About the Series

I have had to read pages upon pages of theological material; so much that it feels like I forget a fair amount of what I read. While I do maintain a general synopsis of a book, I want to better internalize and remember what I am chewing and digesting as I read. This series seeks to remedy this by providing brief reviews of the books I read.

With the previous two installments about Eastern Orthodoxy, I didn’t want folks to think I was attending one of their seminaries. As part of my seminary education I am seeking training in Biblical Counseling. Biblical Counseling began as Nouthetic Counseling, which was started by Jay Adams. Several years ago, while serving in an Arminian church, I faced numerous counseling problems which were beyond my abilities. I tried to help my sheep by taking them to passages of Scripture which I felt either gave expression to their feelings (e.g. Psalms) or provided a scriptural proof to explain a theological point. The Biblical Counseling movement has given me material I could not have dreamed of otherwise years ago. Being at a Reformed seminary not only is a radical shift from my previous ministry, but Reformed theology as the underpinnings of the Biblical Counseling movement also makes perfect sense.

I have read numerous works from the Biblical Counseling movement and Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives With God’s Changeless Truth, edited by James Macdonald, Bob Kellemen, and Steve Viars was one of the most helpful for understanding the theology of the movement. While many books are targeted towards issues, understanding why a biblical counselor counsels they way they do in a particular issue is what the meat of this book is about. The book also contains a good bit of practical/counseling theology as well. A great benefit of the book is that it is filled with works from numerous authors within the movement.

For those interested in counseling from the Bible through the Church, this is a great introduction for understanding the theology of Biblical Counseling.