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Faith & Psychology: Personality, Religion & the Individual

Reviewed by Christopher MacKenna.

(This is one of two books reviewed in Edition 36 which seek to relate psychological understanding to Christian faith. The other is: Baker Fenn, Positive Christianity. Christava Sahitya Samithy, Tiruvalla, S. India, 2005)

Professor Francis’s book, Faith and Psychology: Personality, Religion and the Individual, is a very clear presentation of personality psychology in relation to Christian faith and church life.  Writing for interested non-psychologists Professor Francis describes how psychology and theology can work together, and then describes the personality theories pioneered by Hans Eysenck and Raymond Cattell, as well as Jung’s theory of psychological types - each of which can be approached by way of psychometric testing.  Given the enormous and, sometimes, enormously uncritical use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in some Christian circles, this is a landmark contribution to Christian spirituality, enhanced by Francis’s description of the ways in which these tests are constructed and evaluated.  Theological objections to the use of the Myers-Briggs Indicator are also considered.  Anyone reading these elegantly presented chapters will come away with a much better understanding of how psychological tests work, what they evaluate, and how - cautiously - their findings might be applied.

Prof. Francis concludes with three chapters in which he reports the findings of studies into the relationship between ministerial and congregational styles and psychological type.  He also addresses the implications of type theory for preaching: how preachers can speak to the different ‘types’ in their congregations.

This deceptively simple book is a model of concision and clarity; of interest to health professionals as much as to the lay audience for whom it is designed.