Introduction to Psychology and Counseling: Christian Perspectives and Applications

by Paul D. Meier, Frank B. Minirth

This standard Christian introduction to psychology has been refined, updated, and reorganized with more information on counseling and ministry applications.

Genres: Psychology, Counselling, Nonfiction, Religion, School

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Extract of DR. Paul Meier's biography on the website of the Meier Clinics:

Paul Meier is an MD/Psychiatrist/Ordained Minister who is the founder of the national chain of non-profit Christian psychiatry clinics, the Meier Clinics. He has authored or co-authored over 80 books, mostly Christian self-help books like Love is a Choice and Happiness is a Choice, and also a series of Bible Prophecy novels, including The Third Millennium.

Reviews

[Julie Winkler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent study! Loved this class.

[Aleece Stallings · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good information here but also some Dobson propaganda.

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 90s book on psychology from a Christian perspective, and so because of that, it has certain weaknesses. For a 90s book on psychology, however, it really is quite good. The authors did a really good job of integrating psychology into a Christian worldview, with only a few missteps, which honestly really impressed me. When the authors said in the introduction that they were taking an ecletic approach to integrating Christianity with psychology, I was worried about how it might turn out. However, I ended up having little issue with how they actually integrated it, as it did justice to both psychology and Christian theology in a better way than other Christian psychology books that I've read.

Now, as I said before, this is a book from the 90s, and on account of that, it has certain weaknesses associated with it. One of the unavoidable issues is that since this book was initially published over twenty years ago, it's unable to interact with new data and studies that have been released in the field of psychology, making it somewhat dated. Another issue, which perhaps stems from Christian culture in the 90s, is that this book is rather matter-of-fact and tends to offer simple conclusions, which is strong at some points, but also led to a tendency not to interact with arguments to the contrary. On controversial-issues such as gender roles and spanking, they offered arguments which I overall agreed with, but which didn't really rebut opposing arguments, which weakened the strength of their own arguments. In addition to this, in some of the places where they made more controversial points, the book was lacking in footnotes. I understand that not all textbooks use footnotes that much. However, I would have liked to see the actual evidence behind their claims, presuming it exists.

Overall, despite the fact that this book is a bit dated and simplistic at times, it's one of the best integrations of psychology and Christianity that I've seen so far. I learned a lot of psychology from this book, and they helped a lot in giving suggestions for how it all integrates with a Christian worldview. Educational read overall.

Rating: 3.5-4 Stars (Good).

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This introductory work, along with a five views on psychology and Christianity, were quite helpful in developing many factors of debate and importance in the realm of psychology. The authors do an interesting job relating Christianity to psychology in their comments at times, coming across sometimes with trite phrases that produce an eye roll but other times writing some very strong admonitions. The book engages in an intro section in chapter one on the exact nature of psychology and Christianity's relationship; they do not conclude to any one position. Chapter two deals with the biological aspects of the human person, with chapters 3 through 8 dealing with what I would consider the mental (e.g. emotion, motivation, cognitive learning, memory, intelligence, etc). These were some of my favorite chapters. I really enjoyed the section in chapter two on interpretation of sense data, that is, sense data is not objective. In chapters 9-11 nurture factors of human personhood come into place, which unlike my development psychology class in college (had a very bad teacher), does not loose the forest through the trees in applying development to psychology. After a disappointing section on personality, there are three good sections on the psychology of religion (ch 13), definitions of pathology and mental health (ch. 14), then two chapters on specific treatment approaches. Other than the disappointing chapter on personality, I would recommend this book.

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most books are rated related to their usefulness and contributions to my research.
Overall, a good book for the researcher and enthusiast.
Read for personal research
- found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.