Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (Powlison)

Description

Does God have a take on counseling? Does his gaze have anything to say about the myriad issues counseling deals with? Has he communicated the way he thinks?

David Powlison helps us to see God in the counseling context, training us to see what God sees, hear what he says, and do what he does. As we look through this Scriptural lens, we will become more thoughtful in understanding people and more skillful in curing souls.

All counseling models—whether secular or religious—are essentially differing systems of "pastoral care and cure." When you include God in the picture, it changes the way we think about "problem," "diagnosis," "strategy," "solution," "helpful," "cure," "insight," and "counselor." Learn how the Bible's truth competes head-to-head with other counseling models and changes what we live for and how we live.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Scripture Opens Blind Eyes

1. Counsel Ephesians

2. Who Is God?

3. Godly Roles and Relationships: Ephesians 5:21-6:9

4. Peace, Be Still: Psalm 131

5. Why Me? Comfort from Psalm 10

6. Don’t Worry: Luke 12:22-34

Part 2: Reinterpreting Life

7. X-ray Questions

8. I Am Motivated When I Feel Desire

9. God’s Love: Better Than Unconditional

10. What If Your Father Didn’t Love You?

11. Human Defensiveness: The Third Way

12. The Ambiguously Cured Soul

13. What Do You Feel?

14. Love Speaks Many Languages Fluently

15. Biological Psychiatry

Conclusion: Toward Simplicity 

Endorsements

"David Powlison has profoundly impacted my ministry by teaching me the discipline of seeing life through the lens of Scripture rather than the other way around. The crumbs from Dave’s table—his most casual comments—have nourished me for years. This is a feast if biblical insight." — Ken Sande

"With fresh insight and skillful creativity, Powlison demonstrates that the Bible, when rightly understood, speaks with the full weight of God's own authority. This book will help counselors and anyone who wants to live life and minister in a distinctly biblical way." — Wayne Mack

"Seeing with New Eyes will transform your perspective and focus your faith on the sufficient truth of Scripture and on our Scripture's God. I heartily recommend it!" — Elyse Fitzpatrick 

Author

David Powlison (MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; MA, PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is the editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling and a member of the faculty and counseling staff at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation in Glenside, Pennsylvania. He teaches at Westminster Theological Seminary and is a board member and fellow of the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors. He and his wife live in Glenside. They have three children.