Tag Archives: christian psychology

August 10, 2009 · 9:54 am

Happenings


I’m passing on a couple of items from my schedule…

1. Speaking. I’ll be speaking at Macedonia Baptist Church (Norristown, PA) on the next two Wednesdays (8/12 and 8/19) for their Summer Bible Conference (theme: Mental Health Awareness). This week will be on Sexual Addiction and the 19th will be on the topic of Anxiety.

2. School. We start late this year on 9/14. For those interested in our course offerings, check out Biblical’s site for course listings. Note that we have entry level, advanced, and post-MA courses on Monday nights. I’m teaching an on-line course (Social & Cultural Foundations of Counseling) and two face to face classes (Counseling & Physiology, Psychological Assessment). Should be fun!

3. Conference 1. The AACCis hosting it’s World Conference in Nashville Sept. 16-19. My colleague, Bryan Maier, and myself will be speaking there. On the 16th, Diane Langberg and myself will be presenting a 3 hour preconference workshop about addressing the problem of pastoral sexual abuse. Later in the week, I’ll be lecturing on the use of the Bible with trauma clients.  If you like zooy places, then come as that is the best description I have for the Opryland Hotel.

4. Conference 2. November 13-15 is the annual CCEF conference, entitled, Sex Matters. I’ll be presenting on the 14th, “When Sex in Marriage Doesn’t Work.”

5. Newly published. The latest issue of the Journal of Psychology & Christianity(v. 28:2) is just out on the topic of Theophostic Prayer Ministry and related issues. I and my George Schwab have an article in that edition: “God as healer: A Closer Look at Biblical Images of Inner Healing.” Plus, a number of the other articles site previous work that Bryan Maier and I did a few years ago where we critiqued TPM’s theological bases. 

6. In the works. I’ve just completed work on a booklet, “Sexual Addiction: When is Residential Treatment an Option?” It is intended to be an ebooklet published by a local ministry. We are researching the best way to publish such a booklet for those caught in the trap of an addiction. If any of you have any great ideas for the best way to get that out on the Internet (including issues around document delivery, sales, and pricing), I’d love to hear about it.

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July 26, 2009 · 8:52 pm

What should Christian counseling look like?


 I posted this little item for my last guest blog at www.christianpsych.orgfor the month of July. In it I mention “Christian Counseling: An Introduction” by Malony and Augsburger (2007).

And no, I don’t say what it should look like–merely a comment that we still need to figure out how we handle the faith/science dichotomy that we’ve been handed all these years.

Those who have been around wisecounsel for a while will remember I blogged through each chapter. If you are interested in seeing those posts, just use the search engine on this page to find posts mentioning Malony.

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July 20, 2009 · 5:59 pm

Evaluating Models of Counseling


I’m a little late to post this here but I am the Society of Christian Psychology’sguest blogger of the month. Here’s the post that I put up for today on how to parse the next hot new model of counseling you come across. Check it out at:

http://christianpsych.org/wp_scp/2009/07/20/evaluating-models-of-christian-psychology/

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July 7, 2009 · 8:56 am

Rwanda Day Two


We arose early pumped up with adrenaline if not with good sleep. Our retreat house sits on the eastern end of Lake Muhazi–a long lake with many nooks and crannies. Just across the water are several red dirt paths leading to the lake. Children and women walk the paths from the banana treed village to the lake to fill their jerry cans with water. The plan is to travel first to Kigali and then on to Butare, some 2 hours south of the city. We were told this trip would be a breeze in comparison to a few years ago as the road is now paved.

Our first daytime views of the country reveal a lush green world with many hills and valleys. Everywhere people are working in their fields or walking to and fro. Most noticeable are the numerous children on bikes. They are carrying multiple cans of water, milk cans, 3 or 4 huge banana clusters. We are told these young children are not in school as they cannot afford to go beyond 6th grade. So, they make a living (less than 1 dollar a day) delivering water to the villagers to support their families One young man has balanced a table on his bike. Women are walking with bundles on their heads and babies wrapped up on their back. Life seems to be all about procuring enough water and food for the day.

In Kigali, we tour Moucecore, a nonprofit lay counseling ministry started by Bishop Alexis to train up community leaders to lead their fellow villagers to improve life for all. We’ll learn more about this ministry later this week. The trip south to Butare continues through beautiful, rural hills and sharp valleys (many vistas) filled with banana plantations, small knots of goats or cows, mud brick houses in all shapes of repair. We note a group of pink garbed prisoners working in a field. These are “genocidaires”. The trip included many hairy moments when passing slower vehicles or just missing pedestrians.

