Date of Award

1964

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Seminary

Abstract

This thesis seeks to grapple with one of the most crucial issues confronting Christian theology today, namely, what to make of the insights and discoveries of the newer disciplines of psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, psychotherapy, etc. For a while psychology proceeded as though theology did not exist or as though it were a remnant of the superstitions of a previous age. However, in recent years psychological practitioners outside the church have shown somewhat greater interest in the religious life of their patients and in the role of religious life of their patients and in the role of religious life and practice in mental health and illness.

Both Christianity and psychology describe in considerable detail the distortions of human existence under the pressures of anxiety and estrangement. Both seek the transformation of the personality rather than the mere suppression of symptoms. These two disciplines, therefore, cannot remain aloof from each other. While retaining their respective and distinctive roles, they must become allies.

The basic purpose of this investigation has been to make a critical appraisal of E. Stanley Jones' concept of conversion from a theological and psychological frame of reference. Both the field of psychology and theology are extremely sensitive. Yet, in the popular writings of one of the most outstanding writers of our generation, that of E. Stanley Jones', these two disciplines converge.

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