Question:
Answer:
Religion includes psychology, but it is not “mere” psychology. It includes every aspect of our experience and understanding. After all, everything we think and feel and desire and choose passes through our soul and has our soul as its source, so of course, psychology, which is the study of the workings of the human soul, is very relevant to religion.
Our Lord says that the first and great commandment is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind: that’s all the use of the powers we study in psychology. He also shows us his Sacred Heart, which is full of a sensitive, emotional human love for us, in addition to a spiritual divine love. Thus, any progress we can make in understanding human psychology is most helpful in understanding our religion and its practices and obligations.