worldview-- Society for Christian Psychology

A Momentous Evening Forum with ABC

Posted on June 1, 2009

[The following is a post from SCP Director, Dr. Eric Johnson (Southern Seminary). Dr. Johnson provides us with several thoughts from his recent interaction at an Association of Biblical Counselors conference.]

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of participating in a forum the opening night of the 2009 conference of the Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC; www.christiancounseling.com ), in Fort Worth, TX, along with David Powlison, Steve Viars, and Robert Kellemen. All of them are significant leaders in the biblical counseling movement: In his role as the editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling, David Powlison has made an incalculable contribution. Steve Viars is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Lafayette, IN, a church with a nouthetic counseling center for over 30 years, and he is a past president of the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (www.nanc.org). Robert Kellemen has written a couple of very distinctive biblical counseling books (Soul Physicians and Spiritual Friends), and he is the director of the Biblical Counseling and Spiritual Formation Network of the American Association of Christian Counselors (www.aacc.net). For a psychologist like me to be on the same stage with biblical counselors like them made this an important and symbolic event. (Full disclosure: I happily teach in a biblical counseling program). So I am very thankful to ABC and its leadership for inviting me to come.

From its origins in the work of Jay Adams, nouthetic counseling and the biblical counseling which has developed since have tended to be very skeptical of contemporary psychology—because of its basis in naturalistic and humanistic assumptions—as well as the efforts of integrationist Christians who seek to combine their faith with that psychology.

One of the challenges of advocates of Christian psychology (CP) has been to explain what exactly CP is and how it differs from the integration model, since some nouthetic and biblical counselors have assumed that CP is simply another example of integration. (For example, see the review of my book, Foundations for Soul Care, in a recent issue of the Journal of Modern Ministry.) Indeed, John MacArthur (1994, p. 10) has written that the term Christian psychology is an oxymoron. (Full disclosure: In Christian psychology integration is done as one of its intellectual strategies[following the Apostles John and Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Edwards, et al], in order to benefit from the creation grace/common grace insights given by God to scientists of all stripes, in their attempt to develop a genuinely Christian psychology, in areas where Christian faith makes a difference. However, they reject integration as their paradigm of practice, because the model of integration accepts the assumptions of modern psychology regarding the definition and boundaries of psychology, and this blunts the foundational worldview criticism of modern psychology that Christians need to make—something biblical counseling leaders have been concerned about since biblical counseling began.)

So it came as a wonderful surprise to receive an invitation to participate in a forum at ABC’s conference For the first hour and a half, the four of us took turns answering questions about our counseling philosophy, the strengths and weaknesses of biblical counseling currently, and our view of psychology. The second hour and a half began with the reading of a case study of a couple in a difficult marriage, followed by our analysis of the problems and how best to address them. The questions were fair and the case study was well written. We had a friendly conversation that emphasized our common commitments to Scripture and the God of Scripture. I understand that a DVD of the forum will be available from ABC in the near future.

I was very encouraged that evening. David Powlison was typically adroit: wise and winsome; highly principled yet nuanced. Bob Kellemen impressed me again with his willingness to push biblical counseling in some new directions (e.g., to seek greater ethnic diversity). And I was stirred to hear of the many various ways that Steve Viars’ church is attempting to minister to the needs of the larger Lafayette, IN community. I also appreciated his wondering aloud whether some biblical counselors ought to obtain professional licensure to broaden their impact in their communities.

The first question from the audience noted that the members of the panel had significant differences that were not being addressed and that ought to be. Next week I want to expand on my response that night.

MacArther, Jr., J. F. (1994). Rediscovering Biblical counseling. In J. F. MacArthur, Jr., &

W. A. Mack (Eds.), Introduction to Biblical counseling (pp. 3-20). Waco, TX:

Word.

Filed Under Biblical Counseling, Christian Psychology, Christian counseling, Christianity, Eric Johnson, Psychology, Soul Care, worldview | 4 Comments

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