Dan O'Brien: I want to ask every one of my guests three questions that speak to what I think are three desperate longings, deep longings that all human beings have. That is our desire for good news, for hope, and for joy. He says when you love almost at all, at all, you stand out in a way that is so contrary to a world consumed and profiteering through contempt. So it is a great day to live the gospel.
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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