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Putting an End to Christian Psychology

"You're committing professional suicide," a colleague recently told psychologist Larry Crabb. In recent speeches, Crabb has been raising eyebrows by joining in the chorus of those questioning the utility of psychotherapy for Christians. According to Crabb, the church must reclaim its job of healing people who are struggling emotionally-including those with problems that are generally referred to psychologists and therapists.

Crabb is founder and director of the Institute of Biblical Counseling in Morrison, Colorado, and a professor at Colorado Christian University. Books such as Inside Out and Finding God have made him a popular author and speaker in the Christian community. But lately, with his idea of dismantling the Christian counseling industry, Crabb seems on the verge of bewildering more than a few of his followers. Here he talks about his vision for the church becoming a healing sanctuary.

What has been the effect of professional counseling in the church?

The church has bought into the idea that its spiritual role is a very limited one. If a woman struggles with depression or lacks sexual desire for her husband because of past sexual abuse, the immediate response is to send the woman to a professional counselor. The underlying assumption is that spiritual resources aren't sufficient to deal with what's going on-that only people with massive levels of professional training can help. Ultimately, we're saying the Scriptures and Christianity don't meaningfully address the core concerns of our lives.

You don't hold to the three-sided model that therapists are qualified to treat psychological problems, pastors spiritual problems, and doctors physical ones?

I say no, for two reasons. First, as a professional, I know what we don't know. We can't diagnose what's really happening in people's souls-not the way my dentist can when he looks at x-rays and tells me what's wrong with my tooth. He's not pretending; he knows. He's an expert. But as a psychologist, I don't know, and it's not because I'm stupid or poorly trained; it's because there's no such thing as a scientifically trained expert on the soul.

Second, theologically I am more comfortable with a dichotomist position-that human beings consist of spirit and body-than a trichotomist one. This leads me to suggest that what we call emotional/psychological problems are really spiritual/theological ones; that nonorganic problems really stem from a troubled soul, not some damaged self, which psychotherapists claim to fix.

But hasn't psychotherapy worked for many people?

Yes; but ask most people who have had two or three years with a good therapist what it was that helped them. Nine times in ten they say, "This guy really cared about me. He looked at me and said, 'I really want to see you feel better.' " The therapist's caring was much more important than his or her professional interpretations. Those therapists who are doing really good work are, in fact, doing what I'm calling "eldering." And if eldering is being done within a professional setting, why can't it be done in the nonprofessional setting of the church? I think it can be, and I think that's where it ideally belongs.

Why specifically the church?

When a patient goes to see a therapist, he's really asking the therapist to do the sanctifying work that the Spirit of God does through his Word. In the end, all counseling-intentionally or not-deals with issues of sanctification. The primary context for healing, then, should be the Christian community, not the antiseptic world of a private-practice therapist.

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August 1 1995, Vol. 39, No. 9