Secular and Sacred Models of Psychology and Religion

Abstract

Religion has been viewed with varying degrees of favor or disfavor by psychology. Early in psychology's history, Freud was critical of religion; many Christians reacted with equal disfavor to psychology. More recently, Christians have attempted to articulate the relationship between psychology and Christianity. These attempts have followed the same four approaches or models that psychologists traditionally have taken toward religion. The purpose of this article is to analyze and describe the secular and Christian versions of the four common models. The article describes these models and classifies psychologists such as Allport, Freud, Fromm, Frankl, Ellis, Jung, Mowrer, and Thome, as well as several Christians who have attempted to integrate psychology and Christianity.