Tom is, I fear, a bit of a troll.

As I scoot around the blogosphere from time to time, that exact same comment appears on various threads having nothing whatever to do with prayer…

Carry on.

Paul, I never said a thing about ABA not having empirically-verifiable results. What I said is that ignores a whole dimension of humanity, i.e. the internal. Your challenge simply misses the point. It assumes behaviorism in order to defend behaviorism against the objection that behaviorism is incomplete. Ignoring a reality is wrongheaded regardless of the empirical results in terms of change of behavior. Behaviorism assumes all that should matter is behavioral change, and ABA relies on that assumption. Telling me that I need to show empirical research to challenge ABA is simply a question-begging reliance on the very assumption I’m questioning.

Plus I see it as a technique for us to “take every thought captive to Christ” 2 Cor 10:5 in our own minds.

But as all therapeutic treatments it must be used wisely, understanding the side effects if not used properly.

This prayer is from Jesus that we may here from Him, that He may meet our needs. It only consist of three simple steps.

1) We need to read one scripture. This will focus us in the word that brings everlasting life.

2) Since this prayer is from Jesus we need yo direct our prayer to Him personally. Too often Christian focus they’re prayer’s to G_D the father. Scripture proclaims that Jesus should be the focus of our prayer.

3) The simplest part of this Prayer is to ask Jesus one question. Please, all that is required for this question is to make it simple. Let Jesus Himself finish the question when He gives you that understanding through prayer.

The PRAYER

The scripture that is the focus of this prayer is “ACTS 2:38″. It’s not necessary to do any study into this scripture. Jesus Himself willl bestow the understanding that will resonate in your heart.

The most important part of this prayer is that we need to direct our prayer directly to Jesus. If you normally would say Father in your prayer, change your focus from the Father to Christ Jesus by lifting Jesus name up every time you would normally use Father in your prayer.

Maybe the hardest part of this prayer is the question that we need to ask Jesus. For man as we are, always try to understand the question and may add many additional quires. The simplest question is all that is required.

Simply ask Jesus ‘WHY’

Jeremy probably has a better list, but I can recommend a few.

On Stoic philosophy:

–The Inner Citadel, by Pierre Hadot (an excellently written, readable commentary on Marcus Aurelius’ excellent ‘Meditations’)

–The Roman Stoics, by Gretchen Reydams-Schils (this one is more heady, but it overturns a number of longstanding myths about what the Stoics actually believed)

–Seneca’s “Letters to Lucillius”

–Epictetus’s “Handbook”

On CBT:

–Judith Beck, “Cognitive Therapy” (standard text)

–Albert Ellis and Windy Dryden, “The Practice of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy”

–There’s a newer book by psychiatrist Ronald Pies called “Everything Has Two Handles: The Stoics Guide to the Art of Living,” which explicitly traces links b/t Stoics and CBT. However, the book is really sloppy (editing errors everywhere, thin writing). But it does give some overview.

There’s are some helpful online articles:

–An very good interview with Ronald Pies: http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2008/04/features/06/

–An article from Forbes entitled “Patient Fix Thyself”: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0409/080.html

–An article from the American Scholar on Aaron Beck, the founder of CBT, entitled “”The Doctor Is In”: http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-doctor-is-in/

Hope that helps!

An aspect of CBT I find esp. promising, which you don’t spend much time on, is its critique of “talk therapy” (esp. psychoanalysis), on the notion that at times we need to act (or practice) our way into new ways of perceiving ourselves, rather than to think our way (on the couch) into new modes of behavior. CBT is not deaf to our “stories,” but it does suggest that moreso than the story itself, often what gets us “stuck” is a faulty conclusion regarding that story, which we repeat internally ad nauseum. For instance, if someone was raised without much regard from their father, they might conclude that they are, therefore, worthless. The conclusion, “I am worthless” becomes, in CBT parlance, a “core belief,” an internal mantra, out of which various distorted behaviors and cognitions arise. But rather than spend eons on the couch understanding *what* happened, CBT calls for a brief, logical assessment of the core belief “I am worthless.” Is that actually true? Why or why not? Assessing the belief in the light of reason then turns to formulating an alternate, *more truthful* statement, such as: “In truth, I am a much beloved child of God.”

But the crux of the therapy, as I see it, then comes with what CBT practitioners call the “homework.” Because the problem is only 1/4 solved by identifying the false belief and devising a truer one. The real work comes in reprogramming the brain, bit by bit, day by day, to actually believe and use this new, more truthful statement. That takes practice, practice, practice.

This idea of exercising oneself and re-training one’s emotional and cognitive responses to various situations was part and parcel of early Christian therapeia. The Desert Fathers, Abba Dorotheos, St John Cassian, Evagrius Ponticus, etc. are full of insight and wisdom along this path. These early Fathers knew the Stoics (and the Platonists and Neo-Platonists, and etc.), and, being every bit as intellectually capable as we are today, critically appropriated the best insights for the Christian faith.

But actually, it was not only the Stoics who promoted cognitive and even bodily exercises for personal formation. As Pierre Hadot has shown, the whole enterprise of philosophia, in antiquity, promoted “spiritual exercises” toward the attainment of virtue. Being a philosopher, he says, meant that one was laboring to hone one’s life around some core beliefs, to bring one’s life, bit by bit, into harmony with the logos. Hadot plays up the obvious difference between this notion of philosophy and the sometimes sclerotic, overly-theoretical and overly language-based notion one typically finds today.

Overall, I see CBT as a helpful corrective to current overemphasis on “couch” therapy. As a parallel, I see ancient conceptions of philosophy as helpful correctives to the current practice of philosophy, which also seems stuck on the couch!

That writer, as I recall, crafted a “biblical” perspective that rather neatly proved the 12 Steps resulted in addicts being unwilling to take responsibility for their self-destructive decisions and actions, nor to be accountable for changing their behavior.

The only problem with that critique is that it was contradicted directly by experience: every person I knew who was actively applying the 12 Steps had become, or was becoming, both responsible and accountable.

I’m working with a CBT therapist now, who’s not a Christian, probably not even a God-believer. But I’ve learned a lot about changing my inner false, self-defeating cognitions. And, to my surprise, have discovered how those beliefs have distorted my relationship with God.

I agree: it’s a methodology that gives someone one tool to have the “serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

So, do you have an opinion on it?

Having said that, I am pretty sure I agree with you. What passes for “biblical” reviews on counseling generally has no understanding or demonstratable knowledge of what counseling actually is