Dan Allen: "I'll make sure you read tons and tons of fiction. Nothing will train you better than Daftski, Tolstoy" He says being a therapist is the best con job he's ever pulled off in his life. But if somebody were to offer him a billion dollars to be 30 years old, it wouldn't be enough.
Curtis talks with the “elder statesman” of Christian counseling, Dan Allender, about how therapy has influenced the American church - in much needed and also problematic ways. They explore how therapy has provided an important place for Christians to bring to Jesus the real, hard, and sometimes traumatic realities of life - often in ways that the church could not. They also examine how “moralistic therapeutic deism” increasingly describes the actual civil religion of Americans.
For examples of great books by Dan and his lifelong friend, Tremper Longman III, consider these two classics: Bold Love and The Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions About God.
For the original description of “moralistic therapeutic deism” as the religion of American youth, check out Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith and Melina Lundquist Denton.
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