The Uneasy Relationship Between Christian Spirituality and the Human Sciences: Psychology as a Test Case

With the dawn of the scientific method in the 18th and 19th centuries, the appreciation of reality focused on quantifiable data and the method of direct observation almost completely become the norm.  Therefore, while the human sciences were developing as independent disciplines in the 19th and 20th centuries they, at times, were also subject to this reductive move.  While many contemporary studies in the human sciences, including contemporary studies in spirituality, work hard to overcome a strictly quantitative approach to reality, there has sometimes been a tendency to develop methodological research practices that favor direct observation while omitting the qualitative aspect of human life.  The development of behaviorism as one field of study in psychology is an example.  Contemporary studies in spirituality need to be mindful of using quantitative approaches to research methods and practices—especially when they are subtlety hidden within the methodology chosen—so that the qualitative aspect of reality is not forgotten.