From its earliest roots, the study of emotion in psychology derives from both ancient theological and philosophical influences. The former and earlier foundation was that of the Judaic tradition, whilst the latter was represented by pre-Modern philosophy, where thinkers sought to understand the passions as integral to reason, virtue, and the good life: Plato (c. 427–347 BCE) portrayed emotions as powerful forces to be harmonised by wisdom in The Republic, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) offered the first systematic analysis of emotions as embodied, cognitive, and socially shaped responses in Rhetoric and De Anima, and the Stoics, especially Zeno of Citium (c. 334–262 BCE) and Chrysippus (c. 279–206 BCE), framed emotions as judgments that could be trained toward moral resilience. In the Christian era, Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) deepened this legacy by interpreting emotions as loves rightly or wrongly ordered toward God in Confessions and City of God, while Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) synthesised Aristotelian psychology and Christian theology in the Summa Theologiae, arguing that emotions (passiones animae) are neither sinful nor irrational in themselves but become virtuous when guided by reason and grace. From a Christian perspective, this tradition resonates with Scripture’s affirmation of emotional life as part of God’s design: humans are created with hearts capable of love, sorrow, joy, and righteous anger (Psalm 34:18; Ecclesiastes 3:1–4). Christ himself expresses deep compassion and grief (John 11:35; Matthew 9:36), and believers are called to cultivate emotional wisdom as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). These early ideas remain profoundly valuable today: they encourage personal wellbeing by teaching emotional awareness, self-regulation, and meaning-making, and they promote societal health by linking emotional formation to moral responsibility, empathy, and the common good, reminding modern psychology that flourishing persons and just communities arise when emotions are understood not as weaknesses to suppress, but as gifts to be wisely ordered toward truth, love, and human dignity.