When I was in seminary in the early 80s (1980s, not 1880s), open warfare broke out over competing counseling models. During these debates, I was struck by the fact that no one was using church history as a guide to assess modern church counseling approaches. I kept thinking:
“Surely the church has always been about the business of helping hurting and hardened people!”
So, I started reading everything I could find (this was before Google and Amazon) on the history of soul care. For the past 40 years—that’s a whole generation—I’ve continued that study.
Sure enough, I have been able to learn a great deal about what makes biblical counseling truly biblical and what makes Christian counseling truly Christian by learning from that great cloud of historical witnesses—Christians who have been counseling one another for the past 2,000 years.
The Fruit of My Treasure Hunt
It’s been a joyful treasure hunt to learn from brothers and sisters in the faith who have gone before us. My historical treasure hunt has led to:
- A course on The History of Soul Care that I’ve taught over two dozen times in seminary settings.
- The book Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life
- The book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction
- The book Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith
Why Now?
Why mention it now? From July 22-26, I’ll be teaching a week-long modular class at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte. The class is Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Counseling. Here’s the course description:
This course helps students think historically about counseling, soul care, spiritual direction, and one-another ministry and to use historical precedence as a guide to current counseling ministry.
Students learn a widely-noted and oft-used church history approach to counseling that encompasses biblical sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding.
Special attention will be given to the history of African American one-another ministry, women’s soul care, and Reformation pastoral counseling, thus providing students with a multi-cultural awareness of the history of what today is called “counseling.”
Attention will be given to the ministry of pastors and lay leaders throughout church history in order to develop a historical theology of Christian counseling, soul care, spiritual direction, and one-another ministry that students can relate to today’s personal ministry of the Word through gospel-centered counseling.
I’ve mentioned the course to several people, and they have been like:
“Where can I get my hands on that material?”
While you can’t get it all without taking the class, much of it comes from the three books I highlighted above. If you want to benefit from the treasure trove of church history, check out these links for free resources related to each book…
- Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life
- Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction
- Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith
