Where were Christians before Freud? Up a tree? Were they bereft of all crucial knowledge about man's relationship to God and his neighbor? Was the church's counseling a hopeless, primitive, stone-age activity that should have disappeared with flint knives? Were Christians shut up to sinful, harmful living before the advent of psychotherapy? Did God withhold truth for living until our present age?"More Than Redemption: A Theology of Christian Counseling", Jay E. Adams
Or did men like Paul, Peter, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon and many others have something worthwhile to say to their converts and parishioners about how to live in a sinful world and about how to solve problems? Isn't the answer apparent?
Drop the question in that form for a moment if it's too hot to handle, and consider this (even hotter) one: How did Jesus Christ become the perfect Counselor that the Scriptures report Him to be apart from the "insights" of clinical psychology and psychiatry that we are now assured by unbelievers (and many Christians who follow them) are essential to effective counseling?...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Jesus didn't need Freud...
...and neither do we.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I am convinced that mental issues are another result of the fallen condition. Sometimes it is brought about by sin (of the person who has the trouble OR of another person who has hurt them in some way, mentally or physically), other times by some physical health issue that has affected the mind’s ability to function properly. Spurgeon suffered terribly from frequent bouts of depression, but his focus was on the Lord and God certainly used him mightily in spite of that infirmity. I wonder if he would have turned out such a vast legacy had he been alive today and been prescribed medications to help him cope.
Post a Comment