Page 75 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5
P. 75
Church Traditions for a Christian Psychology
Téo J. van der Weele (Austria)
Comment
to “A Christian Psychologist and
Biblical Counsellor”
Ed Welch honest testimony touched me, as he
shares what he does, with psychology as a bibli-
cal counsellor and/or what he does as a biblical
counsellor with psychology.
He obviously is indebted to Jay Adams who re-
ally brought us a sharp reminder of the value
of Biblical Counselling, rather than talking in
humanistic psychological terms.
Deacon Téo van der Weele (1937) went
As a missionary in Thailand I got a hold of in 1963 as a missionary with the C. &
Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams, but his M.A. to Thailand until 1975. He develo-
polemic style didn´t make me feel comfortab- ped gentle approach towards Abuse Sur-
le. I too recognized Adams Biblical wisdom, but vivors called Helping Through Blessing.
had to find a way that was more suited to Asi- After his M.A. studies in Fuller (´86), he
ans, who in general don´t react favourably to started together with Dr. Vibeke Moel-
confrontation. If they like you, they react polite, ler an English language summer school
agree with you, even pray in the desired way, for counsellors (esarpac.com). He wrote
but this doesn´t change them and they will not From Shame to Peace: Counselling and
come back… caring for the sexually abused which
So I was interested how Ed handled his inte- gives the basic philosophy of Helping
gration of Bible and psychology. His studies in Through Blessing. This has been trans-
neuropsychology gave him an opening to look lated in various European languages as
at mankind also from God´s Book of Nature. well as Arabic. He converted to the RC
His grand unifying theory of Scripture is that Church in 2011 and serves now part-
our world is personal. We live before a personal time as a Deacon in Tulln, Austria and
God and we live with and among other peop- part-time in ESARPAC summer schools
le”. My heart warmed when he writes: Ethics are in Denmark, Switzerland, Egypt, and In-
joined to the Cross. How the battle with “sexua- dia as well teaching and counselling mi-
lity is not just trying to say “no” to temptation” nistries around the world.
but that we have been bought and paid for by
Jesus on the Cross. Our life with Jesus is much
more like a marriage then a relationship set in a
Code of Law. 1) My pastoral counselling practise over the last
I wish though that he had said a bit more about 40 years has been mostly with people who in
the love of Christ which is the only way to fill their youth suffered sexual abuse. Forty years
the deepest inner need we all have. I found that ago the standard answer was: you should for-
in the time I was with the Christian and Missio- give, otherwise God will not forgive you. The
nary Alliance in Thailand and throughout my decision to simply do that often resulted in a
nearly 50 years of counselling experience. superficial cover-up of deep-seated wounds.
Christian Abuse Survivors have thus often a
I like Ed’s example of how he talks about sin for problem with forgiveness.
two reasons:
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