Walking Alongside

A Theology for People-Helpers

Andersen

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781621895305
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Integrating counseling--theory and practice--with the biblical revelation has now been attempted many times and with considerable success. However, in Walking Alongside, Bill Andersen has attacked the connection from a different angle. His starting point is what the Bible says about people, and God's relationship with them. He has chosen, from biblical theology, major features that should characterize Christian life, and has used these as presuppositions for any form of people-helping, but especially for counseling. From here the task has been to trace their therapeutic effects in the lives of those human beings needing such help.

1

Counsel

The “helping professions” include doctors, social workers, occupational therapists, counselors, and many more. What is in common is, by and large, the idea of restoring clients or patients to a “normal” or acceptable state of wellbeing. Closely allied are the endeavors of educationists, except that these are concerned mainly with building the resources of people through learning and experience. Nor are these two groups mutually exclusive, for there will often be elements of teaching included in counseling and medicine; and these, in turn, will be called upon to deal with certain personal problems that are preventing the person from learning in the usual way. Biblically, both the restorers and the equippers join in the task of “doing good” to the people they serve.

In the light of this, the question could be posed: what does the Bible have to say about the spirit and the conduct of medicine, social work, dietetics and, especially, counseling—along with psychology, which is thought to act as its major scientific base? And, furthermore, if counseling and social work can be seen as forms of “doing good,” would we expect them to differ, when applied to believers, from the way they would operate when applied to unbelievers?

Within situations such as medicine, social work, and counseling where many profess an interest in the person-as-a-whole, the area of overlap or common interest with the Bible is considerable; for what can be discerned from biblical sources is that persons are seen as many-faceted beings in view of the many kinds of relationships they enter upon. And while, at this point, the aim is not to list the central areas of biblical contribution, it can be acknowledged in reference to both Testaments that the personal ideology or world view of the individual is all-of-a-piece with his or her orientation in life: where he or she “looks,” and to what he or she is committed; and this is of common concern both to the helper and to the biblical student.

A. An appropriate response by Christians to the question of overlap?

One reaction, formulated several decades ago by Jay Adams, was that there is no such category as psychological problems; there are only physical problems and spiritual problems. Asked by one of the authors of a carefully researched book on Christianity and psychology if he had any words of guidance for Christians studying psychology, Adams responded thus:

Drop out of graduate school. If you want to serve God as a counselor, you can only do so by going to seminary, studying the Word of God rather than the words of men, and becoming a pastor.1

But if there are no psychological problems, then what is one to say about the person whose leg is paralyzed, but for whose condition the most searching medical tests can establish no physical basis? Or for the infant who, though given appropriate exercise and nourishment, nevertheless languishes and dies for lack of relational warmth? Or for the teenager who breaks out aggressively against peers and teachers at school, because he observes his parents fighting each night at home? In the latter case we could draw attention to the youngster’s sin of angry aggression, and this might need to be cautiously admitted. But if we neglected the psychological effects of his parents’ aggression upon his developing personality, observed systematically and scientifically by groups of psychologists, we would be ignoring a human reality, and thus neglecting our duty of care.

The opposite reaction would be for the “scientific Christian” to claim that the whole sphere of human reactions will be clarified only by careful research, and that it is best to leave biblical import to “spiritual concerns” such as public and private worship. Psychological cure could be achieved only as the ways of our organism, seen through the connections between stimuli and responses, are progressively unraveled. Christian “do-gooders” are likely to muddy the waters.

But this view also is clearly unacceptable, for the Bible says so much on persons-in-community, on communication, on sin, and on orientation, that to ignore all this in therapy would be close to admitting that the gospel is a purely theoretical construct and has no practical impact on the real world of people, society, and culture.

Another possible reaction is the one outlined by Lawrence Crabb in Effective Biblical Counseling, where he recognizes “we can profit from secular psychology if we carefully screen our own concepts to determine their compatibility with Christian presuppositions.”2

Such screening is likely, given not only theological concepts but also a theological cast of mind. Granted this screening, we can allow our helping approach to be structured by all that we glean from biblical sources and, indeed, from theology more inclusively; but equally we need not baulk at including all evidence-based knowledge from medical, psychological, and sociological sources. It is true that, in detail, the latter will not supply final answers, because any empirical study may be modified or changed over time. We can only be required to act in the light of the information available to us at any one time, and we shall make mistakes; but we will at least be strengthened by an understanding of revealed truth at the core of our approach.

