What I Have learned and How It Will Assist Me In studying for the Priesthood, it is very necessary to have a background in Human Psychology. In the everyday ministry the Priest is working with people on a one on one and group basis. It is essential that when working for the good of others you understand their make-up and can offer the current support, help and recommendations. For the health of the person’s spiritual life we need to also look after their psychological life. Throughout this course, the information taught was extremely valuable and was a great overview of the different aspects of the Human Psychology. It was a difficult task because I feel that all aspects will assist me in my ministry, but I have selected five that I feel …show more content…
This is where the faithful volunteer to do youth ministry, community outreach, and a number of other ministries in the Church. Here Module 432 helps with an explanation on some dangers of Social Influence. To keep all teaching that the volunteers are using in line with church teaching the leader needs to have the right formation themselves. Because the leader is in a position of authority over, let’s say, religious education, if malformed the instruction giving to the children may be incorrect. As we saw in Milgram’s obedience experiments. Also, some dangers in groups of volunteers that meet to discuss the direction of certain ministries. For example, a group of people meet to discuss the next year’s lesson plan for the confirmation class and all the instructors get to together to plan it out. What if the group meeting is one-third formed well in the teaching of the church and two-thirds are not. If the discussion gets heated the well-formed are outweighed by the malformed and therefore may concede because they just want to keep the harmony. A Priest having this knowledge would be able to create an environment that would reduce these kinds of situation and design for a favorable …show more content…
A priest is responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of his community. Along with the spiritual wellbeing a Priest will work with his people on a number of psychological issues. To have a healthy spiritual life you need to be healthy in psychological life, one can affect the other. Knowing the risk factors for mental disorders helps us keep the induvial active in the Church and staying in a loving community giving positive support to one another (Module 493). In module 544 we read about client-centered therapy and active listening which is imperative in the ministry of the Priest. Our parishioners are not our clients, but our brothers and sisters and to be a good and loving Priest, he must know each person intimately with a total self-giving love that stems from the love of God to us. We take on the practice of unconditional positive regard and always comfort those in need. This happen inside and outside the confessional, but the place that we mostly see it is inside, when people come to us shattered and broken. We first and foremost, receive them in the love of God and we reiterate that that we are all broken. We let them know the God is so happy that they want to live in a good state and want to repair their relationship with God. We offer them a plan and listen to their worries, fairs and failures and then we impart on them the forgiveness of God through the ministry of His
In the first chapter of Psychology in Christian Perspective by Harold W. Faw the author talks about psychology as a subject, the different aspects of the subject and how psychology fits into the Christian world. Faw begins the chapter by describing what others think psychology and his views on psychology as well. He describes that “psychology can be described as a systematic attempt to understand human behavior and conscious experience” (Faw, 1995, p. 12). He then goes on to describe the many different types of specialties of psychology which include, neurobiological, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and psychoanalytic. These specialties are then integrated into the Christian worldview. They are all different so they all fit into
After reading a few of the chapters in "Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith", I feel as if I have learned more in one sitting than many in years of my life. The chapters were not life altering, but simply stated things that I have overlooked. The topics that affected me most were on living with the mysteries of faith, benefits of true rest, and the emotion of happiness. Yes, they are really in no way related, but each of these topics impacted me in a different way, and made me think about what was being presented.
As you read through the chapters you can clearly see that there are times when overlapping ideas and thoughts about human-beings can be seen in theology and psychology. Helping readers become more aware and to understand that their presumptions are the basis to these issues and that our understanding between the relationship between psychology and Christianity are based on the assumptions. After reading this book it can be easily seen it is geared more toward students of psychology and other behavioral sciences as well as pastors that may be interested in the integration. Some questions that have arose after reading through this book is as a Christian Counselor, what are the ethical concerns that one may have in using the models of integration? And for pastors or a Christian outside the behavioral sciences, what does this book help them to achieve if they were to follow the models of
This is David Entwistle 2nd edition book published in 2010 by Wipf and Stock in Oregon. Entwistle is a Christian and a licensed psychologist; he has affiliations with Molone University in Canton, Ohio serving as chair of the Psychology Department and has taught courses related to his licensed field. This book clearly is not written for any newcomers to religion. However, it was written for those interested in the integration of science and religion. The authors’ purpose for writing this book was to define the relationship between psychology and theology. There are three specific areas this book touched upon to help readers’ better approach psychology and Christianity in a personal and more professional manner: The context of philosophical issues and worldview, to help the readers become aware of assumptions or beliefs- making the reader a more critical evaluators, and to introduce and familiarize the reader with five paradigms for integrating psychology and theology.
This paper will be reviewing the book “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations and models of integration, by David N. Entwistle. As the title states, this book discusses how to integrate psychology and theology. It also dives into why it is so important to be able to integrate the two. Entwistle explains that just because the two are different does not mean they should be separated, and that we have to use both our worldviews. “Weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could either perspective alone.”
Psychology Applied to Modern Life; Adjustment in the 21st Century. (9th ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Youth Ministry is Holistic |.
David Entwistle’s Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity David Entwistle's (2010) Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity is geared more towards Christians with conservative evangelical views and provides the reader with an outline to different worldview disputes and truth-seeking groundwork that surround the connection that underlies psychology and theology. In addition to analyzing the possible connection between psychology and theology, Entwisle discusses the consideration of integrating Christian faith with the practice of psychology. “Christian understandings of person-hood, the purpose of human life, our need for God, and the ethical teachings of Christian faith are integral to psychology, not merely parallel to it” (p. 199). Entwistle’s viewpoint on this matter is clearly stated. He believes that it is necessary for theology and psychology to be integrated in order to fully understand human nature.
Clinton, T. & Ohlschlager, G. (2002). Competent Christian counseling: Foundations and practice of compassionate soul care. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press.
huge part in the functioning of the emotional system of the church. If individuals in families and
Although written for church leadership, everyday church members would also benefit from understanding the concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders. Ms. Dawn's work is predominantly scholarly, and she cites several other works at great length.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The integration of psychology and Christianity is important because both psychology and Christianity are interested in human nature
Philosophy of Ministry: God's desires come first, I must always live my ministry God's way. I must live as a Christian (1 Corinthians 9:27) I must have a proper relationship of surrender to the Leader. In my personal life or in the Church I must understand that Christ is Head and Chief Shepherd (Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 13:20). The “management” of Church is about relationships with God and Man, not just maintaining a social organization.
Johnson, Eric L. (2007). Christ, The Lord of Psychology. In Daryl H. Stevenson, Brian E. Eck & Peter C. Hill (Eds.). Psychology Christianity Integration: Seminole Works that Shaped the Movement (pp. 42-57). Batavia, IL: Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Inc.
The shepherd and sheep relationship is the best illustration for the relationship between pastor and parishioners. When Jesus asked Simon Peter does he love him three times and said to him “Feed my sheep”, the shepherd and flock relationship has been set. Since Jesus is our good shepherd (Jn. 10:11a), he laid out a good example for us to follow - to lay down his life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:11b) Thus, the wellness of both in and out of the parishioners should always be the concern in the pastors’ hearts. Soul care for the people is essential. Christian friendship is the foundation of Christian soul care. Pastoral ministry including preaching, teaching, and worship forms the broad context of pastoral counseling. Pastoral care is within pastoral ministry but broader than pastoral counseling. God’s love is the source and motivation. Within the pastoral care, there are spiritual direction and pastoral
Throughout this course I have learned a lot about psychology. I will talk about how it affected me personally, socially, organizationally/societal, and the lasting impact it had in my life.