Liberty University Integration Exam
What is the definition of the Hebrew word hebel?
- Breath, vapor, or breeze - Without substance - Unable to be grasped
What imagery describes the Holy Spirit, according to Neff and McMinn?
- He is an advocate/guide/helper/counselor - He is a flickering flame - God's Spirit cannot be reduced to ideas, words, theologies, and theories - He is a sustainer, companion, and intercessor in all suffering - God's Spirit is steady/constant companion - He is a midwife to new life - Creative, expansive energy of God's Spirit (ruach)
What are the implications of Jesus being a redeemer?
- We don't have to be pain- and weakness-free to reconcile with God - Instead, we can invite Him into our pain - Christ is with us when we are confused - He chose to be humble rather than exerting His right to superiority - We should do the same with clients
According to Entwistle, what is a worldview?
1. A window through which the world is seen, framed by the assumptions and beliefs that color what a person sees 2. Shapes how we understand our experience in the world and reflect our expectations about life 3. A set of presuppositions (assumptions that may be true, partially or inconsistently) that we hold (consciously or unconsciously) about the basic make-up of the world
According to Entwistle, the neutral parties model views psychology and theology as distinct, not interacting, and able to be carried out through psychological neutrality and Christian neutrality. Who is included in the Christian neutrality group?
1. Carter 2. Naramore 3. Clement 4. David Myers 5. Malcom Jeeves of the Sacred Parallel Approach 6. Fraser Watts
According to Entwistle, what does the Allies model assert?
1. Christ is the Creator of all things 2. Human purpose is expressed when we see ourselves in proper relationship with God 3. We should be faithful in studying the books of God's works and Word 4. God is sovereign
What are the three major theories of atonement?
1. Christus Victor/ransom theory: Christ's sacrifice provided victory over sin, Satan, and death 2. Moralistic theory: Christ's obedience to the Cross is used as a model to move us towards repentance and moral transformation 3. Satisfaction/penal substitution: Christ's death is viewed within a legal and penal framework. This view is the dominant one in American Christianity where His death is viewed as substitutionary payment for our sins.
What are the eight points in the "Reasons for Forgiveness Scale"?
1. Forgiveness helps me get on with my life. 2. I want to keep peace in our relationship. 3. I understand why s/he did it. 4. I've done bad things too and have been forgiven. 5. I love this person. 6. It is not that big of a deal. 7. If I had behaved differently it wouldn't have happened. 8. Forgiveness is the right thing to do.
What are the three major views of the Imago Dei?
1. Functional - humans image God with how we function in the world 2. Substantive - the likeness of God (human reasoning, ethical nature, the ability to be relational) is located within humankind 3. Relational - our capacity to have relationships and our thriving in them is what makes us image God
What are the implications for God's missional nature for us as counselors?
1. God is already at work in clients' lives when we enter them 2. Our mission is less about doing something to our patients and more about being oriented to them in a way that bears witness to God.
What does postmodernism mean?
1. Increased comfort with multiple perspectives 2. New and complex problems are being discussed
According to Entwistle, what is an epistemological assumption made by the Enemies model (Christian Combatants version)?
1. Psychology and religion (Christianity) are fundamentally incompatible 2. Rejection and eradication 3. Nouthetic counseling—people are not sick but sinful, the use of psychology is idolatrous, the care of the soul belongs solely to the church, Scripture is sufficient for all psychological needs
According to Entwistle, what does the Enemies model of integration (Secular Combatants subtype) assert?
1. Scientific thinking is incompatible with religious belief 2. Believes in psychology and science but rejects Christianity. Example: Freud, Ellis, famous atheists. Freud: religion is neurosis, Mechanistic physiology, human rationality, scientific method 3. Religion is an infantile need that can be supplanted by science and truth
What are some important considerations when treating someone with depression from a Christian worldview?
1. Some depression contains a longing for connection and desire to be cared for by others - This type of depression can include a tendency to turn anger inward - Taken together, this can produce a feeling of existential loneliness 2. When Christians feel this way, they may feel abandoned by God 3. Therapeutic missteps (encouragement to ignore spiritual dimensions of depression; encouragement to abandon God and faith, etc.) are typical in these cases 4. Encouraging this type of lament to be expressed to God can be helpful
What is included in the idea of lament?
1. Suffering 2. Giving voice to our suffering 3. Resistance to the way things are 4. Trust in the person receiving our lament
According to Entwistle, what are the five keys to a Christian Theocentric worldview?
