Understanding the Influences on the Human Heart

In this article, Mike Emlet develops a paradigm for communicating exactly how human responsibility (the “heart”) interacts with medical factors and social factors (“nature and nurture,” in the old debates). Emlet introduces a diagram of nested circles that help conceptualize a biblical view of human beings as body-soul image-bearers. Emlet helps counselors to map truth onto counselees’ life situations, reinterpreting their experience so they can see life with God’s gaze.