A Theology of Biblical Counseling

*****
My second time reading this. I am upgrading it to five out of five stars. One of the things I caught from the print version that I didn't from the Audible version is that the biblical counseling movement IS willing to glean valuable data from secular sources while still standing on the sufficiency of the Scriptures.
*****

My original review

It has been at least 15 years since I have read anything on biblical counseling. Since then I have done a lot of reading in the realm of secular psychology. I remain committed to the sufficiency of Scripture, but I have discovered a lot of helpful tools and metrics used in secular psychology since my college & seminary days. A broad-brushed feeling I had of these resources right after my schooling was that these resources were suspect at best and more likely just not good at all. I know that isn't a fair representation in many cases, it was just what I left my schooling with.

Although dealing with this deeply isn't the scope of Heath Lambert's book, I felt like he at least gave a helpful, detailed handling of it. He begins the book sorting out what he calls "Christian Counseling" versus "Biblical Counseling" and where they are similar and where they are different. Naturally, he makes his case for biblical counseling, and based on my core belief in the sufficiency of the Scriptures, I find myself agreeing with his general premise. Where I have questions is how the nuances of interacting with secular study and research are handled. Again, this is outside of the scope of the book, but there were a few strong statements (which we all make as communicators at one time or another) that left me wondering how much room there was to take valuable data from outside the realm of biblical counseling and incorporate it into our biblical approach.

Lambert finishes out the rest of the book with relating biblical counseling to the major divisions of theology with a few other real life scenarios that a biblical counselor will face.

I listened to the Audible version of this book, and I am sure there are some differences to the book because the Audible version was recorded lectures. I plan to read the book in the next month. I will add to this review then if there is anything that strikes me as needful to add.