At Butare, we meet with the Dean of the faculty, a PhD in psychology. They have just begun a masters in psychology program and have their first group of graduates. Not sure thye really have much training. They have needs for help improving their program and for CE or grand rounds training. It will be possible to do such activities live as they will have fiber optic capacity by October.

After this meeting, we meet with 60 some pastors to hear about their experiences. They speak of those they fear are demon possessed, of young children traumatized by the videos of the genocide or by learning their parents took part in the killing. They have to deal with those infected by HIV due to rape and wonder how best to teach about forgiveness. We ended the day with some moving worship in the church. Though we could not translate the exact meaning of the songs, they still spoke to the heart.

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June 10, 2009 · 2:08 pm

A Christian Psychology Proposal 1


This summer I’m choosing to read through Eric Johnson’s Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal (IVP, 2007). Eric is the founding director of the Society for Christian Psychology. I’ve skimmed large portions of it before, had numerous, enjoyable conversations with Eric over the years, and am familiar (and mostly agree) with his ideas. But, I thought I might share of few tidbits now and again from what I’m reading. But realize the book is 700 plus pages (he tells me he had to cut 1/3 of his book to get it published!). So, I will not be blogging through it like I have done with others books.

What distinguishes this Christian Psychology?

The book attempts to lay out a framework of Christian psychology. Johnson says that a framework ought to include these core distinctives:

1. It is doxological. It should glorify God in all that it aims to do and understand.

2. It is semiodiscursive. Here, he uses this word to convey that any psychology is a use of words, descriptions, and interpretations that point to meaning. “…soul care is interested in the referential function of various aspects of human life: language, emotions, mental images, actions…”

3. It is dialogical/trialogical. It is relational and interactive rather than something that exists by itself.

4. It is canonical. The bible, Johnson says, is the Text of texts. There is a standard that is our guide for soul care.

5. It is psychological. It is interested in the “nature of human beings and their psychopathology and recovery….Christian soul-care providers study the bible not for its own sake but for the light it sheds on the nature of human beings and their well-being and improvement.” (p. 16) 

I encourage interested parties to read his first chapters. Chapter one, “The Place for the Bible in Christian Soul Care” acknowledges that “The entire canon shows a concern with human well-being with reference to God.” He goes on to explicate that by sampling from Old and New Testaments as well as to define “soul-healing to include both salvation and sanctification in both vertical and horizontal dimension. Soul healing is not merely for creating the right relationship with God but also for healing and strengthening human to human relationships.  Chapter 2 and 3 talk about the misuses of the Bible in both biblical counseling and Christian psychological venues.

This book is exceptionally focused on the foundations. So, we may not expect great focus on whether soul care will greatly reduce mental healthy symptoms. But, lest we only think pragmatic thoughts, we ought to step back and consider the basis of the practical–the theoretical and theological bases for our work.

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May 19, 2009 · 10:19 am

Dialog between Christian Psychology and Biblical Counseling


Yesterday Robert Kelleman made a comment on an old blog post of mine about my model of counseling. In that comment he said the following:

Your readers might find of interest my summary of last week’s symposium on biblical counseling where Eric Johnsons (SCP), myself (BCSFN), David Powlison (CCEF), and Steve Viars (NANC, FBCM) discussed with Jeremy Lelek (ABC) the state of biblical counseling/Christian psychology:

http://tinyurl.com/r8kf7r

To me, true biblical counseling and true Christian psychology should be the same thing. They use biblical psychology (understanding people, diagnosing problems, and prescribing solutions) theory to guide their biblical counseling (sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding) practice.

Bob Kellemen

The link takes you to Bob’s own site and has links to christiancounseling.com where DVDs of the dialogue will be available. It is good to hear of the unity among these cousin models of counseling.

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February 16, 2009 · 2:23 pm

Wanna see a MA Counseling program in action?


For those of you in the Philadelphia region and considering an Masters degree in Counseling you are hereby invited to our March 9th “taste of Biblical Seminary.” This open house is just for those interested in a counseling degree and will expose attendees to what we do at Biblical. You’ll come hear from profs and students, have a meal with us, have time to ask current students anything you want, and then sit in on our classes. You’ll leave with a very clear sense of what we are about.

