A personal sojourn to spiritualize community psychology

From a personal perspective on the tensions experienced in my career as a community psychologist, I advocate spiritualizing community psychology. I draw heavily from my teaching and research of the history of the discipline, as well as from teaching introductory psychology to Native students. Using the critical concept of scientism to examine the historical dialectic between objectivity and subjectivity, I show how a quasi-religion of psychology has Prevailed, while excluding soul, spirit, and spirituality. Radical developments in Christianity (i.e., liberation theology, the historical Jesus scholarship, and feminist theology further challenge community psychologists seeking rapprochement with religion and spirituality. I conclude by discussing the implications of a conversion to spirituality for community psychology. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.