Full Description
In this groundbreaking work of first-order scholarship, Eric Johnson makes a vitally important contribution to the field of Christian counseling. He first presents a detailed overview and appreciative but critical evaluation of the reigning paradigms in the field of Christian counseling, particularly biblical counseling and integration. Building on their respective strengths, he seeks to move beyond the current impasse in the field and develop a more unified and robustly Christian understanding. Drawing upon the Bible and various Christian intellectual and soul care traditions, and through a Christian reinterpretation of relevant modern psychological theory and research, Johnson proceeds to offer a new framework for the care of souls that is comprehensive in scope, yet flows from a Christian understanding of human beings--what amounts to a distinctly Christian version of psychology. This book is a must-read for any serious Christian teacher, student, or practitioner in the fields of psychology or counseling.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I. Background to the Current Predicament
1. A Place for the Bible in Christian Soul Care
2. The Bible in the History of Christian Soul Care
3. The Bible and Current Evangelical Soul-Care Paradigms
Part II. Texts and Contexts
4. Objects of Disciplines and Their Contexts
5. Properties of Scripture and Its Relation to Other Texts
6. Interpreting the Bible for Christian Psychology and Soul Care
7. Translating the Text of Other Communities for Christian Soul Care
Postscript. Composing a Body of Christian Psychology Literature: A Communal Project
Part III. "Let There Be Humans": The Semiodiscursive Constitution of Human Beings
8. The Ground of the Created Order: The Word of God
9. From Signs to History: A Hermeneutic Analysis of Human Life
10. Orders of Meaning: A Multilevel Analysis of Human Life
11. Toward a Complex Model of Human Life: Semiodiscursive, Multilevel, Hierarchal and Holistic
Part IV. The Communication of God's Glory in Christian Soul Care
12. The Trinitarian Ground and Goal of Christian Soul Care: Union and Communion with God
13. The Call to Inwardness: Opening Up to the Glory of God
14. Inwardness, Part 1: Self-Examination
15. Inwardness, Part 2: The Identification and Deconstruction of Barriers
16. Inwardness, Part 3: The Constitutive Internalization of Signs of Glory
17. The Call to Outwardness: The Manifestation of Christlikeness
18. Promoting Christiformity Through the Therapeutic Delivery of Signs of Glory
Epilogue
Appendix 1: A Biblical Coherence Theory of Truth in Counseling
Appendix 2: Toward a Christian Semiotics for a Christian Psychology
References
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture Index
