Sunteți pe pagina 1din 10

LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

A COMPARISON PAPER: THE BIBLICAL COUNSELING MOVEMENT: HISTORY AND CONTEXT BY DAVID POWLISON

A PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. JOHNNY BAKER IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE PACO 507 D01 THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY IN COUNSELNG

BY ROBERT E. TEVIS III

BELLEFONTE, PA TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2013

A COMPARISON PAPER: POWLISONS THE BIBICAL COUNSELING MOVEMENT Dr. David Powlison gives us an historic overview of the impact of Jay Adams nouthetic counseling movement in The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context. Pastor Jay Adams led a crusade that taught the pastoral role has been stolen. Psychiatrists and licensed counselors have invaded the pastoral calling to counsel people. The nouthetic movement taught that psychiatrist should adhere to the practice of medicine alone,1 while pastors should return to the God-given work of counseling.2 Dr. Powlison writes as a chronicler and conveys the strengths and weaknesses of such a separatist movement. SUMMARY: The authors theory/methodology 1. Primary goal (What is the desired outcome?) In nouthetic counseling the goal for the counselor is to awaken the sense of sin in people who did not know what they were doing or why. Adams interpreted (James 5:14-16) the confessions of sins, prayer, and restoration from the error of one's ways as shorthand for a counseling consultation in which honest talk had taken place.3 Adams is quick to point out that God does not guarantee good health and long life, so don't make prosperity the goal.4 Once a person is convicted of sin, sinners can then be first forgiven by Christ's self-sacrifice, and then progressively changed by Christ's present aid.5 2. Development of problems and personal need (How do the issues come about?) The bottom line for Adams is that sinful behavior contributes to physical ills (or to other consequences, financial, social, etc.)6 Adams did not trust diagnosis from professional

David Powlison. The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context. (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2010), 150. 2 Ibid., 149. 3 Ibid., 113. 4 Ibid., 115. 5 Ibid., 123. 6 Ibid., 115.

counselors or psychiatrists. He believed there are three (often-interlinking) causes that contribute to a psychiatric diagnosis: (1) culture labels certain behaviors as such; (2) biological malfunctions; and (3) habitual sin that may occur without awareness because sin is both selfdeceiving and habitual.7 Adam taught that there are at least six representative problems that people face:8 1. Relational Difficulties - all problems were ultimately relationship problems, having to do with failures to love God and love others. 2. Troubling Emotions - bad feelings were the "presenting problem" and are the consequences of sins, or natural response to suffering. The call is to "act right and then you'll feel right." 3. Troublesome Behaviors - behavior is either good or sin. A counselor should provide appropriate alternatives and set goals. Sinful habits have been "programmed" into the body by the mind. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit and the Bible, the mind could be reprogrammed to control the body. 4. Faulty Beliefs - The counselor should confront verbally false clichs and thoughts, helping people to especially avoid functional deism. 5. Morally Freighted Responses to Suffering - a counselor should embed sufferings events within a framework of ultimately meaningfulness: sufferings tested people, bringing out what needed to change, and provide a context to make significant change. The counselor should give hope, sympathy, and guidance to change. 6. Bizarre Behaviors - Apart from the organically generated difficulties, the "mentally ill" are really people with unsolved personal problems.

7 8

Ibid., 107. Ibid., 106.

3.

Biblical integration (How much of the Bible is used in this methodology?) Adams taught that the Bible - understood by literal, grammatical-historical exegesis, and

partly systematized in the creeds of the Reformation - provided three things needed to alter the state of affairs: 1. The Bible teaches a comprehensive intellectual system, defining truth for people, their problems in living, and the processes of change. 2. The Bible defined and exemplified a methodology for the cure of souls. 3. The Bible prescribed a particular institutional and professional locus for the helping people; the church and the pastoral role.9 5. Balance of theology and spirituality (Does the author lean more to theology or

spirituality?) Adams leaned heavily on Reformed theology. His basic assumptions stem from this and included: 1. God is man's environment. In other words, God is omnipresent and immanent, working beyond what we perceive.10 2. God controls all things by His providence. 3. God knows everything about the counselee, so they should live as before the eyes of an all-seeing God, or in Latin, Coram Deo. 4. What the Bible said, God said. The Bible is the literal word of authoritative truth from God. 5. The world is consequence saturated: life or death, joy or misery, blessing or curse, justification or condemnation, etc.11

10

Ibid., 97-98. Ibid., 98.

6. Problems stem from sin, which includes: wrong behavior, distorted thinking, and bad attitudes.12 7. Man is subject to internal and external forces that may impair his ability to function, including chemically caused or serious depression.13 8. Most people diagnosed as mentally ill were chiefly suffering from a "failure to meet life's problems" with forgiveness and the altered behavior from sin.14 9. Problem living is because sinners live in a sin-inducing and sin-produced context, but that context was never sin-causing. Avoid excuse-making.15 6. Human personality (development and structure) Adams was not above naming names of people who held views he held reprehensible. For example, he called out Larry Crabb for his view of human nature.16 Adams also believed that psychology is a "descriptive science studying human functioning."17 This meant that psychotherapists and personality theorists were pervasively wrong when they made general pronouncements about the human condition and attempted to resolve problems of belief, value, relationship, and behavior without reference to God.18 Adamss nouthetic counseling focuses on behavior without highlighting any underlying causes. In contrast, strategic pastoral counseling asserts that pastoral counseling must be fully

11 12

Ibid., 99. Ibid., 101. 13 Ibid., 108. 14 Ibid., 109. 15 Ibid., 110. 16 Ibid., 161. 17 Ibid., 151. 18 Ibid., 153.

