Page 155 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 7

The Work and Thinking of David Benner
I thank David for making his writings availab-
le to us, and from them I have selected some I
already knew which appeared particularly rele-
vant to Christian psychology.
• “Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy”
from “Psychology and Religion” (1987),
edited by David G. Benner, was my first en-
counter with his work, in the 1980s. It was a
great encouragement to us to discover that • “Understanding our Humanity”: in Soul-
the term “Christian Psychology”, new to
us, appeared in this volume as well.David’s
article finished with an invitation to a jour-
ney: “If Christian therapy is not simply the
application of some biblical theory of per-
sonality and therapy, what then is it? This
chapter has suggested that it is an approach
to therapy offered by a Christian who bases
his or her understanding of persons on the
Bible and allows this understanding to sha-
pe all aspects of theory and practice. This
suggests an ongoing process rather than a
finished product. Seen thus, the Christian
therapist is not one who practices a certain
type of therapy but one who views himself
in God’s service in and through his professi-
on and who sees his primary allegiance and
accountability to his God, and only secon-
darily to his profession or discipline.”
• “The Incarnation as a Metaphor for Psycho-
therapy” from “Journal of Psychology and
Theology” 11, 1983 For its time, I consider
this article to have been a very courageous
step by David G. Benner. The fundamental
idea, that of sharing the burden of the cli-
ents suffering in analogy to Jesus, is still im-
portant today and requires further discus-
sion. “However, it is possible for the thera-
pist to receive renewed strength. In personal
relationship to Christ, believers find and
renew their strength. Today Christ is incar-
nate in the Church, his new body. Ultimate-
ly, therefore, it is only in the context of the
Church that the Christian therapist finds
the strength necessary for “incarnational
therapy”.
• “Pastoral Conversation” in Care of Souls:
Revisioning Christian Nurture and Counsel,
1998, pp. 143-148. Care of Souls was trans-
lated into German only a few years ago. The
154
publisher allowed us a generous quotation
as part of a review. Wolfram Soldan (Ger-
many) agrees with David G. Benner that a
psychologically well-founded psychothera-
peutic dialogue, as a genuine engagement
between two persons, cannot take place in a
value-free space, with a high degree of sen-
sibility for the overstepping of boundaries
being called for.
ful Spirituality, 2011 pp 27-37”. David G.
Benner’s more recent books concentrate
increasingly on spiritual psychology, a psy-
chology that can be categorised, according
to Psychology & Christianity: Five Views by
Eric Johnson, 2010, as a Transformational
Psychology. David’s current concern emer-
ges clearly from this statement: “Christi-
an teaching has not always been nearly as
clear as to just how important becoming
human truly is. Sometimes it has seemed
to support a spirituality of escape from the
human condition, particularly from our
bodies, emotions and sexuality. In this, it
has failed to take seriously the Bible’s clear
and strong affirmations of goodness of the
material world in general and humanity
in particular. Salvation as escape from hu-
manity is sub-Christian. Saint Irenaeus got
it right when he declared that the glory of
God is humans fully alive!” Mike Sheldon
(GB), who wrote an accompanying com-
mentary to “Understanding our Humanity”,
concludes with these words: “We must be
fully awake, live life each moment, seek for
experiences, engage in relationships, and
strive to more fully enter into the presence
of God.”