To Prove My Point
I could not have asked for a better example to illustrate the point of my last two posts. The Southern Baptist Seminary in KY recently dropped its program in pastoral counseling, which included behavioral sciences and psychotherapy, in favor of a "biblical counseling" curriculum. Read the article here.
The dean criticized pastoral counseling for being "naive" about the presuppositions of secular sciences and their application in pastoral care. He claims that there are too many "contradictory and incoherent" theories involved in psychotherapy. Many psychotherapists have vastly different opinions on both the methods and the data involved. Therefore, the Bible alone is the best foundation for pastoral care.
The problem is that the Bible is subject to just as many interpretations as psychotherapy. Worse yet, basing pastoral counseling on a text alone opens up the possibility for terrible abuses. Consider the example of counseling an adulterer. Are you going to choose Leviticus 20:10 and recommend death, or are you going to choose John 8 and excuse it entirely? Odds are that you are going to have to do more than just read the text. You will need to know about what mental and emotional states were involved. You may also consider whether or not true repentance has been found. Then you must begin the task of reconciliation by offering advice on interpresonal relationships. The Bible does indeed offer wonderful categories for understanding how to deal with the issue (indeed, for a Christian it offers the only categories). But pastorally speaking, you are going to rely on an operative understanding of the human psyche anyways and not just the biblical text alone. It may as well be a thoroughly examined psychotherapeutic method than one that is presumed and never identified.
When we make Scripture a magical answer book, we are ignoring both its true purpose and our own limitations. Our theological doctrine of inspiration has run amuck and is ravaging also our theological anthropology. Pastors trained to give counsel solely from knowledge of the Bible will only be able to project their own natural misundersandings of human nature onto all of their clients. There will only be a discussion about facts and data culled from the Bible to fit the agenda of the counselor. Serious psychological disorders do not arise from biblical misunderstandings or lack of faith. These issues lay deep within the human psyche and not within biblical ignorance.
The dean criticized pastoral counseling for being "naive" about the presuppositions of secular sciences and their application in pastoral care. He claims that there are too many "contradictory and incoherent" theories involved in psychotherapy. Many psychotherapists have vastly different opinions on both the methods and the data involved. Therefore, the Bible alone is the best foundation for pastoral care.
The problem is that the Bible is subject to just as many interpretations as psychotherapy. Worse yet, basing pastoral counseling on a text alone opens up the possibility for terrible abuses. Consider the example of counseling an adulterer. Are you going to choose Leviticus 20:10 and recommend death, or are you going to choose John 8 and excuse it entirely? Odds are that you are going to have to do more than just read the text. You will need to know about what mental and emotional states were involved. You may also consider whether or not true repentance has been found. Then you must begin the task of reconciliation by offering advice on interpresonal relationships. The Bible does indeed offer wonderful categories for understanding how to deal with the issue (indeed, for a Christian it offers the only categories). But pastorally speaking, you are going to rely on an operative understanding of the human psyche anyways and not just the biblical text alone. It may as well be a thoroughly examined psychotherapeutic method than one that is presumed and never identified.
When we make Scripture a magical answer book, we are ignoring both its true purpose and our own limitations. Our theological doctrine of inspiration has run amuck and is ravaging also our theological anthropology. Pastors trained to give counsel solely from knowledge of the Bible will only be able to project their own natural misundersandings of human nature onto all of their clients. There will only be a discussion about facts and data culled from the Bible to fit the agenda of the counselor. Serious psychological disorders do not arise from biblical misunderstandings or lack of faith. These issues lay deep within the human psyche and not within biblical ignorance.
posted by matt at 3:42 PM
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