Recently, a major Christian university in the United States began a search for someone to head up their doctoral programmes in clinical psychology. Along with a curriculum vitae, they asked for a 750-word essay on the relationship between psychology and theology.

Psychology and theology might seem like very different domains. After all, in the popular view, one has to do with the mentally disturbed and the other has to do with God. Then again, perhaps to some people these might not be so far apart after all. Terrible things have been done in the name of God. Many times the deranged and irrational, the paranoid and psychotic, believe they either hear from God or are divine themselves. When does what might be called the normal spiritual experience of being led by God turn into delusion? What has God got to do with psychology anyway?

Psyche is the transliteration of a Greek word that is variously translated 'soul', 'self', or 'mind', and it is the root for the term "psychology". Psyche refers to the inner, immaterial and rational nature of a person that influences behaviour. The Bible says that in the beginning, God formed human beings from the dust, breathed into them, and they became living souls (there is a Hebrew word there, nephesh, that was translated by the Greeks using the word psyche). Thus, if one follows this line of thinking, God is the original psychologist. He is the Creator-Psychologist. Thus, God knows what it's like to be human, because He is the designer of human beings. The Bible also says that we can know about the nature of God from looking at the things God has created. If you look at a delicate, blown-glass vase, with warm colours, you can think that the artist must have had inside him somewhere a capacity for warmth and an appreciation for delicacy. We know the artist from what he or she has made. Just so, then, we can appreciate some things about God from looking at the things He has created, and human beings are part of that creation. Thus, there is a natural theology possible from observing and contemplating human beings, especially from the study of our immaterial attributes, since God is spirit-immaterial.

Fast forward from creation to the contemporary scene. Today, pastors do counselling and psychologists help people with spiritual needs.

Indeed, a cursory look at Amazon.com yields the following results:

¦ Spiritual Approaches in the Treatment of Women With Eating Disorders by P. Scott Richards, Randy K. Hardman, and Michael E. Berrett.

¦ Integrative Psychotherapy: Toward a Comprehensive Christian Approach by Mark R. McMinn and Clark D. Campbell

¦ Spirituality in Clinical Practice: Incorporating the Spiritual Dimension in Psychotherapy and Counseling by Len Sperry.

¦ Encountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy: How to Talk with People about Their Spiritual Lives by James L. Griffith and Melissa Elliott.

¦ Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls: A Guide to Christian Approaches and Practices by Gary W. Moon and David G. Benner.

Whether one is a pastor and must consider how much psychology to introduce in one's pastoral counselling, or whether one is a psychologist and must consider how much to entertain the spiritual dimension in one's practice before actually referring to the clergy, each person must practice awareness and become mindful of the balance for him or herself.

My own balance tip-toes upon beliefs and commitments such as the following:

1. All that actually is includes how God actually is and what God actually does. Thus, if the earth actually revolves around the sun, then it does that for God too. If I can discover things about creation from systematic observation, then I can discover things that are true for God as well.

2. I am finite, and thus limited in my ability to observe, discover, and interpret the "facts" as I find them. Thus, I need to hold my theories about creation and God loosely and to be open to the observations and interpretations of others in both psychology and theology.

3. With regard to both psychology and theology I utilise the abductive approach that defers to the explanation that answers the greatest number of questions, realising that certainty is an impossibility.

4. I also accept and rely upon faith as a basic principle of interfacing in life-contact between self and other, where "other" can be other persons and also other aspects of one's environment and not just the metaphysical issues related to God.

5. God has revealed general information about some aspects of human life, especially as those pertain to one's relatedness to God Himself, but beyond that God speaks to people directly through discourse that serves to guide them in the specifics of their respective lives.

6. Thus, at any time during psychotherapy, theological study, or pastoral counselling, a person can become enlightened by God, and the enlightenment can go in diverse and multiple directions with regard to application.

The relationship between psychology and theology is not as much an oxymoron as one might think. There is no actual need to keep them compartmentalised, in separate silos, for the study of one's soul is intrinsically related to one's beliefs about God.