In the article by E.D. Chomskaya in «Questions of Psychology» No. 3, 1997, a sharp separation of religion and psychology was made and their complete incompatibility was postulated. It is characteristic that some representatives of religion also deny the possibility of Christian psychology, considering psychology to be devoid of grace and serving only dark forces. They believe that any priest can perform the duties of a psychotherapist, based on asceticism, moral theology and the teachings of the Holy Fathers. However, let us recall the words of Lomonosov: “Science and faith mutually complement and reinforce each other. And prudent and kind people should consider whether there is any way to explain and avert the imaginary civil strife between them.
Differences between scientific psychology and religion:
- Scientific psychology studies the psyche as a special apparatus that serves a person in his orientation in the world and reflection of reality. Personality is a psychological tool for a person to find himself. The psyche is not the whole person, since a person is much more than his psychology.
- In religion, the main subject is not the psyche in man, but man in God, his integrity, meaning and purpose. Personality is correlated with man, man is correlated with God, is His Image and likeness. The methodology of theology is not transferable to scientific psychology, just as it is blasphemous to directly transfer psychological methods to religious subjects.
- Both psychology and religion have a system of solid foundations, and both are forms of human consciousness, understanding of reality. But their foundations are different: in psychology, the analysis is carried out according to individual parameters and facts, in religion, an integral event, a change, is analyzed. In psychology, maximum detachment, fixation of a fact is used, in religion — living empathy, involvement in the experience.
In both cases, there are laws and their own internal logic. The external interpretation is ambiguous in both cases, since many interpretative lines can be drawn through one point. So, psychology and religion have different objects of comprehension and different forms of interpretation. The forms of their correlation are the correct correlation of levels, their interaction and connection.
The soul is the initial concept for both psychology and religion. The idea of the soul is twofold:
- The soul is perceived as an organ of experiences, spiritual manifestations — emotions, feelings. This is, as it were, the external side of mental phenomena, it is in the field of attention of psychology.
- The innermost side of the soul is the eternal, immortal energy and substance, which manifests itself in external parameters, but cannot be reduced to them. This side of the soul is unattainable for psychological methods.
Ep. Serpukhovskoy Anastasy: “We must not forget about the natural limits of the knowledge of the soul in general and the applicability of the experimental method in particular. Only, so to speak, the external side of the soul, which is turned to the material world, can be subjected to an exact definition: But is it possible to investigate the inner essence of the soul by experiment, to measure its highest manifestations? Such attempts would lead not to positive, but to the most perverse results. (from the speech and greetings in honor of the opening of the Shchukina Psychological Institute. Reprint of the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education. M., 1994, p.2)
Scientific psychology has completely discarded the second, innermost side of the soul from its field of vision, which has led to the fact that «man has been forgotten.» But the outer side of the soul cannot be fully understood, studied, educated without taking into account its essential connection with the inner side, with spiritual aspirations. Separating the inner side from the outer side for research purposes, we must be aware of their constant and dramatic correlation, in the striving for an elusive unity and correspondence. This is the fullness of human life, its innermost meaning.
But can the dimensional be related to the immeasurable? This correlation is in each person as a finite-infinite being. Psychology should not be separated from a full-fledged image of a person, his anthropological reality. In the 20th century, this image became truncated, devoid of metaphysical dimension and height. Psychology should serve, focus on a complete, holistic person who has not only a body, a complex consciousness, diverse experiences, but also the highest manifestations of the soul — the spirit.
The psychic exists and acts not for its own sake, but as an apparatus, an instrument for achieving the human essence. Ethics, philosophy, theology are not random, experience-tested languages, the expression of this essence, the ultimate meanings of being, which constitute the working condition of scientific and applied developments. Only they give the latter a real scale and meaning in culture.
The soul in the second, inner sense is not reduced to psychology and does not dissolve psychology in itself. Religious-philosophical and psychological levels do not replace each other. Religion reflects the vertical aspiration of a person to a higher principle, responding to his need to search for the meaning of life, which cannot be destroyed by the fact of death. Scientific psychology is occupied with the horizontal plane — man in time and space. It answers the question “how?”, “for what?”, “what are the mechanisms?” The movement of life from within requires awareness of its meaning, and the meaning implies implementation — the implementation of movement in a certain direction in a specific time and space.
It is important for a psychologist to know whether the vertical is limited by egocentric or group-centric meanings or has a higher relatedness. This is a significant indicator of its integrity or split.
Any psychotherapy seeks to eliminate some kind of split. Psychoanalysis, Gestalt — to overcome the split between mind and heart. Behavioral therapy is between mind and will. Christian psychology is between the first and second sense of the soul. The split between these meanings can manifest itself in a conscious and unconscious form, but can lead to serious consequences for the fate and salvation of a person.
The soul must return to psychology in its innermost sense, but not as an object of study, but as an object of correlation and conjugation, a guideline of movement. The line of Christian psychology is a conscious orientation towards the Christian image of a person, a Christian understanding of his essence and consideration of development as a path towards this model. In case of deviating from this path, we are talking about ways to correct them.
But what about other faiths? BUT here we are talking about Christian culture and the forms of science generated by it. Cultures that have grown on other roots are oriented towards other images and ways of implementing them. Intersection points are possible here, but the meaning of the directions passes through these points to other goals. It is necessary to decide which for us is the desired one, native to your culture and your soul.
The only constructive way to study human spirituality is not confrontation, but the mutual complementation of the results of searches and reflections.