Page 48 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 7

Foundational Discussions in Christian Psychology

certain ways. The role of the therapeutic con- This contrasts remarkably from other approa-
versation is not to assess the problem to arrive ches that call for “interventions”, in which we
at a diagnosis, but to help the person discover intervene in the person’s life from our privileged
her own values, his own positive life commit- positions of knowledge. It contrasts from those
ments, her preferred outcomes of life, in such approaches that follow the medical model, and
a way that the problem loses its power in the guide us to make an assessment, and then apply
person’s life. The therapist’s task, it can be said, a treatment. And it contrasts remarkably from
is to help the person discover, not his original those understandings of evangelicalism and
sin, but his original goodness. evangelization that invite us to see the other as
a poor, lost sinner, who must gratefully respond
This of course is not so foreign to the bible itself. to the wonderful news of the Gospel that we
It’s where the biblical account begins. Throug- bring. The aura of superiority that all of these
hout the six days of creation, God’s verdict at approaches bring conveys to the client, or the
the end of each day was, “And God saw that it “evangelizee”, that s/he is somehow inferior, and
was good.” At the end of the sixth day, having thus indebted to us for what we are offering.
completed his creating with the creation of the
“adam”, (“adam” is the transliteration of the He- Rather, what we are called upon is to do all in
brew word which is often in the first chapters our power to level the ground on which we both
translated as “man”, only later as the proper stand. The attention to the power differential is
name of the first male, Adam) God pronounced always the responsibility of the one in the posi-
that it was “very good.” tion of power. The other has two possibilities.
Either he will acquiesce, and give over respon-
Ought not this to be the place where our theo- sibility for his life to the person in power, or he
logical anthropology begins. In the beginning, will rebel, and fail to be helped by the services
God created, and it was very good. How did the that the therapist, or the evangelist, offers.
first point of the five points of Calvinism, that
of “total depravity” become the first point of When, on the other hand, the power differen-
systematic theology? At the very best it ought tial is levelled by the one who has the power,
to be preceded by, first this truth, from Genesis this gives the other the freedom to respond as
1, that there is original goodness, and secondly, an equal.
from Genesis 2, the vital importance of human
relationships (v. 18 – “it is not good for the man From the vantage point of the New Testament,
to be alone.) Then, in chapter 3, we can begin this is in fact what Jesus did. “The Word beca-
to address the human condition as described in me flesh and dwelt among us.” The work of the
that remarkable story about The Fall. therapist, and the evangelist, is to discover how
to dwell where the client dwells.
Narrative Therapy, in the way in which it hono-
urs the value of the person, calls us to a different “Let this mind be in you which was also in
starting place in our dealings with our clients, Christ ... who emptied himself ... and took on
and indeed in all of our relationships. It calls the form of a servant....” (Phil. 2:4ff).The work
us to pay attention to the power relationships of the therapist is to take what some have called
and the power differentials in the relationships. a “not-knowing” stance with respect to the
As therapists, we occupy the position of power client’s story, and meanings. It requires a laying
in the relationship, and thus it becomes the re- aside of our knowledges – about who humans
sponsibility of the therapist, the person in the are, what problems are, and how people change
position of power, to monitor the effects of that – in order to be truly present with this unique
power, and to be accountable to the other, the individual, this unique couple, or this unique
client, in the exercise of that power. (White, family, and to hear the stories with which they
1997) come. It requires of the evangelist to lay to one
side the certainty of the gospel in order to come

47