Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (Resources for Changing Lives) [Paperback]

David Powlison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Resources for Changing Lives | Publication Date: October 2003

"When our gaze awakens to the gaze of God, we have started to see. Seeing clearly, we can love well."

Seeing with New Eyes is collection of essays written over almost twenty years by a respected biblical counselor. David Powlison’s articles are Bible exposition, topical essay, editorial, and sermon. All of them show God’s gracious self-revelation in Jesus Christ and Scripture.

"We learn to see how God sees," writes Powlison. "Learning the gaze of God, we come to weigh life aright. We discern good and evil, fair and foul, lovely and degraded. We become able to pry apart true from false, instead of living in a murk of half-truths and flat lies."

This book explores two main topics.

- Scripture: God’s voice speaks into real life to reveal the gaze and intentions of the Christ who pursues us. How do we embrace, probe, and unravel Scripture?

- Understanding people amid their real life struggles: How do we embrace, probe, and unravel the problems of daily life?

We learn how to see many of life’s struggles through the lens of Scripture, including

- Worry

- Victimization

- Love languages

- Biological Psychiatry

Powlison encourages readers to "think Christianly" by thinking God’s thoughts after him. He asks, "Does God have a take on counseling? Of course, yes, amen." This book seeks to listen, look, and think hard within the patterns of God’s gaze.

God has the real take on things. And God teaches us his gaze!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Powlison is the editor of The Journal of Biblical Counseling, teaches at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) in Glenside, Pennsylvania and at Westminster Theological Seminary, and counsels at CCEF. He is the author of Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare; Competent to Counsel?: The History of a Conservative Protestant Anti-Psychiatry Movement; and numerous articles on counseling and on the relationship between faith and psychology.

Powlison earned a Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary (M.Div) and Harvard (A.B.). He is a board member and fellow of the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: P & R Publishing (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087552608X
• ISBN-13: 978-0875526089
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Pastoral Counseling
  • #29 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Ministry

More About the Author

DAVID POWLISON, M.Div., Ph.D., is a faculty member at CCEF and a counselor with over thirty years of experience. He has written many counseling articles, booklets, and books including Seeing with New Eyes; Speaking Truth in Love; and Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Perspective on Soul Care, October 24, 2004

By 

M. Teresa Trascritti (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (Resources for Changing Lives) (Paperback)

This book is an effort to bridge psychology of counseling with "moral-spiritual" issues (249). Powlison believes that "sinners sin instinctively," and though external factors such as having a dysfunctional family or experiencing childhood abuse can contribute to sinful desires or actions in adulthood, his contention is that "sin is its own final reason" (206). People have sinful thoughts or do sinful acts because they are focused on themselves rather than God (230).

Powlison points out that "secular psychology" views "human problems" simply as "things that are not working right," this is because the Bible was not utilized to understand the core issue of all humans, which is their "alienation from God" (192). He explains that if sin is seen as a "willed action" then "complex inner troubles" will be classified under "other categories" (194). In fact, psychiatrists will not explain that a paranoid schizophrenic is yielding to sin, but rather he or she is experiencing a psychosis. Powlison states that paranoid schizophrenia is a "defensive behavior" and actually refers to it as the personification of "powerful unconscious defensiveness" (193). Powlison explains that the underlying issues for schizophrenics are pride and "hiding" (195).

Powlison admits that biblical counselors are seen as "bizarre spiritualizers" because they rely on God, repentance, and faith as their main focus in counseling (251). He speculated that the premise of Jay Adams (the founder of Nouthetic counseling movement) was not fully understood when he said, "to be feeling-oriented is the central motivational problem in people" (215). Powlison believes that the problem with current counseling practices is that the counselor is seen as "primary" while God (if He is even considered at all in the process) is usually "secondary" (178).

This book has helped me to understand the stance of Nouthetic counselors, and to comprehend the reason why they say sin is the core issue of human disorders. However, I did not get a clear indication of Powlison's position regarding psychotropic medications. Powlison's perspective on counseling is a good start in the right direction, but his book does not outline the direction. There is something missing. To counter society's view of biblical counselors as "bizarre spiritualizers," Powlison suggests, "We have work to do to protect and build up the body of Christ" (251). This is not a solution-it is merely a generalized statement. In order for others to see biblical counselors as competent practitioners, they need to find a way to truly bridge the gap between traditional and biblical counseling.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People, Problems, and Solutions, September 18, 2005

By 

Robert W. Kellemen "Doc. K." (Crown Point, IN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (Resources for Changing Lives) (Paperback)

"Seeing with New Eyes" is the first volume in Powlison's proposed three-volume set on Christian counseling. This first volume he sees as providing the theological foundation for understanding psychological issues from a spiritual, biblical perspective.

The "new eyes" are the eyes enlightened by faith in Christ and restored to sight by confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture to explain life and relationships. "Seeing with New Eyes" offers a theological-intellectual defense of "Nouthetic Counseling" as a biblical counseling model seeking to understand truth about God and humanity through God's eyes as revealed in Scripture.

It is an excellent introduction by perhaps the leading theologian in the Nouthetic Counseling movement. However, the book is also a compilation of many previous articles by the author. Thus at times it reads more as a string of excellent artilces than a tightly woven and thematically consistent book. That aside, Powlison is to be commended for his articulate explanation of the human condition through the lens of Scripture.


Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Beyond the Suffering: The Story of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See others and yourself with new eyes..., July 31, 2006

By 

James John Hollandsworth, M.D. "lightalongthe... - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (Resources for Changing Lives) (Paperback)

The title really says it all with this book: we really do need to see ourselves and others with new eyes, with both an accurate paradigm and with individual insight that can only come from Scripture. In this challenging book Dr. David Powlison examines how our "old eyes" tend to see, both through our natural fallen selves and through the warped and inadequate psychological theories that permeate our current cultural (and often "Christian") milleau.
The book speaks to both the reader's personal walk with God and to how we can accurately see and minister to others. Each chapter is on a specific theme, from comfort to worry to God's love to "defense mechanisms." In each Dr. Powlison shares warm and rich insights that are both Scriptural and practical. There are dozens of quotable passages to deeply think through, such as:

Many of the people we counsel live inside a black hole of self-will, misery, and confusion. They need God to break in on their shadowland from which sin has erased the light of the personal and living God.

Seeing With New Eyes is a volume to read, and read again, to fully absorb its God-saturated wisdom and to be changed by it.