“Holding On” to the Theology-Psychology Relationship: The Underlying Fiduciary Structures of Interdisciplinary Method

Abstract

This article explores the personal dimension of interdisciplinary method. How do we as individuals hold on to the content of our disciplines and the relation between them? Many recent attempts at relating psychology and theology have missed the “hidden curriculum” of the interdisciplinary “assignment.” The ability to hold on to the psychology-theology relationship (in a way that does not capitulate to a deconstructivist relativism or regress to a foundationalist absolutism) depends on a sufficiently complex structure of consciousness within the individual that is capable of upholding inherently relational concepts. Based on the developmental framework of Robert Kegan's “subject-object” theory (1994), the model proposed here offers a classification of three underlying fiduciary structures, (“traditionalist,” “modernist,” and “post-modernist”) and explores the way they shape interdisciplinary method through several case studies. As Christians, we affirm that relationality itself is ultimately revealed and transformed by the Spirit of Christ, opening up to us new insights into our relational existence.

Crossing Borders: Toward a trans-disciplinary scientific identity

“…It is possible that among the requirements for overcoming barriers to interdisciplinary research we must take seriously the possibility of fostering transdisciplinary identities by cultivating a complex relational consciousness (Shults, 1997).…”