Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 26:1 (NA 2021)
Article: Secular Psychology’s Great Heist: The Theft Of Soul Care From The Charge Of The Church
Author: Jacob Z. Elwart

DBSJ 26 (2021) p. 115

Secular Psychology’s Great Heist:
The Theft Of Soul Care From The Charge Of The Church

Jacob Z. Elwart1

Introduction

Secular psychology is a popular approach to helping people with their problems that can offer utilitarian benefits even for churches. While secular psychology can offer useful observations, however, it falls short of providing complete solutions to life’s problems.

Part of the challenge in evaluating secular psychology is that it purports to be neutral, when it is not. More thoughtful psychologists know that they are doing pastoral work and that their moral values and worldview assumptions lurk in every human interaction. The primary methodology of secular psychology, psychotherapy, rests on presuppositional beliefs about who man is, what drives him, what his goals are, and where he is going.2 It is not a neutral discipline.

The goal of this article is to show that while secular psychology has sought to care for and cure souls, the work of caring for and curing souls belongs properly to the church of Jesus Christ. Psychology, as its name suggests, seeks to study the human soul in order to understand it and improve human welfare. Like every scientific discipline, however, the claims of psychology are valid only as they submit to the rule of Christ. Without this, secular psychology’s intention to transform human behavior, while generally praiseworthy, falls short of comprehensively explaining and improving human behavior. Only Christianity supplies a comprehensive framework for human transformation.

Psychology: The Study Of The Soul

The word psychology derives from the Greek term ψυχήλογία, the “study of the soul.” It may be defined as “the science of mind and behavior; the mental or behavioral characteristic of an individual or group,”3

DBSJ 26 (2021) p. 116

or as “the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.”4 Because it uses the scientific method to acquire knowledge, psychology qualifies as a true science. For purposes of this essay, I will use psychology to refer to the science or study of the immaterial part of man apart from biblical presuppositions.5

The modern academic discipline of psychology finds its roots in three disciplines: philosophy, physiology, and psychophysics. Because psychology is the study of human behavior, philosophy stands at its root, offering an answer to a key ...