and equally responsive to the behavioral (action), cognitive (thought), and affective (feeling) elements of personal functioning.19 7. Counselors function & role (What does counselor/counselee relationships look like?) Dr. Adams intended his books to be provocative. Despite some of its debatable conclusions, the book, Competent to Counsel, focused attention on the role of sin in causing problems and the author proclaimed that Christian counseling has to consider and deal with sin.20 The pastor, therefore, as the counselor, was to offer biblical solutions. Counseling is to be fundamentally a pastoral activity and must be church-based where the pastor was the primary counselor.21 The counselor was to offer the "grace of God in Jesus Christ" as the answer to transform sinners and sustain sufferers. This grace offered: forgiveness, power to change by the Holy Spirit, and hope of God's ultimate purposes for the future.22 Adams key phrase was Repent, Trust, Obey.23 People need "the ministry of the Word" to renovate what they believed and did in the tests of daily life.24 This meant that "How to..." and problem solving are key for the counselor.25 8. Major contribution to counseling (How does this theory impact counseling?) The major contribution of Adams nouthetic counseling may be the teaching that all psychology needs to be seen through theology.26 In fact, many pastors have taken this to mean that psychologists specifically could be seen as heretical theologians.27 One example is

19

David G. Benner. Strategic Pastoral Counseling: A Short-Term Structured Model. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2003), Kindle Locations 775-778. 20 Gary R. Collins, Ph.D. The Biblical Basis of Christian Counseling for People Helpers: Relating the Basic Teachings of Scripture to Peoples Problems. (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1993), 96. 21 David Powlison. The Biblical Counseling Movement, 130-132. 22 Ibid., 124. 23 Ibid., 127. 24 Ibid., 138. 25 Ibid., 128. 26 Ibid., 155. 27 Ibid., 156.

Adams use of icons (even if they are unfairly portrayed) to explain this warning. Adams said that Freud stood for making people irresponsible victims of their childhood and mental illness; Rogers stood for man's basic goodness and numbed people to their sinfulness; and Skinner stood for reducing people to trainable animals by the hands of relative counselors who denied moral freedom.28 These metaphors and the disdain for psychiatry still persist in some circles in the Church today. 9. Limitations of this counseling theory (What are the practical boundaries of this

methodology?) Adams nouthetic counseling had some limitations. It focused too much on behavior and often ignored underlying problems or situations. Human nature was thus reduced to behavioral problems.29 Inner misery, mental illness, psychological dysfunction, and social maladjustment could not always be explained as either as sin or as organic dysfunction. There is psychological suffering.30 Nouthetic counseling seemed to say, "Shape up and you will be right with God and your conscience will be at peace."31 It also views the Scriptures as a comprehensive counseling textbook. This movement ignored that the general revelation of psychology. It held too tightly to the fact that Scripture was all you needed. It turned the Bible into proof texts.32 Nouthetic counseling also promoted confrontation, rather than comfort.33 Confront behaviors with the Scriptures and then life can change. This is simply too simplistic for peoples problems.

28 29

Ibid., 157. Ibid., 173. 30 Ibid., 175. 31 Ibid., 177. 32 Ibid., 170. 33 Ibid., 179.

10. etc.)

Classification (nouthetic, biblical, Christian, Christian psychology, integrational,

Jay Adams was the founder of nouthetic counseling. It strived to be biblical. It was not integrational with psychiatry, but it also did not teach to withhold medical information that could be helpful.34 PRACTICAL APPLICATION 1. Give practical application to the authors material as relates to the utility for the

overall discipline of counseling and the specific potential influence upon your life and ministry. Jay Adams taught that Human relationships are a three-way, not a two-way affair. That means that biblically acceptable change takes into consideration ones relationships to both God and man.35 This is profound. Every counseling session should show people how to be aware of Gods providence and to respond accordingly. The counseling sessions should at least begin and end with prayer. If we also emphasize Gods promises and commands as found in Scripture, the counseling can give practical direction that may lead to conviction. In other words, trust Scripture.36 Adams also believed in the use of homework in counseling and making sure that there are only 6 to 12 sessions.37 If longer, then it may be a sign that the person just wants to talk about their problems rather than solve them. In these sessions, we are to teach God's principles and

34 35

Ibid., 154. Jay E. Adams. How to Help People Change: The Four Step Biblical Process. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986), 4. 36 David Powlison. The Biblical Counseling Movement, 160. 37 Ibid., 138.

God's standards for living. This will allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, which follows an awareness of Gods requirements.38 2. Give a brief example of how this authors book might impact a counseling moment. Jay Adams nouthetic counseling calls for leading someone to repentance. Adams explains that repentance includes a four step process: 1. Confessing sin to God and to others (the outward expression of godly regret). 2. Seeking forgiveness (the first step taken to remedy the situation). 3. Forsaking the sinful way (the next remedial step). 4. Beginning an alternative way of life that is pleasing to God (the last corrective step).39 This is helpful when counseling someone to produce change in their life.

38 39

Jay E. Adams. How to Help People Change, 107. Ibid., 144.

10

REFERENCES Adams, Jay E., Competent to Counsel: Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970. Adams, Jay E., How to Help People Change: The Four Step Biblical Process. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986. Benner, David G., Strategic Pastoral Counseling: A Short-Term Structured Model. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2003. Collins, Gary R. Collins, Ph.D. The Biblical Basis of Christian Counseling for People Helpers: Relating the Basic Teachings of Scripture to Peoples Problems. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1993. Powlison, David, The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2010.

S-ar putea să vă placă și