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Rating: 
Summary: Can I rate this with negative stars?
Review: I am shocked and sad at how dangerous this book will be to Christians uneducated on the complex subject of psychology. Mr. Owens does not have a M.D in Psychiatry and does not even hold a simple degree in psychology; yet he decides he can comment on the subject. His work is poorly documented and much can be easily disproved. Mr. Owens encourages believers to shun God's gift of recent scientific knowledge. And a previous review stated that the worlds famous psychologists and psychiatrists are not Chirstian. Well, sir or madame, will you now reject the findings of all other doctors on the grounds of the fact that they are not believers? If your daughter has leukemia, will you reject the medical help because it has been discovered by nonChristians?Dr. Ken Phillips, a psychiatrist at Alliance Clinical Associates, a Christian mental health center in Wheaton, Illinois, says how Satan uses a physical illness in the brain to bring spiritual disappointment on a believer. How true! Let us please leave the dark days of medieval misunderstanding and prejudice and encourage those who are stricken with mental illnesses. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ for people who further the Kingdom by striving to heal the sickness instead of condemning the person on the grounds of sin. If someone has cancer, no one whispers, "I wonder what sin they committed to deserve this?"; yet if someone's brain betrays them just as the other persons' body cells betrayed them, most Christians tell the mentally ill person outright, "You need to repent of your sin. Then you will be alright." This reminds me of the blind man and the Pharisees. Let us remember Jesus' compassionate response, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed."
Rating: 
Summary: Psychological Counseling: The New Gnosticism
Review: This book gives the lie to so-called Christian psychology. Owen rips the phoney facade off the hypocrasy known as Christian Psychological Counseling. The Holy Bible clearly says that Jesus Christ has all power, authority, and dominion over believers--Christ's message is sufficient; UNLESS you are a contemporary North American clergy man or woman brainwashed in the secular humanism drenching the seminaries of today. Then the Scriptures are not sufficient. Now you need the "discovered" truths of secular, humanistic, behaviorial Psychology/Psychiatry.
Owen shows how counselers trap you in an endless cycle of co-dependency vs. low "self-esteem." He also demonstrates that counselors deem bad behavior, or sins, to be a result of pathology (sickness), so people no longer need to feel responsible for what they do. The Bible, on the other hand, holds each individual responsible for their actions. Jim Owen, the author, IS qualified to write this book and here's why: He is a Christian; and he has practical experience counseling various types of behavior problems, however, he used Scripture to effect positive change in his subjects not psuedo-scientific psychology. Mr. Owen's book is well documented, and he also gives many references from the Bible. He doesn't pretend to be neutral on the issues. Just for the record, none of the major theorists in modern psychology were Christian, so perhaps this book provides some balance to this field! This passage from the book encapsulates Owen's premise on why "Christian" Psychology is defective: "The fundamental error of "Christian" psychology is that it turns away from the authority of Scripture. It attempts to ground the believer's walk, not in faith in Christ, but rather in knowledge. It is a modern version of GNOSTICISM. It teaches that Christians struggle and fail to master sin not because thay cherish sin more than their Lord, nor because of willful disobedience or a lack of faith, but because of human ignorance."
I highly recommend this book, if you are interested at all in Jesus and in helping others to know Him!
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the paper
Review: This book is poorly documented and poorly argued. The bias and reactivity of the author get in the way of anything that might have been potentially useful. Basically, Christian psychology is reduced to enhancing self-esteem and nursing victimization, thus reducing a highly complex discipline to the stuff of "pop-psych" books. The author has no apparent credentials to discuss the topic intelligently and it shows. He is driven by his agenda and this is nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
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