Psychology and the Parish Priest

Canon Dewar's book is very timely. At the International Congress on Mental Health, held in August, 1948, in London, emphasis was frequently laid on the fact that the parson was a member of the mental health team. The antipathy between the exponent of the young and growing science of human behaviour and authoritarian religion, has prevented the co-operation which would be of mutual benefit to both. The Church traditionally has resisted advances in the field of science, as witness its persecution of Galileo, Darwin, Freud and others. Very few now disagree with the findings of the earlier scientists, and it is a pity that the theologians should base their attack on psychological hypotheses that have been modified in the light of findings during the last 20 years. Similarly, the psychologists, both medical and lay, base their attack on religion on outworn theology. This book seeks to combine the two disciplines, and points the way to a field common to both.