Psychology and Christianity Summary Essay: Integration, Convergence, and Divergence

Are you trying to understand how to write a "Psychology and Christianity: Five Views summary" essay? Well, this guide is dedicated to you. Here you’ll learn the Psychology and Christianity concepts, how to structure the essay, and tips that will make your essay create a lasting impression on your teacher. You can reach out to us if you cannot author the paper even after reading this guide.

Christianity Vs. Psychology Debate

One discipline that has greatly been affected by Christianity is psychology. Psychologists and theologists have attempted to sit down and discuss how Christianity and psychology should work in treating and diagnosing mental issues in people.  Some of the meetings have succeeded in deciphering the connection, but others have concluded there is a thick line between the two.

The relationship between psychology and Christianity is well-presented by Eric Johnson, who highlights five broad ways of looking at the connection when dealing with mentally disturbed persons from a Christian’s standpoint. Johnson terms the different ways “Five Views.”

To successfully write a "Psychology and Christianity: Five Views summary" essay, you will then need to know the concepts below:

• Christianity
• Psychology
• Five Views

Without much ado, let's delve into them.

What Is Christianity?

Christianity is the largest religion by the number of believers founded on the teachings of God and Christ. It has over two billion followers and has considerably diffused to many geographical locations than any other faith. The prominent groups under Christianity are the Protestant churches, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholic Church.

Some of the widespread Christianity beliefs are:

1. Christians believe in one God; they are monotheistic. However, this Supreme Being has three parts: The Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ (the son or the messiah), and God himself (the father).
2. Christians believe that Jesus' key purpose was to save the world; that he was crucified to allow the forgiveness of human sins.
3. Christians declare that Jesus will come back and thus have coined the phrase “the Second Coming.”
4. The cross signifies Christianity.
5. Christians embrace the Old and New Testaments, while Jews only follow Old Testaments.
6. Christmas and Easter are the most important Christian holidays. The two commemorate the birth and resurrection of Jesus, respectively.

What Is Psychology?

Psychology is a field that focuses on the human mind and behavior. It deals with personality, emotions, feelings, thoughts, development, social behaviors, and motivation. In short, psychology looks at factors that impact how people feel, act, and think. The factors include environmental, social pressure, and biological ones.

Psychology is an enormous field divided into sub-fields like:

• Cognitive psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Biological psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology
• Personality psychology
• Industrial-organizational psychology

A huge part of psychology is utilized in diagnosing and treating mental health concerns. However, there is more to it than this. Its other contributions to society and individuals are:

• It enhances human productivity
• It helps to motivate individuals to realize their objectives
• It assists in understanding why people behave the way they do
• Used in ergonomics to improve individuals’ efficiency at work

What Are The Five Views Of Christianity And Psychology?

The Five Views of Christianity and Psychology are five prominent models that explain the methods of integrating Christianity and psychology to manage mental and emotional disturbances in people. These models are discussed in depth in Eric Johnson's book “Psychology and Christianity: Five Views” published in 2010.

The Five Views are:

1. A Levels-of-Explanation View
2. An Integration View
3. A Christian Psychology View
4. A Transformational Psychology View
5. A Biblical Counseling View

In a snapshot, the influence of Christianity aspects on treating the mentally disturbed increases as you move from the first View to the fifth one. In a Levels-of-Explanation View, Christianity scriptures and traditions are minimally applied. On the other hand, the religious aspects are used intensely in the Biblical Counseling View.

Below is a detailed discussion of each View. It will help you understand how Christianity's impact changes as you move from one View to another.

1) A Levels-of-Explanation View

One of the developers of a Levels-of-Explanation View is David G. Myers. This view states that psychology and Christianity are two distinct levels that operate independently. Psychology is a branch of science like chemistry, biology, sociology, and so on. However, counselors should have skills in both levels when delivering their roles, as both are valuable.

2) An Integration View

Christian psychologists that believe in the Integration View declare that we must use Christian and psychological truths when helping mentally and emotionally disturbed people.

In other words, this view holds that Christianity and psychology need to be integrated. It mainly focuses on modern psychology as this is more “truthful”: significant research has been done on it. Most Christian counselors use this view.

3) A Christian Psychology View

The third view is Christian Psychology. Christians supporting this view believe Christianity scriptures and psychological concepts of the pre-twentieth century should be used when dealing with distressed individuals. The View is against modern psychology concepts that date from 1900; hence, their integration is not greatly welcomed.

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Christian scriptures and traditions are put first when applying this View, then predated psychology concepts are used as complements.

4) A Transformational Psychology View

The Transformational Psychology View does not pay attention to modern psychology and attempts to rediscover and redesign the predated psychology concepts. The difference between it and Christian Psychology is that:

• In Christian Psychology, modern psychology can be utilized, though very negligibly. In contrast, modern psychology is not integrated at all into Transformational Psychology.
• Christian Psychology does not try to change predated psychology concepts, whereas Transformational Psychology tries to.

5) A Biblical Counseling View

The Biblical Counseling model does not integrate any psychological concepts when helping emotionally troubled individuals. Additionally, it dismisses clinical and scientific aspects. It only utilizes Biblical guidelines.

