At his website, Musings of a Christian Psychologist, Phil Monroe writes about Kathryn Joyce’s article on biblical counseling (September/October): “Joyce notes that a good biblical counseling session looks a lot like a good professional counseling session. Why? … While it is true that psychotherapists didn’t discover empathy, it is true that psychotherapy research has expanded our understanding of the best way to encourage trust relationships in therapy. In addition, some of the cognitive, affective, and dynamic interventions developed from these models are used within biblical counseling. I have absolutely no problem with biblical counseling deriving benefit from interventions developed in other models of therapy. I only desire biblical counselors acknowledge that benefit. It is clear Jay Adams benefited from Mowrer (and said so to boot). We can do the same.”
And at the Patheos.com page the Friendly Atheist, Hannah Ettinger writes: “Joyce’s article is pretty comprehensive and quite consistent with what I observed firsthand. In contemporary evangelical Christianity, the concept of biblical infallibility and inerrancy spills over into the idea that the Bible contains all teaching necessary for life, and that all struggles in life are common to everyone and can be solved with enough and proper application of the Bible and biblical concepts. Psychology and science in general are suspect because they are mutable depending on scientific progress. The Bible is a fixed system and will not be changed over time; it’s therefore seen as more dependable for a source of truth than science.”
For more on the science of society, and to support our work, sign up for our free email newsletters and subscribe to our bimonthly magazine. Digital editions are available in the App Store (iPad) and on Google Play (Android) and Zinio (Android, iPad, PC/MAC, iPhone, and Win8).
