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Psychology in the Bible

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Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion

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Religion and Psychology

Evangelicals have reacted in at least three different ways to the interaction between religion and psychology. The Hyper Orthodox group as Johnson calls them has rejected psychology outright and stressed that all knowledge of human nature should come only from the Bible. The perspectivalists tend to read the Bible for theological insights and not for psychological insights. While they agree that the Bible might indeed address some psychological issues, they do not see that as the primary purpose of the Bible. Integrationists resist a rigid separation between the Bible and psychology (Johnson 1992). Modern scholarship is bent more toward the integrationists side.

There have been two areas in the integration between psychology and the Bible. One considers how the Bible can help in psychology. Drawing insights from the Bible to help with psychology and counseling. The other considers how psychology can help in reading the Bible, using insights from psychology to...

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Bibliography

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Religious Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    M. Alroy Mascrenghe

Authors
  1. M. Alroy Mascrenghe
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Correspondence to M. Alroy Mascrenghe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    David A. Leeming

  2. Blanton-Peale Institute, New York, NY, USA

    David A. Leeming

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Mascrenghe, M.A. (2020). Psychology in the Bible. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200234

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