Bringing the Academic Discipline of Psychology to Bear on the Study of the Bible

This article is a wide-ranging consideration of the role that contemporary academic psychology might play in the study of the Bible. I begin by examining the historical reasons for suspicion of psychology within the community of biblical scholarship, focusing on several perennial objections. Having addressed these objections, I go on to set out a framework for the legitimate use of psychology in enhancing understanding of the process of production and reception of the biblical texts, and of elucidating their meaning. Finally, I suggest that some contemporary methodological quality-control systems from psychology might inform the question of what constitutes a good reading of a particular text. I explore this issue further by using the example of trauma processing in relation to the New Testament, suggesting that if the text is to be received as transformative, a good reading is likely to be dissonant, challenging, or ugly.