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bkeving_74's review against another edition
3.0
Good from a theoretical standpoint
I am a counselor and a Christian above all. I have been leaning more toward a purely biblical approach and I found the ideas in this book to be helpful. However his stance on some mental illnesses seems a bit too simplistic and some of his practical tips leave much to be desired. Overall the foundational biblical principles he espouses are agreeable to me.
I am a counselor and a Christian above all. I have been leaning more toward a purely biblical approach and I found the ideas in this book to be helpful. However his stance on some mental illnesses seems a bit too simplistic and some of his practical tips leave much to be desired. Overall the foundational biblical principles he espouses are agreeable to me.
samanthagriffitts's review
1.0
This is a pathetic attempt on the part of Jay Adams to take counseling captive and hold it hostage in the church setting at the expense of all other psychological interventions. Although I am a proponent of church-based counseling, I believe that church counselors should at least have an undergraduate degree in psychology and a graduate degree rich in both psychology and theology. One must also be willing to refer outside the church for individuals who require more thorough psychiatric evaluation and/or medication. I am heartbroken by Adams' lack of compassion for those who are hurting, and I find his refusal to accept biological elements of mental illness repugnant. The nouthetic counseling movement is damaging, and Adams' work serves to reinforce the movement's radical ideals.
tim_michiemo's review
3.0
3.3 Stars
Jay Adams’ book, "Competent to Counsel", was a landmark book in the field of biblical counselling. It is Jay Adams who paved the way for the biblical counseling movement as we know it today. And who proposed a biblical approach to counseling, nouthetic counseling, in opposition to counseling rooted in secular Freudian thought. Because of this book’s historic significance as a pioneer work, it is difficult to critique it while also honoring it. Honestly, I did not enjoy this book very much, but I think it is a valuable book because Adams’ work is the genesis of the biblical counseling movement.
In this book Adams critiques the dominant counseling theories of the time that were rooted in Freudian theories, and instead roots counseling in the word of God. He rightly proposes that all believers should be competent to counsel, should base their counseling in the Scriptures, and should counsel nouthetically. Adams’ pulls the word nouthetic from the Greek word noutheteo which is often translated in the Scriptures to admonish, warn, or exhort. He states that according to the Scriptures there are three parts to nouthetic counseling; (1) confrontation is done to effect behavioral and personality change, (2) confrontation is done face-to-face and verbally, and (3) the confrontation is done out of loving concern for the counselee. The rest of Adams’ book functions as a compendium of nouthetic counseling applications.
Now, some things that I thought were helpful and good about this book. First, I appreciated the time Adams took to explain the current (sans 1970) state of the counseling movement and how Freudian thought had been dominating it. It helped me to understand where Adams was coming from, and just what a pioneering work this book is. Adams’ book is primarily a response to Freudian counseling methods and a call to return to faithful biblical methods. Second, Adams places a heavy emphasis on sin as the root issue. Adams does not shy away from encouraging counselors to call out sin and teach repentance. It was a healthy reminder that Christian counseling should be rooted in the reality that everyone's basic problem is sin, rather than a "sick" brain or bad habits.
There were quite a few things that I did not enjoy about the book though. First, and mostly, was Adams’ reductionism and dogmatism. Adams infers that every counseling situation can be solved by simply calling out the sin and the counselee to repentance. But sin is often very complicated and rooted in other heart issues, and believers need counselors to help them understand the beliefs and thoughts that are at the root of their sin. Second, is Adams’ emphasis on how nouthetic counseling brings about quick results. This seems to deny the reality that sin is more than just behavioral change, but heart change as well. And heart change can often be hard work, that takes a long time, even a lifetime. For the Scriptures teach that admonition, encouragement and repentance is a continual process, as believers are to daily take up their cross (Luke 9:3) and that they are to not neglect to meet together and encourage one another continually (Hebrews 10:25). And lastly, I simply had a hard time working through the structure of the book. It did not seem to have an organized thread throughout the book, but it was more of a compendium of applications of nouthetic counseling, and how it differed from Freudian counseling methods.
In sum, I want to say that this is a valuable book that has done a lot for biblical counseling. I would say that it is good for pastors and professional Christian counselors to read, primarily to understand the development of biblical counseling. But as a foundational text for biblical counseling, I believe other books can be much more helpful.
https://loveaboundinginknowledge.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/competent-to-counsel-jay-adams/
Jay Adams’ book, "Competent to Counsel", was a landmark book in the field of biblical counselling. It is Jay Adams who paved the way for the biblical counseling movement as we know it today. And who proposed a biblical approach to counseling, nouthetic counseling, in opposition to counseling rooted in secular Freudian thought. Because of this book’s historic significance as a pioneer work, it is difficult to critique it while also honoring it. Honestly, I did not enjoy this book very much, but I think it is a valuable book because Adams’ work is the genesis of the biblical counseling movement.
In this book Adams critiques the dominant counseling theories of the time that were rooted in Freudian theories, and instead roots counseling in the word of God. He rightly proposes that all believers should be competent to counsel, should base their counseling in the Scriptures, and should counsel nouthetically. Adams’ pulls the word nouthetic from the Greek word noutheteo which is often translated in the Scriptures to admonish, warn, or exhort. He states that according to the Scriptures there are three parts to nouthetic counseling; (1) confrontation is done to effect behavioral and personality change, (2) confrontation is done face-to-face and verbally, and (3) the confrontation is done out of loving concern for the counselee. The rest of Adams’ book functions as a compendium of nouthetic counseling applications.
Now, some things that I thought were helpful and good about this book. First, I appreciated the time Adams took to explain the current (sans 1970) state of the counseling movement and how Freudian thought had been dominating it. It helped me to understand where Adams was coming from, and just what a pioneering work this book is. Adams’ book is primarily a response to Freudian counseling methods and a call to return to faithful biblical methods. Second, Adams places a heavy emphasis on sin as the root issue. Adams does not shy away from encouraging counselors to call out sin and teach repentance. It was a healthy reminder that Christian counseling should be rooted in the reality that everyone's basic problem is sin, rather than a "sick" brain or bad habits.
There were quite a few things that I did not enjoy about the book though. First, and mostly, was Adams’ reductionism and dogmatism. Adams infers that every counseling situation can be solved by simply calling out the sin and the counselee to repentance. But sin is often very complicated and rooted in other heart issues, and believers need counselors to help them understand the beliefs and thoughts that are at the root of their sin. Second, is Adams’ emphasis on how nouthetic counseling brings about quick results. This seems to deny the reality that sin is more than just behavioral change, but heart change as well. And heart change can often be hard work, that takes a long time, even a lifetime. For the Scriptures teach that admonition, encouragement and repentance is a continual process, as believers are to daily take up their cross (Luke 9:3) and that they are to not neglect to meet together and encourage one another continually (Hebrews 10:25). And lastly, I simply had a hard time working through the structure of the book. It did not seem to have an organized thread throughout the book, but it was more of a compendium of applications of nouthetic counseling, and how it differed from Freudian counseling methods.
In sum, I want to say that this is a valuable book that has done a lot for biblical counseling. I would say that it is good for pastors and professional Christian counselors to read, primarily to understand the development of biblical counseling. But as a foundational text for biblical counseling, I believe other books can be much more helpful.
https://loveaboundinginknowledge.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/competent-to-counsel-jay-adams/
hazbort's review against another edition
1.0
This is essentially a “pray away” book. As in “repent of your sins and have faith and you will no longer have a mental illness.” Very frustrating.
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