The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

This is a really good book that helps explain the blessings and the dilemmas of the modern Biblical counseling movement. Counseling from the Bible has gotten a bad rap because counseling in general had always belonged to the church until the mid 1800s when secular society took it out and put it into the 'medical field' and created a new category called 'psychology'. The intent was fine, but, no medicine or therapy could cure a person's soul. Much of our personal problems stem from our broken relationship with God and also from our broken relationships with other people. Medicine can help for a season, and serve much good, but it doesn't touch the soul. Jay Adams saw this dilemma in the mid 1900s and sought to bring counseling back into the church, where it belonged. He fought a good fight and now many have followed in his steps and have paved the way for what we call 'Biblical Counseling'. The church needs to implement discipleship, which is where a person asks, 'How can I be changed?', but Biblical counseling needs to be implemented because it answers the question, 'How do I deal with my suffering?' or, 'How do I help others who are suffering?' The Bible has a lot to say about suffering and it needs to be addressed. If we skip over this part, the church will be weak and ineffective. That's why I think this book is good. It helps us understand what Biblical counseling is, and how it came about, and what happened in the meantime that gave it a bad rap.

This is very much an insider's view of nouthetic counseling, which has its advantages, but also the great weakness of a lack of critical distance and detachment. As a result the author is not able to see the presuppositions of the movement that have led others to question whether it is biblical at all in its basic outlook.After all, if God created humanity with a nature, as he created nature with a nature, why can't there be a natural science of human nature as there is of everything else?Critics have said that the nouthetic movement is 18th century British empiricism with its assumptions of the tabula raza (hence no human nature to have a science of) and also the supremacy of the will in the human heirarchy of faculties. In so far as the movement has theological affinities it seems fundamentally Arminian. This is what the author should have devoted a few chapters to.

Dr. Powlison fills a gap in the understanding of the modern biblical counseling movement with this work. The period covered is roughly mid eighteenth century though the early 1980's. He presents a balanced view of a field that has been characterized by splits and spinoffs. The information collected and presented is not found in any one source. So for someone seeking to gain an insight into the development of the biblical counseling ministry, this book is a great resource and launch point for additional study.Areas to improve would be documentation of the Puritans counseling ministry, and developments in the twenty first century.

I bought this book as a requirement for my pastoral counseling classes. We have studied the nouthetic counseling methods of Jay Adams from this book. You probably cannot find this much insight into his methods outside of this book. So, if you enjoy Biblical counseling in its purest form then this book will probably please you. You will also find out a lot of things about the writer - David powlison, who is a outstanding figure in the biblical counseling movement.

This was a great read. Lots of insights into why the BC movement started with such controversies and personalities. The histirical context that is developed and presented really helped me understand BC place in all psychological theories and philosophical movements. Remember psyche 101? This should be a part of it. Powlison is a little boring but he moves quickly through material and is well organized .

I needed this book for class. I'm glad my professor required it. I learned so much about the origins and battles of Biblical Counseling. Powlinson did a great job expounding on the Biblical counseling movement.

I'm not yet finished, but I have found this re-published doctoral thesis a valuable companion. It contains quite a bit of primary research into the movement and its founder, Jay E. Adams, that is not available elsewhere. And the author does an excellent job of organizing and describing his findings in a most accessible way.

I did not expect this book to be about the life of Jay Adams. It reads like a history book