The Democracy of the Dead
G. K. Chesterton said it poetically.
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.
Chesterton provides a healthy reminder for all of us, especially for those of us in the modern biblical counseling movement. Long before the 50-year-young nouthetic biblical counseling movement, the church had always been about the business of helping hurting and hardened people to find healing, hope, and help in Christ.
The following resources point us to a number of seminal works that provide us with historical perspective and historical voices about the history of pastoral counseling, soul care, and the modern biblical counseling movement.
The History of Pastoral Counseling
Clebsch, William, and Charles Jaekle. Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective
Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective introduces the reader to the historical matrix of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. Clebsch and Jaekle write convincingly that any model of pastoral counseling worthy of the title must include these four elements (sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding). After several chapters that overview the nature of these four
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