Compass Psychotheology, Modern Life, and the Bible

Compass Psychotheology brings together a century of research into the psychology of human behavior with a spiritual foundation of Scripture and Christian orthodoxy.

In a nutshell, early in my career as both a psychology professor and licensed therapist, I challenged the metaphysical assumptions that underlie Freudian, Jungian, behavioral, and humanistic approaches to being human. I grateful receiving valuable insights, while replacing the erroneous metaphysics with the foundation of Old and New Testament Scripture: the Bible.

Why did I do this? Because I believe that God created humankind; and that God therefore knows, understands, and created the way humans function as psycho-social-spiritual beings. As a psychology professor I taught twelve different graduate and undergraduate courses. This learning experience opened my own eyes to what God already knows about psychology, including: cognition, emotion, motivation, personality, memory, learning, perception, social psychology, sexuality and lifespan development. I began to understand how "we are fearfully and wonderfully made." And as a direct consequence I grew more in love with God, our Creator and Redeemer.

Knowing these fields within contemporary psychology does not need to exclude spirituality, nor does it need to disqualify the supernatural, miracles, and biblical prophecy as realities, not only in biblical times, but today.

So I sought to put together faith and reason in understanding God and human behavior, with faith coming first, and reason following, as long as it is humble reasoning that includes what Scripture says about human purpose and psychosocial processes.

Now that the ten books of the Compass Series books have been written, my attention is keenly focused on how this body of knowledge can enrich churches and the Body of Christ.

Just today I spoke with a man in his eighties, a nationally known motivational speaker, who said, "Dan, this message you are bringing about how pastor's and congregants need to understand their own and other people's personalities is greatly needed in the church. Too often pastors are prepared in seminary with theological topics and church polity, and given little or know knowledge of human psychological functioning. I hope this changes through the knowledge you are bringing to the Christian faith."

I hope so, too, since my experience over forty years is that many people are incapable of growing a deeper love for Christ precisely because they are held captive to psychological dynamics, especially unconscious ones, they neither comprehend nor make progress outgrowing. 

If there's a mission for compass psychotheology yet to accomplish, it is this: to wed psychology and biblical faith within us, so that we can grow in understanding ourselves and God, and thereby experience more keenly the intimacy and adventure God created us to know.