EMCAPP Journal 2

119 I will stop trying to prove Johnson’s humility here and will continue later on. Here is how he summarizes the underlying assumption of his book in the concluding pa- ragraph: ‘…the different modalities of Christian soul care are unified by a radical theocentric agenda.’ Soul care aims ‘…at the glory of God as its highest end, by fostering the counselee’s analogical performance of Christ’s life, death and resurrection through a deepening and mani- festing faith in Christ’. God’s glory… his truth, goodness and beauty and power are best displayed when his role in soul healing is consciously acknowledged, made explicit and relied on, and when his Scripture is given the prima- ry role in guiding the development of distinctly Christi- an psychological research, theory-building and soul care practice. To the extent our faith is explicit and authentic in our work, we manifest our own conformity to Christ. As we, and those with whom we work, more and more come to flourish in communion with the triune God and with the rest of the church, we together become better signs of the Divine life. Such is our common calling, so that Christian soul care, properly conceived, had a signi- ficant role to play in the end for which God created the World.’ On his long journey toward this conclusion, Johnson re- lies on semiotic theory − Christian semiotic theory to be sure, or ‘doxological semiotics’. His major rationale for this is ‘…that God created human beings for the purpose of signifying his glory’. He goes on: ‘The entire creation is a set of signs, composed of meaning, needing to be inter- preted and elucidated. [God] has spoken the first princip- les of life and psychology in human language through the prophets and apostles.’ Jesus Christ is ‘the true definition of human being and the Alpha and Omega of Christian psychology’ (p. 608). In this respect Johnson tackles the thorny questions of epistemology and gives convincing answers. ‘Christian soul care is concerned with helping others to examine themselves, to deconstruct their internal barri- ers to this project [of God’s self-glorification] and to take into themselves the glory or meaning of God by all the relevant means by which God’s form is expressed.’ ‘This brings joy to God and to us.’ ‘The Christian psychologi- cal community cannot neglect documenting its theories to the fullest extent possible. It is a part of human joy to be curious and to discover more of the mysterious parti- culars of God’s creation. And in a science-driven culture like ours, research is in a real sense a part of our evan- gelistic calling.’ The contemporary project of a Christian psychology will require hundreds of research studies if it is ever to be realized and taken seriously. I continue about the merits of the book. Here is his humi- lity again: ‘I hope to be proven wrong’ (p. 604). His is ‘… only one metasystem…’ (p. 571). He describes ‘…some of the major contours of a contemporary Christian edifica- tion framework…’ (p. 607). ‘Depending on how one looks at it, the current state of Western soul care is either hopelessly fragmented or rich- ly diverse (p. 567). The modalities available to Christian soul care are a comprehensive set of means for delivering the word and form of God for the purpose of Christifor- mity’ (p. 21). Having to deal with other viewpoints on the Psychology – Christianity relationship, Johnson shows his great crafts- manship as he did in his book ‘Psychology & Christianity’ (2010). There he comments on a debate involving contro- versies of which he is a part, based on a vast knowledge of the various viewpoints, but he does so in such a balanced way that he shows the way out of the quagmires of rival- ling currents (pp. 218-219). I realize I am obliged, as a reviewer, to also say something less enthusiastic, be it just to maintain credibility, but I find it hard to find anything. In his dealings with diffe- rent therapeutic modalities he could have been a bit more critical, given his own brilliantly elaborated criteria as il- luminated by faith. He speaks of the Bible as revelation, whereas I would prefer to speak about the Bible as a sour- ce of revelation. The relationship between body and soul is dealt with from just one viewpoint. Spiritual guidance receives only a few pages. Maybe his concept of growth is too one-sided. Is soul care elaborated somewhat indivi- dualistically? I did not find the word ‘poverty’ anywhere in the text. An objection one could be tempted to make would be that Johnson fosters a foundationalist epistemology. That would not hold at all. Johnson uses hermeneutics throug- hout his book. Only those who do not see how faith il- lumines reason could mistakenly resist ‘Foundations of Soul Care’. Together with the German ‘Die Grundlagen Christli- cher Pychologie’ (Halder 2011) we now have a very fine groundwork for Christian psychology. The Book Martijn Lindt, Netherlands, Em. Lecturer University of Amsterdam. Lecturer Bonifatius Theological Institute.

EMCAPP Journal 2

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