1. The essential unity of truth is recognized as grounded in a transcendent God who created an orderly world. 2. Human capacities are seen as God-given, to be guided by intellectual and moral virtues and resulting in adoration of God. 3. Reality is seen as a holistic unity composed of physical, social, psychological, and transcendent phenomena. 4. Human finitude, frailty, and the individual and corporate (communal) effects of sin are recognized as limiting factors in the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge. 5. Various means of epistemic (relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation) inquiry (e.g., rational discourse, empirical investigation, etc.) are recognized as means of evaluating truth claims though each has unique strengths, limitations, and areas of application that make them relevant to different forms of epistemic application.
Citing Walsh and Middleton, Entwistle points out that worldviews ask four basic questions. What are they?
1. What does it mean to be human/a person? 2. What is the nature of the world? 3. What is wrong with the world and why did things go wrong? 4. How can the wrong in the world and my life be fixed?
How does a client's view of atonement impact their personal relationship with God
A person's belief about atonement can often affect his or her view of God, which in turn, can provide both protective and/or risk factors.
According to Entwistle, in the ____________________ model "psychological and theological methods are utilized to gain a more holistic and unified understanding of Truth."
Allies
Consider the following: Psychology highlights the awareness of multiple determinants of behavior (genetics, social environment, reinforcement history, etc.). This might help us understand why one individual struggles with certain sins while the same sins are not tempting for another individual. Then too, theology reminds us of the pervasiveness of sin and that while each individual may struggle with different types of sin, we all struggle with sin in some form. This example of the interaction between psychology and theology interaction illustrates which model in Entwistle's book?
Allies
Consider this definition: The integration of psychology and Christianity is a multifaceted attempt to discern the underlying truths about the nature and functioning of human beings from the unique vantage points of psychology (in its various sub-disciplines, utilizing diverse methodologies) and Christianity (in theology, faith, and practice). Which of Entwistle's models best fits this definition?
Allies
Which of Entwistle's models best describes the approach of Liberty University's graduate counseling program?
Allies
According to Entwistle, when a Christian counselor is seeking to integrate psychology and theology in order to help a couple deal with marital conflict in a counseling session, the Christian counselor is practicing ________________ integration.
Applied
What does Brene Brown say about selective emotional numbing?
Brown says, "There's no such thing as selective emotional numbing. There is a full spectrum of emotions, and when we numb the dark, we numb the light."
According to Entwistle, Jay Adams and John MacArthur are antagonistic toward psychology. As such, they are examples of which subset of Entwistle's Enemies model?
Christian Combatants
According to Entwistle, what does the Enemies model of integration (Christian Combatants subtype) assert?
Christians opposed to any integration of scientific and philosophical psychology with Christian counseling. Scripture stands above Creation as an area for exploration and learning. Any use of psychotherapy or psychotropic medication is not needed for victorious Christians.
According to Entwistle, the ____________________ model filters "isolated psychological findings through proof-texts or worldview; accepts or rejects findings without engaging discipline or methods of psychology."
Colonialists
Which of Entwistle's models emphasizes God's Word over God's Works?
Colonialists place the book of God's Word over the book of God's Works and theology over psychology. This type of thinking often results in psychological findings being accepted or rejected based on scattered Scriptural proof-texting with inadequate exegesis and insufficient attention to psychological data or methods.
What is one difference between Entwistle's Spies model and his Colonialists model?
Colonialists typically adhere to conservative Christian theological systems rather than liberal or neo-orthodox positions. While Colonialists belong to conservative systems, they borrow selective findings from psychology. Spies, on the other hand, extract psychological content from a religious system for mental health purposes.
Many who subscribe to the Enemies model (Christian Combatants version) believe what?
Counseling is the church's responsibility and should not be done by psychiatrists or psychologists
What does the writer of Ecclesiastes say that a recipe for living well is?
Don't look for perfection or certainty. Instead, when times are good, be happy. When times are bad, understand that God made both. "Who can speak it and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?" (Lamentations 3:37-38)
According to Entwistle, the ______________ model is based on the belief that psychology and theology/Christianity are mutually exclusive and incompatible with each other.
Enemies
According to Entwistle, there are two types of Spies: _________________ (psychologists who seek to identify religious elements that have psychological benefits) and _____________ (those who practice a watered-down religion and are interested in proclaiming its psychological benefits).
Foreigners; domestic residents
What is the implicit tension that Neff and McMinn describe?
Instead of (a) minimizing pain and maximizing a loving, powerful God, (b) maximizing pain and minimizing a loving, powerful God, it may be best to (c) hold onto the dissonance and paradox of pain that co-exists with a loving, powerful God.
What is neuroscience discovering about human beings?
Our nervous systems interact with one another. When we are around another person, our nervous systems are not buffered one from another but instead interact and become porous. The result means a reduction of the perception of pain and the ability to regulate difficult emotions.
According to Entwistle, what does the Neutral Parties model (also known as the Levels of Explanation model) assert?
Pastors handle spiritual problems, and mental health professionals handle emotional problems. Psychology and theology are different topics and are to be handled differently.