Steps For Writing A “Psychology And Christianity: Five Views Summary” Essay

Here, you will learn the steps to take when writing your essay. The steps will start from the planning stage to proofreading.

Step 1: Understand the topic: psychology and Christianity (Five Views)

The first step is you should learn about the topic. You can use several resources to get a better understanding of the topic. One of the best resources is a YouTube video titled Christianity and Psychology – by Eric Johnson. We recommend this source because it is concise, and the author uses PowerPoint slides to discuss the Five Views; you can take screenshots of the slides and use them when writing the essay. Moreover, the video is engaging and bite-sized.

This topic (Five Views) is a little bit challenging. Thus, it is good to utilize critical reading strategies to simplify learning. The strategies include:

Previewing – entails skimming the resources to get a rough idea before you deeply read them or watch them in the case of videos.

Contextualizing – this is applying what you are reading to real-life events. For instance, you can look at which View you would use if you were a counselor going by your beliefs.

Summarizing and Outlining – make notes as you learn, or you can underline key points. If you are reading from the internet, you can use tools like Diigo to highlight key points on a webpage.

Comparing and Contrasting – compare and contrast the Five Views. It will help you to learn and remember them easily.

The good thing is that we have discussed the topic for you in the previous subsections. It will be simple for you to understand the topic and write a quality summary. You can add more flesh to the skeleton we have provided. But remember to paraphrase: plagiarism is a serious academic offense.

Step 2: Determine the best essay type to use

Many essay types exist, such as expository, argumentative, narrative, and descriptive. So, which essay type should you use when writing this topic? How do you know the appropriate essay to use in developing your essay? The answer is you look at your topic.

In the case of this topic, we will use an expository essay. An expository essay is used when discussing concepts or ideas; our topic falls under this definition.

It is also wise to familiarize yourself with the different styles of expository essays, as you will also need to choose the style to use. They are:

Compare and Contrast essay – this subtype compares and contrasts two or more subjects.

Process essay – It is also called a “how-to essay” and focuses on discussing the steps of a procedure.

Problem and solution essay – this style is used when explaining a problem and its solutions.

Cause and Effect Essay – A essay style like this discusses a subject by looking at its causes and outcomes.

Our topic largely falls under the compare and contrast essay. It is because we will discuss Five Views that revolve around Psychology and Christianity. The views, although different, have some similarities.

Step 3: Create a draft

Before you create the draft, do a profound research and then compile all the resources you will use to write the paper - for instance, Eric Johnson’s book and the YouTube video.

Afterward, make an outline. The outline will have three main sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. In the introduction, you will start with a hook, give background information, and close with a thesis statement. You can have five paragraphs in the body section, each discussing one of the five Views. The conclusion will restate the thesis and key points discussed in the essay. When outlining, indicate what you will discuss in each paragraph.

Step 4: Proofread the paper

After you are through with the draft, proofread it. Consider the following aspects when proofreading.

Get into the proofreading mindset – Choose a favorable location free from distractions and only proofread when you have fresh eyes; this means taking a break and returning later.

Know yourself – By now, you should know the common mistakes you make in writing essays if you have written loads of them. If not, start being vigilant from today henceforth. When proofreading, pay keen attention to the areas where you mainly make mistakes. The common area's students have issues with involve:

• Using semicolons and commas accurately
• Proper capitalization of words
• Subject-verb agreement
• Parallelism

Look for consistency – Ensure that you maintain consistency in your essay. Look at the references, quotation marks (are they single or double), and whether are you placing full stops after bullets, among others.

Thoroughly go through every section – You should proofread not only the body section but also the references, figures, charts, and formatting of the entire paper.

Check the numbers – Try not to include outdated sources as much as possible. For science-related courses, a good bet is to use sources printed in the last five years, while for others like history, you can include ancient sources. Confirm all the numbers represent what they have said.  If you say, “see Figure 2,” make sure the diagram in Figure 2 is the correct one.

Use spell check and grammar tools – You can better locate errors in your essay using tools such as Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid.

Tips For Writing Your Essay

As seen above, your essay will be an expository kind. Therefore, use the below expository tips when writing it.

1. The thesis statement should be strong. It means the statement needs to tell the topic of the essay, a bit of the context, and the scope of the essay’s body paragraphs.

For instance, your thesis can be “Comparing and contrasting the Five Views of Christianity and Psychology.”

2. The tone ought to be academic and objective. Also, make sure you choose a neutral position, and most of the areas should be written in a third-person perspective.
3. Smoothly transition from one paragraph to another. To do this, use transitional phrases like “therefore,” “additionally,” “furthermore,” “on the other hand,” and so on.
4. Be mindful of the word count.
5. Stick to facts. You should avoid expressing your opinion in expository essays. Also, not everything you read is true. Thus, deeply vet your sources before using them.

Summary

Writing a “Psychology and Christianity: Five Views summary” essay may be daunting, but when you use this guide, it will be child’s play. The guide takes you through Psychology and Christianity concepts, then the steps and tips you can use to create an outstanding essay. Remember, when you need any essay writing help, we are here to help you, kindly submit your essay instructions.