The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

Written byDavid Powlison

What Is Biblical Counseling? In principle, Christians believe that knowing Jesus Christ is the original and abiding “cure of the soul.” But in practice, the church’s provision of personalized care and counsel has often been unthoughtful and unskillful. Psychiatry and psychotherapy (transliterations of two Greek words for “cure of the soul”) claim to offer the deep truth that explains a human being.

Beginning in the late 1960s, a biblical counseling movement sought to reclaim counseling for the church and provide a Christian alternative to mainstream psychiatry and psychotherapy. The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context is an informative and thought-provoking account of that movement.

This book is an invaluable resource for those who want to understand the biblical counseling movement. The core chapters originally composed David’s Ph.D. dissertation for his degree in the history of science and medicine (University of Pennsylvania). This new edition adds a lengthy appendix, containing articles by Dr. Powlison that give an analysis of developments within the biblical counseling movement and in its relationship to evangelical psychotherapists.

Book Details

331 pages
Publisher: New Growth Press
Publication Year: 2010

Contents

Chapter 1 – Introduction
Chapter 2 – The Making of a Conservative Protestant Counselor
Chapter 3 – “Your Place in the Counseling Revolution”: The Emergence of a Biblical Counseling Movement
Chapter 4 – Ground Taken: Adams’s Clientele
Chapter 5 – God, Sin, and Misery: Adams’s Positive System
Chapter 6 – Good News and the Pastoral Task: Adams’s Positive System
Chapter 7 – Adams’s Interaction with the Modern Psychologies
Chapter 8 – Counterinsurgency: The Response of the Environing Professions
Chapter 9 – The Fortunes of War: The 1980s and Beyond
Postscript