Psychology and theology both use what methodology in their disciplines?
Rational inquiry
According to Entwistle, an integration problem for both scientists and theologians is what?
Scientists have only marginal knowledge of theology, and theologians have minimal knowledge of science, so there is a need for integration enthusiasts to develop a dual-disciplinary expertise.
Freud, Ellis, and Maslow were antagonistic toward religion. As such, they are examples of which subset of Entwistle's Enemies model?
Secular Combatants
According to Entwistle, there are two versions of the Enemies model. The ____________ combatants are antagonistic toward religious belief, whereas the ________________ combatants see psychology as the enemy.
Secular; Christian
What would Neff and McMinn would say about working with clients facing difficulties?
Sometimes it is best to understand many problems do not have solutions, and many times the best practice is to sit with the client and witness his or her pain.
According to Neff and McMinn, Randall Sorenson famously noted what?
That integration is "caught" more than it is "taught."
What are the Creation narratives of the Ancient Near East?
The Creation narratives of the ancient near East are not as concerned with factual accuracy as much of the Western protestant world is. Instead, it focuses more on relational aspects. For example, the Creation narrative of the ancient near East emphasizes that - God is distinct from Creation yet chooses to be bound to it by moving toward it - God is both above and beyond Creation while also invested in and present to it - Humans are image-bearers, representatives of God on earth to do His good work
How does a counselor's view of him or herself in relation to God impact the way they interact with clients?
The counselor's ability to relate to God while in their sinful state will affect their ability to be present with distressed patients. The hustle for worth paradigm will often cause counselors to short circuit the crucial relational aspect of counseling.
What do Neff and McMinn say about the power of story?
The narratives of our lives are often not created - nor do they exist - in a vacuum. The narratives we and others tell about us influence how we view ourselves.
Imagine that Albert Ellis has a recent conversion experience which radically changes his outlook on religion. Even though he now believes that religion is a valuable area of study, he also thinks that both psychology and religion need to remain separate fields of academic discipline. His position now is that clients who enter counseling talking about spiritual issues need to be referred to pastors or religious counselors, while clients that are talking about emotional issues need to be seen by secular counselors. Ellis is now embracing which position of Entwistle's models of integration?
The neutral parties model
What is the Problem of Evil?
The problem of evil is an attempt to solve the question: if God is all-loving and all-powerful, why do so many bad things happen in the world? The text offers three theodicies: (1) free will theodicy (God allows free will, which can cause pain), (2) growth (Creation is a work in progress, and pain spurs growth), and (3) suffering God (we know no logical [left-brained] reason for suffering, but we know God walks with us through it).
What does Neff and McMinn say about a theological and anthropology of goodness?
The theologically grounded view of goodness is that humanity is fundamentally good if not entirely good.
According to Entwistle, what is the most significant principle that allows for dialogue and interaction between psychology and theology?
The unity of truth or underlying unity
How does the penal substitution theory relate to the contemporary Protestant Church?
This is the view that has been most widely adopted by the present-day Protestant portion of the Church. But holding tightly to this view brings these problems: (1) It impedes us from exploring other options that may also be true, and (2) it impacts our view of God, which affects how we treat clients.
What is "integration as conversation"?
This means that the counselor embodies integration, becoming an integrator of both theology and psychology. This means we as counselors have conversations about integration and what it looks like in a postmodern world.
What is the nonviolent theory of atonement?
This view states that God allowed Jesus to be drawn into a sinful world, and the sinful world confronted Him with death. Jesus, in His commitment to be with the poor and oppressed, chooses to confront violence with nonviolence and, thus, He chooses to die on the Cross. His Resurrection demonstrates that violence does not have the final word.
What are some things that a Christian counselor can do to develop deep empathy
Tolerate existential disillusionment; understand that unpredictable pain is especially difficult because we crave control even if it is an illusion. Acknowledge the existential terror that comes with being human.
Why do Neff and McMinn say that Ecclesiastes is a good book of the Bible to refer to when encountering issues of integration today?
We live in circumstances similar to those described in Ecclesiastes. - Economic instability - We live in hebel - Religious disillusionment - Empathy emphasized
What is generally true about lamenting in the midst of the Western Church (p. 32) - staying present in the midst of suffering?
Western Christians often struggle to stay present in the midst of suffering. We tend to want to move quickly to solutions and what we perceive as health.
What is a foundational question for a counselor considering their mission from God while operating from a Christian worldview?
What is God up to in the world?
According to Entwistle, the neutral party's model views psychology and theology as distinct, not interacting, and able to be carried out through psychological neutrality and Christian neutrality. Who adheres to this?
a. Allport b. M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled c. Thomas Moore, a Jungian psychotherapist