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Theology and Counseling by Don Hart MRE Often we pay too little attention to theology when we counsel, yet if we fail to bring basic Christian theology into our counsel, can we truly guide the counselee to what he needs? What is theology? The Greek word theologia is derived from theos meaning God and logia or logos meaning word, discourse, or reasoning. Augustine of Hippo defined theology as rational reasoning or discussion concerning Deity. Richard Hooker, 17thcentury theologian said, “Theology the science of things divine.” Thomas Aquinas called theology the “queen of sciences." Theology was science in that it was the pursuit of understanding of what God had created; and out of that came most of the basic fields of scientific study we have today. For example, Isaac Newton - dynamics, Robert Boyle - chemistry, John Ray - biology, Joseph Lister antiseptic surgery, and one of the most famous, Louis Pasteur - bacteriology. What did all these men have in common? They were all Christians. Aselm, the 11thcentury Archbishop of Canterbury, said, “Faith seeks understanding.” Simply put, first comes faith, then comes understanding. My definition - Theology is the study of God’s revealed Word. How does this relate to counseling? We study theology in order to know the meaning of God’s revealed Word, and the only place to do this is in the Bible. Theology gives us the foundation stones of reason upon which God’s plan of redemption for humanity rests. It is very difficult to pick up a Bible and start reading with understanding if we don’t have the fundamentals of Christian thought and reason. Theology organizes the basic principles of Christian thought upon which our belief system rests. That is the connection between theology and counseling. Looking Biblically for Answers Logos also carries the meaning of “answer,” and is identified in the Bible as the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, the Creator of all things (John 1:1-3). We can make a connection to biology as the study of life and Jesus himself is LIFE (Jn 14:6). Regardless of the subject of scientific study you ultimately wind up with Him (Col 1:16; 2:3; Heb. 1:3b). Doesn’t it follow then that any and all true knowledge of His creation finally rests on the knowledge of Christ and His Word? Theology is the conduit to biblical truth. Why do we point counselees to the Word, both written and living in the person of Christ Jesus? This is the real answer to people’s problems! In an article from New life Publishing Group is this statement: Therefore, the most important of all sciences, or objects of study, is theology, the study of God. In a special sense, this discipline becomes also Christology, since God was in Christ, and since the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh (John 1:14).