Looking for love in Harvard Magazine

Our house gets the mag 6 times a year since my wife is an alum of one of their grad schools. One of my little pleasures is to read and laugh through the personals in the classifieds. First the descriptions of the person. Men (and their aren’t many of them advertising this month) are vigorous, [...]

Take this psychological test…

Okay, I have testing and assessment on the brain as I am preparing for a course on the topic. I forgot my lunch today and so went to find some paltry substitute from the candy vending machine. I looked over my choices and noticed one item was hanging and just about to fall. If I [...]

The state and future of biblical counseling, Part 2

Let me first make two caveats about this posts before I talk about some of the weaknesses of the movement. I should first say that this and yesterday’s posts are not exhaustive evaluations of biblical counseling. Yesterday, I tried to describe what I think are the key features of biblical counseling–the features that I find [...]

The state and future of biblical counseling, Part 1

Tonight I’ll be speaking to a local church board on the topic of counseling models and the church. In particular, I’ll be exploring the strengths and weaknesses of biblical counseling and christian psychology. As a refresher, I looked at a draft of a review/critique of biblical counseling I once wrote but never published. Today I’ll [...]

Winning the [jury duty] lottery

In Friday’s mail I got my first ever summons to show for jury duty. Immediately I had two opposing reactions. On the one hand, I was a bit excited. I’ve always taken an interest in the forensic psychology and its relationship to our legal system. How do juries really work deciding guilt/innocence? How do guilty folk defend [...]

Justifying paternalism toward clients?

Got a newsletter this week that had an article about paternalism with clients who suffer with eating disorders. The author begins with this statement:
Some clients are pressured into treatement by family, friends or physicians. Other clients enter treatment willingly because they want to make changes in their lives, but those changes may not include their [...]

Langston Hughes’ “Negro Mother”

I confess that I’m not much a fan for poetry. I didn’t get much exposure to it despite my love for reading. I guess I liked stories that were fleshed out much more. However, this week, I read this beauty of Langston Hughes to my children. I share it here with apologies to the person who holds [...]

What letter would you write to your former abuser?

Last night I was perusing a treasure I re-discovered on my bookshelf. Back in the dark ages my wife took a Black literature class at UConn and had the foresight to keep the books. This treasure, Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America (Free Press, 1968) contains works from great writers such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, [...]

Restoration as Surgery

In Restoring the Fallen, chapter 7 begins this way:
Earl, we want you to cancel all your speaking engagements, resign from teaching at the seminary and suspend all your writing projects for at least two years. You are not in a position to be helping other people right now… (p. 63)
Earl Wilson recalls having this reaction: [...]

Summer reading revisited

So, feeling pretty good about my summer reading (less so about my summer writing…). Here’s what I intended to read June through August:
1. Christian Counseling: An introduction(Maloney and Augsburger): Done
2. The Perfect Storm (Junger):  Done.
3. Inside Hamas (Chehab): Done.
4. Infidel (Ali). Done. (I cheated and read this in May).
5. New England White (Carter). Didn’t read as my [...]