Basic Principles of Biblical Counselling by Lawrence J Crabb (Marshalls, Seven Fresh Wineskins by William Barclay (Babarum Publications, £2.50).
Christ in All the Scriptures by A M Hodgkin (Pickering Classics, £3.50).
TODAY everybody seems engaged in counselling everybody else, a situation which may give rise to some confusion.
The confessional used to be regarded as the right and proper place to seek counsel, though the queue waiting for the simpler and sacramental activity of forgivenesss of sin might sometimes grow querulous.
It was more practical to seek good counsel from a true source in the Bible. Laurence Crabb, already trained in the psychology of the art decided in 1975 to return to the source.
So there appeared Basic Principals of Biblical Counselling, followed two years later by Effective Biblical Counselling.
The local church, he thinks, should produce its own biblical counsellors to cope with the problems that beset the individuals of the area. The individual, comes with his/her problems and the counsellor trained in psychology goes with his "client" or "patient" to the Bible to discover God's way of unravelling the tangled webs of the Christian's life.
In this psychological age those anxious to help must do their best to use the sciences developed.
William Barclay is unequalled as a guide for the English reader of the New Testament; here he takes some 200 daily readings from the Old Testament.
And then way back in 1907 A M Hodgkin published his Christ in All the Scriptures. Despite the tremendous development in Scripture studies in the last 80 years his book has been reprinted thirteen times. This the 14th reprint, reaveals the simplicity of approach which leads the reader through the labyrinth of the sacred books of the Bible to the Counsellor of all Jesus the Word of God.
Conrad Pepler