For more information and an opportunity to have a meal with me, check out this pdf on our website: http://www.biblical.edu/images/embark/PDFs/infoeventmar09.pdf

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January 7, 2009 · 4:49 am

Psychology for the (Christian) Masses


So, the other night I had woke up with thistitle in my head that I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Its an academic’s kind of dream/wake state–a book idea. I wondering if you have ideas to flesh this out a bit after reading some of mine.

The title came, I think, as a result of a Miroslav Volf’s comment that consumerism, not religion, was the opiate of the people. Lightbearer provided us with the context of Karl Marx’s quote. And many of summarize his point but saying that something (religion, psychology, anything) is for “the masses.”

So, I got to thinking about the tendency among evangelicals to fall into one of two trap about psychology. Either they use it unthinkingly (cut and paste bible verses on theories without much thought) OR they reject it because psychology is unbiblical and only rank secular humanism. But, I can’t tell you the amount of conversations I’ve had about the benefits of psychological study–whether about medication, therapeutic interventions, professional ethics, etc. where it was clear that few had ever drilled down below pop psychology to understand both its value and presuppositional foundation.

So, here’s my thought. What if we developed a resource for Christians to come to that would give thoughtful, sometimes lighthearted, but always honest answers (and nonanswers when they are better) about psychology, psychotherapy, medications, psychological testing, etc.

Here’s some of the questions that tend to come up most frequently (from my memory of the last 2 months)

1. Is it wrong to take psychiatric medications for my depression? Shouldn’t I be able to either handle it or get over it using spiritual resources?

2. How do you know if the problem is demonic or psychiatric?

3. Should I ever go see a secular therapist?

4. Isn’t Mindfulness really just a Buddhist form of meditation?

5. Should I go for healing prayer for my mental health problem?

6. Isn’t ADD/ADHD just a fad?

7. Can I divorce my spouse because they refuse treatment?

8. Can pedophiles ever return to the church in a safe manner?

9. Can leaders who abuse their roles ever be restored to leadership?

I’m sure there are more. What else would YOU want to read about regarding psychology/psychotherapy from a christian perspective?   

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September 23, 2008 · 5:52 am

More comments from the SCP conference


Some tantalizing quotes from our recent conference unapologetically taken out of context for your tasting pleasure:

Bill Hathaway: “Psychology is a social construction that gives us pockets of truth about the real world.”

From a presentation on the history of the psychology of religion project begun in the 19th century. He was talking about this historical project that was originally undertaken to explore and explain religious experience. Of course, the explanation was also reductionistic since it was undertaken from a naturalistic worldview–one that rejected the possibility of the supernatural. We should admit that all human explanations are reductionistic. But some more closely approximate the world as God created it. 

Another Hathaway quote: “We don’t need to be therapy prostitutes, doing whatever the client wants.”

I’ll leave that one without explanation.

JKA Smith: “All science is hermeneutic, a take or interpretation of things…Science is culture…so the interaction between faith and psychology or theology and science is cross cultural.” And, “The most important questions of Christian psychology are these, What’s at issue…What’s at stake?”

Richard Schultz:

“Biblical interpretation is not complete by coming to the meaning of any one text.” On the necessity of reading the bible in light of the whole, or, the importance of building a biblical theology.

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September 22, 2008 · 10:28 am

Bobblehead Christianity


At the Society for Christian Psychology, JKA Smith (a Calvin Coll. philosopher) made an offhanded comment about bobblehead Christianity–the kind where the head is huge but the body is nearly non-existent. This image has really stuck with me.

We fill the head with truth and facts about our faith and we expect that to transform us into Christ. But we ignore the body, or the practices of the faith. He made mention of this problem in a discussion about worldview. He said something to this effect: “I think worldview conversations are important. I love worldview. I’d marry it if I could. But we must pay attention to our practices as they are attached to worldview and shape it in reverse. Worldview discourse places too much emphasis on what we think and less on what we do. We need to include visceral ways of knowing…tactile involvement in worship.” (phrases from my notes, not true quotation)

Seems we ought to take his critique to heart. Where are we overemphasizing truth statements or thinking about self as change agent and underemphasizing performing (use of disciplines) as acting into the truth as a work of the Holy Spirit?

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