of transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit, rigidity and a lack of cultural humility are in opposition to growth.

The authors emphasize the importance of holding central the viewpoint that all humans are created in God’s image and are therefore worthy of being treated with dignity regardless of their personal beliefs. Because we live in a global community marked by violence, the authors highlight the unique role of Christian mental health professionals to be advocates for peace, honoring all image bearers as worthy of human rights. The intersection of being peacemakers with Scripture has also recently come to light in other prominent areas, such as the book Jesus and ...