Turning the Telescope Round: Reciprocity in Psychology-Theology Dialogue
Authors: Hampson, Peter John1; Boyd-MacMillan, Eolene M.2
Source: Archive for the Psychology of Religion / Archiv für Religionspychologie, Volume 30, Number 1, 2008 , pp. 93-113(21)
Publisher: BRILL
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Abstract:
To understand better the religious person and religious people, psychology alone is insufficient. Multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches are needed too. Encouraged by recent efforts which bring psychology and theology into fuller relationality, we examine further interactions between the two intellectual traditions, and exemplify how each can act hospitably as a critical friend of the other. For example, Lindbeck (1984) theological anthropology can be qualified and expanded through fuller interaction with the psychology of religion and cognitive anthropology. Concurrently, the psychology of religion as a field can be helped to examine its ontological assumptions through fuller engagement with theological accounts of human existence. The psychological understanding of Christian transformation as ego-strengthening can be informed, corrected, and expanded to accommodate inescapable ontological claims through theological engagement with object relations theory. While potentially stressful to both disciplines, such collaboration facilitates disciplinary enrichment with benefits beyond the boundaries of either.Keywords: EGO; EPISTEMIC CRISES; DOCTRINE; INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS; INTERDISCIPLINARY; MULTIDISCIPLINARY; PSYCHOLOGY; RELATIONALITY; THEOLOGY; TRANSDISCIPLINARY; TRANSFORMATION; TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS
Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.1163/157361208X316971
Affiliations: 1: School of Psychology, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK 2: Psychology and Religion Research Group, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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