A Word from Bob
For a much longer post on Powlison’s views, see, David Powlison on Common Grace, Biblical Counseling, and Secular Psychology.
The Bible and Extra-Biblical Sources
In 2007, David Powlison wrote one of his most influential articles: “Cure of Souls (and the Modern Psychotherapies).” This is a detailed, thirty-five page article that could easily be a booklet if not a small book. In this article, as the title suggests, Powlison specifically addresses how biblical counselors view, use, and engage with secular psychology theory and practice. Powlison also contrasts how Christian integrative counselors and biblical counselors see the relationship of the Bible to extra-biblical resources.
It is in this article that Powlison introduces his acronyms “COMPIN” and “VITEX.” COMPIN is Powlison’s summary of the biblical counseling position on secular psychology which states that,
“The Christian faith contains COMPrehensive INternal resources to enable us to construct a Christian model of personality, change, and counseling” (11).
The other model—the Christian integrative counseling model—is “VITEX,” which:
“Believes that secular psychologies must make a VITal EXternal contribution in the construction of a Christian model of personality, change, and counseling” (11).
In an article about how Christianity provides comprehensive resources for building a biblical
To continue...read the full-length post originally published on this site.
