Introduction
William Kirwan, the author of the book “Biblical Concepts for Christian Counseling” demonstrates the possibility of theology and psychology integration. He discloses the developed counseling theory being based upon psychological literature and clinical experience; the author tries to call the community being more biblical in counseling and preaching. Kirwan describes principle methods and models of Christian counseling analyzing them through biblical vision and perception; he managed to reflect psychological interference and personal experience in theoretical study.
Counseling and Christian Worldview
The principle goal of all counselors is considered to be the necessity of change; this concept described by Kirwan appeared to be closely interacted with biblical conceptions. According to his theory the Bible discloses the principles for complete understanding and involvement into nouthetic counseling directing Christians perceive counseling as an integral part of their life. Counseling has been always connected with Christ’s church work; the book under analysis discloses the fact that the church used to minister to persons and families in divine and human relationship in order to fulfill its task of attending the matters of values, believes and behavior.
It is important to underline the issue that the Bible is the background for Christian counseling, while the counseling itself is an integral part of Word ministry. Kirwan describes counseling as a continuous process of helping the humanity loving God and those who surround them.
Kirwan discloses the basic goal of Biblical Christian Counseling which is aimed at raising the awareness of counselee’s present condition allowing any person moving from separation to the family restoration, from guilt to forgiveness, from hurt to harmony and justice and from worthlessness feeling to believe in God. The author describes this process as a dynamic one; he sticks to the point that counseling relationship covers the change expectation and its process is focused on the power employing and positive change production. Counseling is to contain such concepts as inspiration, incentives and motivation for the purpose of change production which is necessary for other people.
Kirwan’s key concepts
The basic concepts disclosed by William Kirwan are aimed at identification of key counseling goals and roles in human life and psychological influence of biblical conceptions. According to his theory, counseling means complete harmony and understanding between people in need and the counselor; one of the principle aims to achieve is connected with the therapy of healing. It is important to underline the fact that biblical concepts of curing can be analyzed through historical church; the ancient concept was focused on the principle of spirit, body and mind healing. It was found out that biblical concepts in counseling expressed through curing are concentrated not only on material or physical dimensions but also spiritual and emotional soul well-being.
Biblical Christian counseling is to have absolute authority for the purpose of direction and truth determination. Christian counselors are considered to be active God representatives who are to communicate their message looking for guiding hand in faced counseling situations.
Kirwan tried to show that Christian counseling is closely connected with elf healing being influenced by the concepts of psychological studies; he stresses the meaning of psychotherapy in theology explaining this phenomenon as “soul healing or soul therapy”. Biblical psychology is merely focused on the analysis of soul, spirit and body being based on psychological theories of Sigmund Freud. The book “Biblical Concepts for Christian Counseling” managed to disclose the meaning of biblical self-understanding and self evaluation addressed by counseling. (Kirwan, 1984)
Reaction Analysis
William Kirwan managed to identify the attitude between counseling and Christian worldview in the most appropriate way; the book disclosed the role of biblical self-understanding through psychological interference with human behavior. It was underlined that counseling plays an important role in human relationships with other people; the concept of healing is of great importance for understanding virtues and values of modern society.
The book appeared to be a helpful guide in determination of the counseling perception in ancient and present society; counselors’ main goal is to repair people’s present through their past examination. According to the author Biblical counseling is considered to be a set of Scripture commands being helpful in submitting God’s will. It is necessary to underline the fact that Christian counseling can be completely valuable for personal inner world development and soul curing.
It is an open secret that human life is an experience of constant changes; these changes are faced by everyone with alterations of traditions, epochs and values in the society. The disclosure of Christian counseling by Kirwan helped to understand the role of counselor in family life formation. The counseling tools helped my family to face all life challenges in harmony and the atmosphere of mutual understanding. The provided us with sound judgments and the necessity to make use of personal wisdom wealth which is an integral part of human inner harmony. The understanding of Kirwan’s theory appeared to be a kind of experience and new knowledge related to biblical concepts in counseling functioning.
Psychological influence on Christian counseling role appeared to recognize the difference between the concepts of self esteem and self love in biblical study and psychology. It should be noted that love of self in accordance with the Bible is not egocentric and never encourages the individual primacy and self-esteem enhancement. It is merely based upon the awareness of the Lord’s love and complete acceptance of human creation in God’s image. The book has demonstrated the necessity to obey God’s will and accept His love to humanity because only this feeling can provide a perfect model to follow in life process.
This knowledge helps to reevaluate personal attitude to self vision; in accordance with studied concepts in psychology related to self esteem, people are presented as selfish society deprived of morality and possibility of soul healing. The problem is that this concept identification appeared to form the whole self-esteem industry disclosing false vision of human behavior and illustrating inappropriate examples of family life ruin.
Emotionally this book helps to understand the fact that human low self-esteem, which is the background of soul instabilities, is merely connected with negative experience and self destructive behavior in the society. Such factors as teen pregnancy, depressions, victimization and suicide attempts can be perceived as primary causes of low self esteem harming not only to one’s personal life but to surrounding people.
It is necessary to underline the fact that the analysis of psychological atmosphere in modern society leads to realization of moral breakage in modern generation being deprived of holy faith in the Lord’s love and Christian counseling. Recent studies disclosed the fact that people in need calls for help and support of counselors very seldom and are the principle threat to the whole society. Their moral breakages disturb the established biblical concepts of human harmony and spiritual atmosphere helping to reach soul and body curing.
Biblical concepts in Christian counseling play the role of guide for challenges appropriate perception explaining the necessity to reach an accurate and honest self-perception and evaluation. The description of biblical and psychological concepts interrelation disclosed the necessity of understanding the role of counseling for human recovery on the basis of past experience. (Kirwan, 1984)
Conclusion
The analysis of the book “Biblical Concepts for Christian Counseling” by William Kirwan disclosed the importance of holy faith and God’s love which is to be placed in lives of everyone, otherwise the humanity will live without eternal hope. The author managed to underline the necessity of biblical love expression in interpersonal relationships either in family or towards surrounding people. The analysis of spiritual dimensions proved their role in holy aspects promotion within modern society; Kirwan managed to create a real masterpiece helping people in need analyze their past for the purpose of coming to better future.
The book “Biblical Concepts for Christian Counseling” is the reflection of psychological and theological integration through the problems of modern society connected with their spiritual and mental development.
References
Kirwan, W. (1984). Biblical Concepts for Christian Counseling: A Case for Integrating Psychology and Theology. Baker Book House.