Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 126:501 (Jan 1969)
Article: Counseling and Evangelical Theology
Author: Frank C. Peters

BSac 126:501 (Jan 69) p. 3

Counseling and Evangelical Theology

Frank C. Peters

[Frank C. Peters, President, Waterloo Lutheran University, Waterloo, Ontario.]

[Editor’s Note: This article is the first in the series of W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures delivered by Dr. Peters in November 1968, at Dallas Seminary.]

Early in my ministry I heard a specialist in pastoral counseling compare ministers of evangelical persuasion with ministers of liberal persuasion. It was the speaker’s contention that evangelicals were committed to ideas whereas liberals were interested in people. The lecturer then went on to convince his audience that the meaningful psychological action was in the one camp and the cause of much of the trouble was in the other.

Evangelicals have in the past been somewhat skeptical of the heavy psychological baggage which has characterized many programs designed to train men for the gospel ministry. Today most evangelical training institutions offer courses which utilize the insights gained from psychology. Perhaps the including of lectures on counseling in the W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures is further evidence that evangelicals are open to further insights from the behavioral sciences.

Counseling, as we will use the term in these lectures, refers to a relationship in which one person endeavors to help another to understand and to solve his adjustment problems. The term covers a wide area of procedures: advice giving, psychoanalysis, information giving, interpretation of test scores, encouraging the counselee to verbalize his difficulties, and working through his emotions. The objectives of counseling have been identified by the Committee on Definition, Division of Counseling Psychology, American Psychological Association as “to help individuals toward overcoming obstacles to their personal growth, wherever they may be encountered, and

BSac 126:501 (Jan 69) p. 4

toward achieving optimum development of the personal resources.”1

In lecturing to ministers and theological students it becomes imperative to differentiate between counseling and pastoral care. Pastoral care includes much more than counseling and involves a number of ministers resident in the New Testament Church. All of these gifts were given for the “edification of the saints,” and are used by the Holy Spirit toward the growth of the individual believer. Counseling, then, becomes one significant aspect of pastoral care.

There is a difference of opinion as to whether counseling and psychotherapy are in all essential respects identical. C. H. Patterson2 argues that the nature...