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SUMMARY * For the most part, psychology and theology have been considered to be enemies as both deal with the basic questions about life and the human experience from different approaches. Psychology places human experience (empirically) at the core of understanding and theology places God (our interpretation of His Word) at the center of understanding human experiences. Theology is faith based and includes a strong acceptance of the Bible as the basis of all truth. Psychology is empirically based and leaves little room for faith or acceptance of the supernatural. It is easy to see how the two disciplines can be viewed as enemies. However, Entwistle provides an in depth look at both and paves a way to model the two in such a way that they complement and complete one another.
According to Entrwistle, "Everyone has a worldview - a window through which he or she views the world, assumptions, and beliefs that color what he or she sees." (Entwistle, 2004, p. 67) The book begins by discussing in depth how our worldview affects our way of thinking about everything, including psychology and theology. As the author points out, our worldviews are not so much chosen as much as they are learned from our experiences, education, and culture. Most are not even aware that their views on everything are filtered through these windows, which both distort and clarify our interpretation of what we see.
In addition to the ways that particular worldviews shape our attitude about psychology and theology, we also approach the subject according to the models we have constructed regarding the two disciplines. Entwistle described 5 distinct paradigms of relational approaches to understanding the various models. Enemies, which include both secular combatants and Christian combatants, do not see any reconciliation between psychology and theology. Spies, both domestic and foreign, will hold allegiance to one discipline but selectively taking components from the other. Colonialists are