While the pandemic mania has subsided to a significant degree, masks and vaccines continue to be debated. Many medical professionals continue to advocate masking, and some health science centers have reinstated mask requirements for clinical settings. Masks are the most visible sign of the covid-times, especially in comparison to hand-washing and vaccination. The latter two covid precautions are advocated, but we don’t see other people get shots or scrub hands nearly as much as we see people with (or without) masks. So, here follows a small thought on the psychological and religious role of masks today.

This article is a brief exploration of culture through two lenses. First, we will look at theologian Steven Bryan’s description of six possible responses to the challenge of multiple cultures in one sovereign polity. Then, we will discuss sociologist Phillip Rieff’s four stages of human culture.

Psychology. What a loaded word! To some people, the word draws up images of great progress in the understanding of human behavior and cognition about which the ancients could never dream or of which they could never conceive. To others, ‘psychology’ is tantamount to idolatry and synonymous with ‘secular.’ Similarly, when people hear the word counseling, they may imagine anything from the psychoanalytic couch, to a group intervention with a drug addict, to an awkward conversation with a well-meaning pastor or mentor. What is psychology? Is it biblical? Are there many definitions of the term? Should biblical counseling draw upon the insights of contemporary psychological studies? 

Substance Use Disorder, the technical name for addictions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association, lends itself to presenting the view that addiction is a disease much in the same way that a bladder infection is. Of course, it is acknowledged that beliefs and emotions play a larger role in addictive behavior than they do in a bladder infection; however, the predominant way of framing addictions is as a disease with some special caveats regarding the cognitive and the affective. Those with substance use disorder (SUD) are viewed as victims and as those suffering from an illness.