Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 16:2 (Fall 2025)
Article: But What Does It Look Like In Practice? Applying The Formal And Material Sufficiency Of Scripture To Biblical Counseling
Author: Kenneth D. Keathley

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But What Does It Look Like In Practice? Applying The Formal And Material Sufficiency Of Scripture To Biblical Counseling

Kenneth Keathley

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Abstract: This article explores how the Reformation doctrines of formal and material sufficiency of Scripture apply to the practice of biblical counseling. It addresses the ethical question of whether Christians may appropriately use extra-biblical resources in counseling and proposes a nuanced framework for doing so. After defining key theological terms and distinctions—including formal versus material sufficiency, and prima, norma, and suprema Scriptura—the article critiques three common misapplications: Roman Catholic traditionalism, progressive trajectory models, and fundamentalist biblicism. Although Scripture is sufficient in both content and authority, it must be rightly interpreted, applied, and integrated with other sources of knowledge under the Bible’s ultimate authority. Using theological reasoning and historical examples, the article demonstrates that counselors must start with Scripture (prima), test all other inputs by Scripture (norma), and remain continually subject to its correction (suprema). This tri-fold approach offers a biblically faithful yet pastorally sensitive method for Christian soul care.

Key Words: biblical counseling, formal sufficiency, material sufficiency, norma Scriptura, prima Scriptura, sufficiency of Scripture, suprema Scriptura, theological methodology

Several topics fit under Sola Scriptura because they operate, more or less, as corollaries. These corollaries include Scripture’s primacy, necessity, comprehensiveness, perfection, clarity, and—to the topic of this article—sufficiency. Specifically, this article explores a significant ethical question about biblical counseling: Is it good and right for Christians to use extra-biblical resources when counseling? And if so, what are the best practices for going about it? Like so many ethical issues, even when the

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line from Scripture to principle seems relatively clear, the line from principle to best practices often does not.1

This article first surveys what theologians typically mean when they discuss the formal sufficiency and material sufficiency of Scripture. Second, it looks briefly at how these principles have been (more or less successfully) applied by the church. Some seem to be confused about material sufficiency, interpreting it to mean that biblical counseling needs only the Bible. We will see that this is not the view of the Protestant Reformers. Last the article explores how the...