Christianity & Psychoanalysis - (Christian Association for Psychological Studies Books) by Earl D Bland & Brad D Strawn (Paperback)

About the Book

The past 30 years has seen a theoretical and clinical renaissance in psychoanalysis, as well as a flourishing of Christian engagement in the fields of psychology and anthropology. This volume of essays stages a new conversation between Christianity and psychoanalysis that opens up new ways of thinking about the rich mosaic of human experience.

Book Synopsis

Unsurprisingly, given Sigmund Freud's understanding of religion, the conversation between Christianity and psychoanalysis has long been marked by mutual suspicion. Psychoanalysis originated within a naturalist, post-Enlightenment context and sought to understand human functioning and pathology--focusing on phenomena such as the unconscious and object representation--on a strictly empirical basis. Given certain accounts of divine agency and human uniqueness, psychoanalytic work was often seen as competitive with a Christian understanding of the human person.The contributors to Christianity and Psychoanalysis seek to start a new conversation. Aided by the turn to relationality in theology, as well as by a noncompetitive conception of God's transcendence and agency, this book presents a fresh integration of Christian thought and psychoanalytic theory. The immanent processes identified by psychoanalysis need not compete with Christian theology but can instead be the very means by which God is involved in human existence. The Christian study of psychoanalysis can thus serve the flourishing of God's kingdom.

Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.

Review Quotes

"In Christianity and Psychoanalysis, Strawn and Bland provide us with fresh horizons for integrating psychology and theology while also reinvigorating ancient questions about healing and spiritual maturity. This book brings together many of the most seasoned and thoughtful integrators of psychoanalytic clinical practice and Christian theology. It is rare to find resources such as this, which are theoretically sophisticated, theologically nuanced and therapeutically relevant. The rich motif of 'Christian traditioning' represents an important contribution to relational approaches to integration, which moves us beyond the safe shores of general ideas and invites us to own our particular and formative commitments."

About the Author

Brad D. Strawn (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is the Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor of the Integration of Psychology and Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Psychology. He is coauthor (with Warren S. Brown) of The Physical Nature of Christian Life: Neuroscience, Psychology and the Church.

Earl D. Bland (PsyD, Illinois School of Professional Psychology) is professor of psychology and chair of the department of behavioral sciences at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas.