| Introduction: Changing Lives with Christ's Changeless Truth |
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Introduction
Changing Lives with Christ's Changeless Truth
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"A lot of Christian psychology is theologically bankrupt. We haven't struggled
with the great themes of the Christian gospel. We've been pragmatic. We try to
help people with their emotions, but we don't have a theology of emotions" (Archibald Hart, quoted in Tim Stafford, The Therapeutic Revolution: How Christian Counseling Is Changing the Church,
p. 26).
"From the beginning, God's Word was a necessary factor in human existence; that
need did not begin with the fall. Man does not (and did not) live by bread alone;
life requires a Word from the mouth of God" (Jay Adams, More Than Redemption: A Theology of Christian Counseling, p. 2).
"Releasing the energy of Christ is enhanced by thinking through biblical categories
for understanding people, their problems, and what can be done to help" (Larry Crabb, Connecting, p. 182). |
Their Story
Christians once knew how to relate God's truth to human relationships. Then,
as if an evil spell had been cast upon the Church, Christians abdicated their
calling, allowing it to be abducted by aliens. These aliens, separated from the
life of God, claimed the mantle of relevancy, built great soulless soul physician
schools, and proceeded to prescribe cures for soul sickness. Meanwhile, vanquished
Christians erected academies that dissected God's truth, but ignored human relationships.
Soul Physicians returns us to our heritage as students both of the Scripture and of the soul. Its purpose is to infuse biblical counseling with Christian theology to equip
the Body of Christ to change lives with Christ's changeless truth.
This call is not new. As long ago as 1964, William Clebsch and Charles Jaekle
recognized the history of Christian soul care and identified a modern shift away
from theologically informed spiritual direction.
The Christian ministry of the cure of souls, or pastoral care, has been exercised
on innumerable occasions and in every conceivable human circumstance, as it has
aimed to relieve a plethora of perplexities besetting persons of every class and
condition and mentality. Pastors rude and barely plucked from paganism, pastors
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