PERCEPTION AND FAITH: THE INTEGRATION OF GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY IN THE THOUGHT OF C. S. LEWI

This dissertation investigates the problem of perceiving and knowing as it relates to the specifically religious issue of perceiving and believing. The research is guided by an underlying question. Assuming that religious faith is a specialized category of perception, how might a psychological theory of perception comprehend a religious tradition?;The research is limited by two methodological parameters. The first is presuppositional, the second hypothetical.;Philosophical thought and psychological research have produced two basic traditions with regard to the problem of perception. One of these, the tradition of Empiricism, is usually traced to David Hume, and recurs in contemporary Behaviorism. The second is Nativism, usually traced to the philosophy of Rene Descartes, but detectable in most of the ancients as well. Modern Gestalt and Gestalt-based psychologies of perception are derived from the Nativist tradition. Because of its influence on the psychology of perception in particular, and on the development of humanistic psychology in general, Gestalt psychology has been chosen as a theoretical model for this research.;The second parameter provides the organizing principle for the dissertation. It is hypothesized that the thought of the Christian philosopher C. S. Lewis betrays a tacit integration of Gestalt psychology and Christian theology. In view of the aims of this study, this hypothesis has a double focus. One focus concerns the psychological dimensions of Lewis's thought. The research attempts to demonstrate that Lewis's thought not ony harmonizes with key Gestalt concepts; it actually developed, at least quasi-formally, from Gestalt sources. The second focus concerns the degree to which Lewis's thought provides a model for the kind of integration proposed in the dissertation.;Three introductory chapters survey the problem and examine the philosophical basis for Gestalt psychology. Two subsequent chapters investigate the influences which produced the philosophical methodology of C. S. Lewis. Three final chapters critically analyze Lewis's apologia for points of comparison and contrast with Gestalt Psychology.