John Bettler Responds to Jay Adams
It’s 1987. Almost twenty years have lapsed since Jay Adams launched the modern nouthetic counseling movement. John Bettler is a good friend of Jay Adams. Bettler is “the second ranking leader” in the nouthetic counseling world after Adams.
Adams has just written an article entitled “What About Emotional Abuse?” (Journal of Pastoral Practice, 8, no. 3).
Now, with Adams’s permission, good friend John Bettler writes “A Response to ‘What About Emotional Abuse?’ (“Biblical Counseling: The Next Generation,” Journal of Pastoral Practice, 8, no. 4 (1987): 3-10).
Nouthetic Confrontation … of Nouthetic Confrontation
In his article, Adams nouthetically confronts the prevailing thinking of the day on the impact of parental emotional abuse on children. Adams focuses his critiques on Alfred Adler’s model and writings.
In reading Bettler’s 1987 article, we overhear one nouthetic counselor (John Bettler) offering nouthetic confrontation, not just to Jay Adams, but to the entire nouthetic counseling movement—to “the next generation.” That’s good. Those who give nouthetic confrontation ought to humbly receive and learn from such nouthetic confrontation and caution.
Relevant for Biblical Counselors Today
History does repeat itself. Today we read an increasing number of articles critiquing writings and models related
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