The McMinn Textbook 4MAT Review
Summary
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling is an enlightening and captivating book by Mark McMinn. The book shows and provides interesting insight into counseling from the perspective of Christians. I consider this book to be quite stirring and thoughtful because the author provides readers with relevant knowledge combined with his own personal experiences in the field of counseling. McMinn also offers his readers the opportunity to think about counseling through the student’s perspective, which is critical as it enables them to apply the various concepts that they learn at school. In addition, he explains to the reader about the importance of relying on previous research studies …show more content…
In this case, he clearly points out that Christian counseling is quite fragile. Most psychologists do not approve Christian counseling for a number of reasons. For instance, some disapprove the approach because there is insufficient body of knowledge regarding the technique, its effectiveness, and its failure. In addition, other psychologists do not approach this counseling technique because of the differences in ideologies among the various religions of the world. According to McMinn, both the Christian and secular counselors are guilty in the sense that Christian counselors have to demonstrate the validity of the various Christian techniques that they propose (McMinn, 2011). He also points out that the Christian techniques could work well of counselors are cautious in their approach. He demonstrates the ways in which Christian counselors could use scripture, emphasize the importance of prayer, as well as incorporate the concepts of forgiveness and sin in the process. This issue of incorporating religious perspectives in counseling becomes complicated because during research regarding religion from a counseling perspective, the research does not always focus on a specific religion, but rather it moves to the issue of spirituality instead. On a positive note, McMinn expresses the beauty of …show more content…
However, I feel that the author needs to address some issues more comprehensively such as the need for prayer during counseling. This information could greatly help the readers, especially those secular readers who do not have much understanding of Christianity or spirituality. I would also hope that the author could incorporate recent perspective in research when he publishes his next book. This could greatly help the readers to gain proper information regarding critical subjects as well as to answer some of their concerns with regard to Christian counseling (McMinn, 2011). However, I feel that the author has provided readers with sufficient information regarding the effectiveness of Christian counseling, which enables them to have a proper base for their understanding of the concept. I would also hope that McMinn could include a chapter that covers the issues that Christian counselors often encounter in their careers, including the effective and most appropriate ways of dealing with those situations. I also think that it would be appropriate if the author provided the reader with a more comprehensive definition of the term Christian counselors as I think it is still quite unclear for many of them. More importantly, I feel that there is need for the author to address the relationship between Christian counseling and the church. This is essential because it will help the Christian
Summary
Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling is an enlightening and captivating book by Mark McMinn. The book shows and provides interesting insight into counseling from the perspective of Christians. I consider this book to be quite stirring and thoughtful because the author provides readers with relevant knowledge combined with his own personal experiences in the field of counseling. McMinn also offers his readers the opportunity to think about counseling through the student’s perspective, which is critical as it enables them to apply the various concepts that they learn at school. In addition, he explains to the reader about the importance of relying on previous research studies …show more content…
In this case, he clearly points out that Christian counseling is quite fragile. Most psychologists do not approve Christian counseling for a number of reasons. For instance, some disapprove the approach because there is insufficient body of knowledge regarding the technique, its effectiveness, and its failure. In addition, other psychologists do not approach this counseling technique because of the differences in ideologies among the various religions of the world. According to McMinn, both the Christian and secular counselors are guilty in the sense that Christian counselors have to demonstrate the validity of the various Christian techniques that they propose (McMinn, 2011). He also points out that the Christian techniques could work well of counselors are cautious in their approach. He demonstrates the ways in which Christian counselors could use scripture, emphasize the importance of prayer, as well as incorporate the concepts of forgiveness and sin in the process. This issue of incorporating religious perspectives in counseling becomes complicated because during research regarding religion from a counseling perspective, the research does not always focus on a specific religion, but rather it moves to the issue of spirituality instead. On a positive note, McMinn expresses the beauty of …show more content…
However, I feel that the author needs to address some issues more comprehensively such as the need for prayer during counseling. This information could greatly help the readers, especially those secular readers who do not have much understanding of Christianity or spirituality. I would also hope that the author could incorporate recent perspective in research when he publishes his next book. This could greatly help the readers to gain proper information regarding critical subjects as well as to answer some of their concerns with regard to Christian counseling (McMinn, 2011). However, I feel that the author has provided readers with sufficient information regarding the effectiveness of Christian counseling, which enables them to have a proper base for their understanding of the concept. I would also hope that McMinn could include a chapter that covers the issues that Christian counselors often encounter in their careers, including the effective and most appropriate ways of dealing with those situations. I also think that it would be appropriate if the author provided the reader with a more comprehensive definition of the term Christian counselors as I think it is still quite unclear for many of them. More importantly, I feel that there is need for the author to address the relationship between Christian counseling and the church. This is essential because it will help the Christian