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Religion

DeSilva, David. (2001) New Testament Themes.

David DeSilva's book New Testament Themes discusses the development of the four predominant moral themes or concepts of the New Testament in relation to an individual's personal development, namely the themes of grace, discipleship, community, and apocalypticism, and the message these themes still have to convey to the world today. By considering these themes, modern therapists, thinkers, and ordinary individuals can find guidance with the Christian Bible for their daily lives as well as better understand Jesus' mission as related in the gospel narratives.

Through the medium of dispensing His grace, God's manifestation of His goodness is made clear in the lives of all believers -- grace is bestowed even upon the most fallen and desperate members of society, so long as they are willing to enter His covenant with an open heart. The continued existence of god's grace shows that there is always hope, for all individuals, in God's ability to dispense salvation. Through stressing the value of discipleship, a cohesion of moral authority is created between the past Christian tradition and the present Christian values and church. The value of community stresses the human spirit's interdependence upon other human beings in the Christian community of faith, and also with all individuals in the created world. And the much-misunderstood value of apocalypticism conveys an eye upon the future as well as the past. All of these values are integral not only to understanding the theology and historical context of the Bible but to counselors today, helping Christians make sense of their lives.

Grace stresses that anyone and everyone can and should be helped through counseling, and that provided one trusts in God's plan and will, one always has hope of reform and changing one's life. For Christian counselors, this ideal is also important, as grace in the therapeutic construct implies a trust in the therapist, as the therapist is the facilitator of the patient's spiritual and psychological development. The value of discipleship stresses the cohesion between the events of the past and the present, a fundamental tenant of psychotherapy. Discipleship also implies a mediation between God and his agents on earth, and the therapist always functions as a mediator between God's grace and earth. Community is also an important tenant of modern therapy, namely that no psychologically healthy human being is a spiritual and social island. Everyone needs social resources to fall back on, such as the church and the family. In particular for Christian counselors, the family often comes to the forefront as part of the patient's community as well as the church community. And apocalypticism focuses on the future and the patient's hopes and plans, over the course of the inner and outer changes weathered during the counseling relationship.