The Negative Effects of Psychology on the Gospel

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

According to David Wells, the rise of psychology in contemporary Christianity has prostituted the gospel in at least three ways.[i] First, it has given rise to the idea that people are ultimately good. In other words, they have the capacity within themselves to return to perfect wholeness through the tools offered by psychology. With such a view, sin is no longer seen as an obstacle in one’s plight toward self-actualization. Given psychology’s presupposition that humanity’s current state of imperfection alongside the contention that such imperfection can be addressed through self-effort, God (according to their view) can no longer be seen as holy God mandating sinless perfection but as a loving God who exists to serve humanity’s every whim (assuming of course that a belief in God is even still to be held).

Second, Wells argues that psychology “undermines the desire and capacity to think, without which theology is obviously impossible.” Psychological examination begins with the self and one’s own subjective experiences of reality. Instead of relying on objective truth, feelings are given primacy. By looking solely to their own experiences for truth, those who rely on psychology no longer perceive as a purely objective reality. In this way, truth becomes relative and a matter of preference. When Churches engage such an individual, they often fail in their God-given task to stir the minds of their parishioners with truth from Scripture and instead focus on meeting felt needs.

Third, Wells submits that leaning on psychology and giving prominence to the self causes the Church to lose its missional focus. Inherently, psychology cuts at the roots of community as it focuses its adherents on their own struggles. These self-seekers have their focus completely within at the expense of both God and His call to win people to Christ.

[i]David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 178-84.