McMinn 4-MAT Review:
Psychology, Theology and Spirituality
Toya V Mitchell
Liberty University
Review The text Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling written by Dr. Mark McMinn brings psychology, theology and spirituality together within the counseling office. Throughout the book McMinn presents several challenges that counselors face within their profession, spiritual relationship and personal self (McMinn, 2011). These challenges include areas of competence, blurred personal-professional distinctions, training difficulties, dominant views of mental health, lack of scientific foundations and ethical standards.
In the first chapter McMinn, explores prayer in counseling within a counseling setting.
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In this chapter he examines attribution, personal sin and original sin. Fourth, McMinn makes the reader encounter confession. McMinn states that an accurate understanding of sin and confession can lead to hope and healing (McMinn, 2011). Next, the reader arrives at the focus of forgiveness. He argues that forgiveness is both a technique and a duty. McMinn cautions that forgiveness is dangerous if it incites fear and shame, but it can be powerful technique. Finally, the author arrives at redemption. He defines redemption as value and meaning restored to the life of humanity. He views redemption as a one- time work and continuing process that is governed and powered by God himself. And the redemption found in Jesus Christ encourages us to be redemptive vessels who reflect God’s grace (McMinn, …show more content…
His perceptions of risks associated with Scripture, prayer, confession and forgiveness are essential to the text and the readers compassion. However, he does cause some confusion as he examines redemption as immediate and concurrent. But he then states that sin separates us from God and God continuously buy us back from sin (McMinn, 2011). This caused great confusion for me and I’m sure for many readers, as we wonder how. In addition to this weakness, I found McMinn’s work to lack clarity regarding therapeutic counseling and God. He states that redemption comes directly from God; however, a person can question if the benefit of a therapeutic relationship is indebted to the human relationships as “ultimately transforming” (McMinn, 2011). I appreciate how McMinn explored each aspect of his Christian counseling model thoroughly and efficiently. He broke down each aspect by giving Scripture reference, research validity, named the benefits and the associated risks. He also gave several warnings to using theology within the counseling setting… for example prayer, Mc Minn does recommend prayer in and outside of the counseling setting, yet he warns that open prayer in the counseling setting can cause dependency or intimacy between the counselor and client (McMinn, 2011). In general, McMinn’s book is outstanding, as it covered the aspects of integrating psychology,