I cannot put an exact date on the time that I became very interested in psychology and especially in various psychological theories about the way that human persons grow and develop.

Though I have never been in therapy, many of my friends have and some of my closest friends are counselors. I love to talk about psychological development, to read about it and to reflect on my own experiences of both growing emotionally and of failing to grow emotionally.

Though I have never bought into the view that knowledge of psychology can offer a panacea that can solve all human problems, I do believe strongly that psychology offers insights that can help people, myself included, enormously. I suspect that there was a time in my life when I might have profited greatly from being in therapy and that I might have been able to work out problems more easily than I did.

Given my attitude toward psychology, it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I welcomed receiving Vincent Rush’s new book “We Will Be Like Him: Growing Toward God at Every Age of Life” (Paulist Press).

Vin takes his title, which is perfect for his book, from the First Letter of St. John 3:2: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

The quotation sums up succinctly everything that can be included under the rubric “personal growth,” from emotional growth to spiritual growth and risen life. None of us has reached the goal yet but we are on our way and everything that can contribute to our growth as persons will move us toward our goal. This book could be a help to many.

Pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in West Babylon, L.I., Msgr. Rush, who has a doctorate in personality and social psychology, writes the following in his Introduction:

“The keystone for understanding is that each of us is actively engaged in interacting with a world as we believe it to be, having constructed our view of the world along our journey from our first moment of awareness until today. We are in the business of making sense, of making meaning, of constructing an understanding of what the world is like. But the world one constructs is different for different people not just because of differences in experience, or culture, or social class, or gender. …The study of human development is a tour of some predictable ways that all human beings seem disposed first to construct their world, and then to revise and improve it along an understandable path. It does not explain everything, of course; but it illuminates a great deal that would otherwise leave us puzzled.”

As soon as I read those words, I knew they had not only my attention but my intense interest. In his discussion of worlds, Vin is covering from a psychological angle some truths that I have been teaching for years from a philosophical perspective. Each person lives in his or her own world. The study of psychology can help us understand our own worlds better and also understand the worlds of others better. Growth in understanding does not necessarily lead to better living but it can be an important step in the right direction.

Any growth in understanding is a growth in grasping a new truth or grasping a truth more deeply. Truth should help us to be more free and growth in freedom should lead to personal development. Just because we know what we should do does not mean that we will do it but knowledge opens doors and can free us to make intelligent choices. We may not be responsible for our ignorance but ignorance is never good.

Relying on the insights of thinkers such as Piaget, Kohlberg, Erikson, Levinson, Fowler and others, Rush writes extremely clearly about some difficult but interesting aspects of human personality. By development, he means “a sequence of steps away from views within which we were previously embedded, toward more comprehensive views that give us the distance and perspective to act in new and more effective ways.”

In addition to discussing development in knowledge, especially in self-knowledge, in moral reasoning, in faith and psychosexual growth, Vin suggests how psychological knowledge might aid people in growing closer to God.

I can envision several ways this book might be used. Parish groups might find it a wonderful tool for discussion. Indeed anyone involved in pastoral ministry might find if helpful. The book is an excellent example of a priest and pastor making available his theological and psychological expertise in order to help people grow.