In the end he offers us a new definition of sin complete with a contemporary confession. That is no small achievement. Sin announces that something is greatly wrong and opens conversation on human suffering of a particular sort that resurfaces in every generation in adapted cultural clothes. Unlike Pence, I approach the topic as one who did not grow up in the church, but wandered into a local congregation in my teens where I was welcomed and supported. Some psychologists have claimed to be the new priests for human living, frightening the psycho-faithful.
Psychology is a strange religion.
While it offers us tools to assist those in emotional pain as well as skills and understanding to help raise children, most schools of psychology claim, as Christian denominations have before them, that their approach is the true way to help human beings achieve emotional health and happiness. As psychology becomes popular, generalizations become more extreme and more dogmatic. Another deadly doctrine of psychology is that there is a right way to raise children, guaranteeing that they will be happy and successful adults. Frightened young people tell me earnestly that they want to be psychologically healthy. Psychology promises more than it can deliver.