God and Psychology

Stephen E. Parker is professor emeritus in the school of psychology and counseling at Regent University.

The relationship between psychology and religious belief is a fraught one. Many religious thinkers find the doctrines attributed to Freud or the classical behaviorists antithetical to their theological views, and the therapeutic relationship is sometimes thought to be a pale copy and rival to the pastoral relationship espoused by the church. In many respects, therefore, religious thinkers have seen psychology as a rival religion. In God and Psychology, Parker approaches the relationship between religious belief (focusing mainly but not exclusively on Christianity) and psychology through biography. As the subtitle indicates, Parker is particularly interested in how the early religious beliefs and rearing of major figures in psychology (Freud, Jung, Erikson, Skinner, and Rogers) influenced their later works. The text is organized into separate chapters devoted respectively to each figure. Overall, the book pokes at a major question: does studying psychology put one on a trajectory toward atheism? Parker notes that three of the five people he discusses ended their lives as atheists, but he shies away from drawing conclusions, noting that other factors could have contributed to such a development. While this is surely true, it is still worthwhile to ask if something in the theoretical (as opposed to biographical) stance of psychological inquiry predisposes one toward atheism. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. General readers.

• IntroductionChapter 1 Sigmund FreudChapter 2 Carl JungChapter 3 Erik EriksonChapter 4 B.F. SkinnerChapter 5 Carl RogersConclusion