At this point, we refer to the biblical text:

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (Gal 6:10 TNIV)3

Two practical issues arise. First, if believers need help through counseling, and manifestly many of them do—they are by no means exempt—how important is it that they be counseled by another believer? A little earlier we claimed, “it has to be acknowledged that the personal ideology or world view of the individual is all-of-a-piece with his or her orientation in life.” And this is as true, of course, for the counselor as for the counselee. Hence it is all too possible that the counselor who is not a believer will get a quite different slant on a problem from a counselee who is. The counselor may admit or deny factors differently but, of more importance, will make significant judgments on a different basis.

The prime example, of course, is the consistent Freudian who may well encourage the release of sexual “inhibitions” from the overriding taboos of society and will be prepared, if necessary, to ride roughshod over Christian sexual and marital ethics. On the other side, to be fair, is what I shall call the “faith-only Christian” who advises fellow believers to banish physical or mental illness solely through faithful prayer. Wherever possible, then, it seems advisable for the believer to be counseled by another believer; assuming, of course, that the latter is well-trained and competent in the practice of counseling, as well as being grounded in an ample knowledge of the Scriptures, along with those principles of interpretation which help to establish their meaning.

However, as intimated already, there needs to be balance in implementing the preference expressed above. Consider the case of being operated upon for a serious heart complaint by a dedicated fellow believer who is as yet inexperienced in this aspect of surgery! One must acknowledge that some counselors who are not believers do seem able to respect the orientation of their client and leave it intact, as it were. And cases are evident in which measures have been taken which were decidedly helpful, having been drawn, as through “common grace,” from what is helpful to any human being in the circumstances.

Second, is it possible for a Christian counselor to give genuine help to an unbeliever? Jay Adams says “No!”; the very first step is to evangelize him or her. Once again we have to disagree with Adams. For reasons sketched in the paragraph above, there are therapeutic procedures at hand which can yield genuine outcomes to the non-Christian client, even in the absence of faith. Facing up to reality, rather than running away from it, is one. Learning to listen to one’s spouse, rather than merely blaming them, is another! At least an improvement in these skills may be brought about; and if this is so, not only has the Christian counselor “done good” for the client, but by showing concern and perhaps making some modest reference, if in context, to their Christian faith, a witness may have been given. But this is a far cry from the “evangelism” that Adams had in mind and also is a factor within the process of counseling, rather than preceding it. (For a further elaboration of this point, see chapter 10.) And, in addition, Christian counselors must be able to respect the current orientation of their non-Christian clients.

For Adams there is a logical difficulty in counseling the non-Christian. In contrast, however, we discern a challenge to service, even if this amounts only to applying a “band-aid” or a “tourniquet”; though also, in this relational context, there is the likelihood of showing Christ’s love. Here is one disquieting fact. Sometimes a Christian client has been less willing to face reality, or to listen to his or her spouse, than a non-Christian client! This is a warning not to be over-strident, within counseling, about expected differences between the responses of Christians and those of non-believers.

B. A biblical meaning for “counsel”?

We referred earlier to the connection between “education” on the one hand and “helping professions” on the other. Counseling, as an example, would be seen generally as restoring clients to a normal state of wellbeing, whereas education would be seen generally as building the resources of people. It is now possible to ask whether there are biblical concepts which correspond with the English terms “to educate” or “to counsel.”

In reply, it seems that there is no biblical term which covers exactly what we mean by the English verb “to educate.” The Greek word paideuo comes somewhat near it, but is geared rather too much towards “discipl...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Alongside: An Introduction
• 1: Counsel
• 2: People
• 3: Sin
• 4: Self-Esteem
• 5: Providence: Engagement by God
• 6: Relationships
• 7: Love
• 8: Happiness
• 9: Inwardness
• 10: Profession
• Walking: An Epilogue
• Bibliography