Over the last decade, one of the growth industries within the church has been that of counseling. Various models of counseling are on offer out there in the theological marketplace, some obviously laced through with secular psychology, others more self-consciously based upon biblical principles. I have neither the time nor space nor interest to offer critiques and assessments of the material content of these various approaches; what interests me at this point is the phenomenon of such counseling.

The origins of biblical counseling arguably lie in the seventeenth century, when Catholic and Protestant theologians produced books of cases of conscience, that is, books which took specific moral questions (“Should I gamble?” “Is it legitimate to be in business with a non-Christian partner?” “Can I lend money at interest?” etc.) and provided biblically grounded answers to them. In other words, they took general biblical principles and tried to apply them to specific situations.

That is the basic principle which holds today. Although many of the specific questions have changed (“Should I sharpen my sword on a Sunday?” is not a pressing concern for most Christians today), the basic idea is the same: individual Christians have specific problems; counseling seeks to address those problems by applying biblical principles. So far, so good.

What intrigues me, however, is the veritable explosion in interest in the area over recent years, an interest that sparks two questions in my mind: is this current Christian fascination with counseling simply the priorities of the world around dressed up in a Christian idiom? And what does this say about the nature of church? Read more»

Carl Trueman | “The Therapy of the Word” | New Horizons | January 2010

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