Spirited and lively but also slow and dense at times.

The collection of thinkers contributing to this book are tasked with presenting and debating the relationship of psychology and Christianity. The result is an analytical and sophisticated discussion. Each theorist explains and defends their position on how the broad discipline of psychology and Christian faith relate.

With the field of psychology seeing a dramatic rise in interest throughout the 20th century, Christian interest soon followed. As an academic discipline, psychology grew immensely in the wake of Freud, Jung, and Maslow, along with others more recently. Christian psychologists emerged and popularized many theories through publications and radio shows, often filtering down into preaching, bible studies, and seminary training. What is a Christian to do with a subconscious, anger venting, love languages, and personality theories so prevalent today? While those questions are not directly in the scope of the book, the point is clear; A well constructed, biblically defined, carefully reasoned position on how the Christian faith and the body of knowledge called psychology interrelate is very much warranted today. That is what this book is about.

Certainly, Christians have interpreted the various sub disciplines of psychology differently over the last few decades resulting in the need for the current work. This book is a presentation of the major 5 positions that have emerged. The major views are classified under these five headings: 1) levels of explanation, 2) integration, 3) Christian psychology, 4) transformational psychology, and 5) biblical counseling. Though I didn’t read the whole thing, I found Powlison’s contribution from the biblical counseling position most stimulating and insightful. His interactions with the other theorists is careful, considerate, and wise.

At times, the read is an engaging discussion. The responses at the end of each chapter grant a certain sense of debate amongst the contributors. In this sense, the book was quite interesting. At other points, the author’s positions seemed to drag on, unnecessarily verbose, languishing in unclear language.

To my own surprise, the positions I knew to be flawed did contain worthwhile points. After reading, I’m slightly less dogmatic about certain things. Even levels of explanation, the most liberal approach, has points worth considering. True to form however, there are fatal flaws. Divergence from the Bible at critical junctures make all but the biblical counseling position troublesome.

This edition (2010) was updated from the earlier 2000 edition to include the newly formulated transformational psychology position. For interested readers, I would recommend the book Counseling and Christianity released in 2012 for a more helpful elaboration of each position in terms of how each view relates to ministry with other people. Though there is less interaction from each contributor with the other positions, a hypothetical case study is brought forth in order to see these positions not in the academic halls, but in real lives. It is here where biblical counseling truly shines.

The psychologies are diverse and varied. Neuropsychology, personality theories, behavioral norms, sleep studies and more each fall under psychology’s vast umbrella. Some fields are much closer to hard science while others remain closer to soft science. Perhaps most importantly, students of the Scripture must take cues from the revealed word in forming an understanding of people and their problems.