Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal

Abstract

FOUNDATIONS FOR SOUL CARE: A CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY PROPOSAL. Eric L. Johnson. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007. Pp. 716. Reviewed by Keri L. Barnett (Roberts Wesleyan College/Rochester, NY). Although the integration of modern psychology with the Christian faith has been going on for several decades, a comprehensive Christian version of psychology does not cunently exist. In Foundations of Soul Care, Johnson tries to change this situation by offering a distinctly Christian psychology proposal. He skillfully elevates the importance of the Bible and theology in the development of this proposal without diminishing the value of psychological scholarship, resulting in a thoroughly biblical and thoroughly psychological analysis. Yet, this is not merely an intellectual exercise; the book remains focused on formulating a Christian worldview of soul care as a means to better heal psychospiritual problems. Some core distinctives of this soul care model include that it is doxological and semiodiscursive. The glory of is given great importance because soul care ... ought to aim to interpret and conduct everything in order to best foster the human appropriation and manifestation of the glory of God (p. 13). Also, Johnson states that soul care is semiodiscursive because ... it concerns itself with meaning - ultimately with glory - expressed in signs, utterances or (p. 14). One of the goals of this discourse is relational communion, which occurs between the counselor, client, and in Christian soul care. Thus, as broken people internalize the glory of through the various means He expresses Himself, they will manifest this by becoming Christlike or signs pointing to God, which then brings glory to God. The book is divided into four parts, containing a total of 18 chapters. Part one focuses on presenting information about the current state of soul care, including exploring the importance and historical context of the Bible in soul care. Chapter one begins by examining several biblical passages that show the psychospiritual benefits of Scripture as well as discussing several soul care teachings in the Bible. Johnson states that intends the Bible to be our primary soul care text, which is the role it played throughout church history until modernity, when modern psychology became seen as the only legitimate approach to soul care. In response to this crisis, two major evangelical approaches to soul care have developed: the integration model and biblical counseling. Chapter three provides a comprehensive evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, concluding that insights from both paradigms will be used in establishing a truly Christian version of psychology. Part two spells out a method for developing a Christian psychology. Chapter four asserts that psychology needs to be freed from some of modernity's constraints, defining its object of inquiry as the nature of individual human beings. Therefore, all relevant resources on human beings need to be utilized, but the Bible should function as the primary text. According to Johnson, the challenge involve knowing how to read and interpret these texts. An advanced hermeneutical framework needs to be developed to more accurately read Scripture, Christian tradition texts, and modern psychology sources ... in order to compose a Christian scientific literature that describes human beings in a more comprehensive way than any of these sets of texts alone would provide . …

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