Modern Therapies and the Church’s Faith

In this article, David Powlison argues that Christianity has a self-conscious, self-proclaimed competitor in the modern secular psychologies. He maintains that we would expect conflict over truth (Who is right?), love (Who has the right to work with people?) and power (Who can make it right?). Powlison argues that the church has been intellectually derivative and practically weak, losing her heartland in the cure of souls. We have fresh opportunities today because of weaknesses in the psychological establishment and because of the existence of robust biblical counseling as an alternative. Powlison concludes that one key to effective engagement with the psychologies is to radically reinterpret what psychologists see and care about, from a Christian world view.