Issue with Entwistle's Integrative Approaches

Entwistle, D.N. (2004). Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models of integration. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.

“All truth is God’s truth” (Entwistle, 2004, p.16) is central to Entwistle’s position that Christianity and psychology are to be allies with equal say in the truth. Entwistle (2004) is so convinced of this that Christians with a differing opinion “lack competency in psychology as a discipline”, (Entwistle, 2004, p. 217). Entwistle (2004) attacks MacArthur and Crabb who both take the position that the Bible is the ultimate authority. Despite his explanation that a person’s presuppositions determine how the Bible and the world are interpreted, there were few if any examples of flawed Bible interpretations. Entwistle (2004) himself makes the point that this world is fallen and, as such, is farther from God than the Word is.
Entwistle quotes Myers and Jeeves (2003) as saying that it is our religious duty to search for truth and that it is part of worshipping God. Entwistle (2004) further states that there are truths in the world that are not covered by the Bible such as the inner workings of the brain. Both of these statements raise concern that Entwistle (2004) is making the need that the truth be known greater than the need to know the Savior. When there is conflict between the Word and the works, we must, as the Colonists and the prima scriptura integrationists assert, default to the authority of the Bible. We must have faith in God’s Word especially when our minds cannot grasp a concept. By rationalizing that the Bible is interpreted wrongly, we risk diminishing His authority and making science our god.