Invitation to the Table Conversation: A Few Diverse Perspectives on Integration

This article represents an invitation to the "integration table" to several previously underrepresented perspectives within Christian psychology. The Judeo-Christian tradition and current views on scholarship and Christian faith compel us to extend hospitality to minority voices within integration, thereby enriching and challenging existing paradigms in the field. Contributors to this article, spanning areas of cultural, disciplinary, and theological diversity, provide suggestions for how their distinct voices can enhance future integrative efforts A Few Diverse Perspectives on Integration (Yangarber-Hicks) Anniversary celebrations generally draw to the gathering table family members and friends who have shared one's life journey. Seeing familiar faces allows the person being honored to reminisce about the joys and struggles of life in an atmosphere of safety and continuity. While this practice of inviting the closest of kin to celebrate special events fits a framework familiar to most of us, the Judeo-Christian tradition offers an alternative model for marking important milestones in life. In biblical times and in the Jewish tradition today, during Sabbath celebrations and other festival meals hosts are encouraged to extend hospitality to guests and visitors outside the immediate family, particularly the poor (Tzedekah and hospitality, n.d.). Moreover, throughout His earthly ministry Jesus, literally and figuratively, invited both outcasts within the Jewish community and Gentiles who had previously been strangers to the God of Israel to fellowship with Him (i.e., Matthew 22: 1-14). As believers, we are called to strive for spiritual unity while recognizing and appreciating the uniqueness of each member of the Body (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Inviting "others" in our midst to the anniversary celebration not simply as a nice and conciliatory gesture but as a reflection of a vital need all of us share is the goal that inspired this article. The pursuit of integration between Christian faith and psychology in the last 50 years has produced much fruit despite the lingering lack of consensus regarding definitions of the integration enterprise, criteria for determining truth, and future directions (Hill & Kauffmann, 1996). Perhaps one area of agreement among the various stakeholders is that current and future generations of those committed to integration have much work left to do. Even a cursory survey of literature in the field suggests that important voices and perspectives on Christian psychology have either not made their way to or have been infrequent guests at the integration table (e.g., Canning, case, & Kruse, 2001). This article is, first of all, an attempt to make room at the celebration for a few of these visitors and let them briefly share their stories. Additionally, it is my hope that after listening to their voices, we will seriously consider how to include these perspectives in the shaping of our daily integrative life and traditions, beyond extending hospitality to them for this special anniversary celebration. As Jacobsen and Jacobsen (2004) compellingly argued in their book Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation, "Dialogue with those with whom we disagree, or from whom we simply differ, provides . a critical assessment of our academic work that, taken seriously, will help keep our scholarship honest, preventing us from mistaking our own views as unalloyed truth" (p. 78). The contributors to the article represent various aspects of diversity, including disciplinary, cultural, and theological. It is important to note that the sampling of these contributors is not meant to be representative of all those who ought to be heard by the larger world of integration. However, the perspectives described in the next few pages are the ones that, for various reasons, have frequently been left out of important conversations by the mainstream community of Christian psychologists. …