Comparison Paper: Adams: Nouthetic Counseling
Tammy T. Smith
Liberty University
PACO 507

SUMMARY David Powlison’s book, “The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context” (Powlison, 2010) highlights the historical context and impact of Jay Adams’s Positive System theory of Biblical Counseling. Adams makes three striking claims in his anti-psychiatry movement in support of counseling being a pastoral call versus a psychological practice. First, he claims that modern psychological theories perpetuate bad theology and misinterpret life’s problems. Secondly, he claims that psychotherapeutic professions are a false pastorate embarking upon tasks that rightfully belong to pastors. Thirdly, Adams claims that the Bible teaches …show more content…

5. God recompenses through consequence or reward: life or death, joy or misery, blessing or curse, justification or condemnation both here and hereafter (Powlison, 2010, pp. 98-99).
Human Personality
Adams emphasizes the need to understand people through the eyes of God. He encourages helping people to understand their fallen state, their need for God, and to see problems from God’s perspective. Adams vehemently opposes the psychological view of human nature as "a descriptive science, which studies human functioning." He argues that psychotherapists and personality theorists are errant in making generalizations about the human condition without reference to God. Adams’s Nouthetic counseling approach focuses on bad behaviors and negative emotions as manifestations of sin alone.
Counselor’s Function and Role
Adams defines the Christian Counselor’s function and role as one who confronts sin and offers biblical solutions. He asserts that counseling is a pastoral activity to be carried out in the parochial setting. The counselor is to offer his clients God’s graces through a relationship with Jesus Christ and lead them to repentance of sin so that they may experience transformation and hope.
Major Contribution to Counseling Adams’s major contribution to Christian Counseling has been his valiant effort to maintain the sufficiency of God and the Bible in the human predicament. His teaching that all psychology be