Book Review: "Soul Physicians"

After too long a hiatus, I pulled my copy of Robert Kellemen’s, Soul Physicians, from the shelf. It was almost as rewarding a moment as when I first discovered it at the Counseling Conference in Lafayette, Indiana. Just scanning some of the chapters, with an occasional pause at a paragraph or an underlined sentence, brought back a refreshing flood of thought.

Soul Physicians (A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction) is a magnificent study of the dynamics of relationships living, moving and having their being in the atmosphere of who God is and what is unfolding in the universe he has created and Satan has defiled.

It is a book of applied theology disguised as a text book on counseling. It is doctrine unfolded in narrative. It brings the truths of the Trinity and the created cosmos into a dramatic, vibrant focus which lets them live and breathe in our thinking on Monday.  It opens biblical ways to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit to be a part of the process of drawing the Father’s love gifts to His Son. It is the necessary corollary to confrontational counseling (nouthetic - for those who know the term). By that I mean, it is comfort, counsel, coaching and encouragement (parakletic) unpacked in story and repackaged in practical memory aids.

In describing “Soul Anatomy,” Dr. Kellemen uses fresh, living terms to describe a human being.

• Relational – designed to be romancers loving passionately (affections)
• Rational – designed to be dreamers thinking wisely (mindsets)
• Volitional – designed to be creators choosing courageously (purposes)
• Emotional – designed to be singers experiencing deeply (moods)  
• Physical – designed to be actors living fully (habits and tendencies)

This book played a major role in redirecting my preaching in the last years behind the pulpit. It gave me sub-categories on such doctrines as depravity which realigned them from hammers to tools. It also helped me dare to approach counseling creatively and risk making mistakes for the sake of learning and having a positive impact on the lives of those God was calling to himself. I should not have tucked it away in the transitional years, for it also gave me living perspectives on dealing with my worst counselee – myself.

I must, however, point out one feature which may frighten you. The book is big, and it is packed with so many thoughts that it does not lend itself well to being simply “read through.” Vocabulary may also be an issue from time to time. It is not that he uses technical terms, like a medical doctor. He uses vigorous and relational terms which are not necessarily part of our working vocabulary.

In my first reading of the book, and now that I have picked it up again, my approach is to take a chapter a week. If you want you can memorize the helpful outlines Dr.Kellemen gives. Or, you can be content to expose yourself to the material and let it seep into your thinking as you mull over a concept on your way to work. In any case, and in spite of the size of the book and the depth of the material, I suspect by now you understand that I highly recommend that you at least let yourself be exposed to it.

In Dr. Kellemen's own words:  It is my dream to passionately present a spiritual theology of life that re-ignites your first love for Christ, empowers you to relate God's truth to human relationships, and equips you to become soul physicians who dispense Christ's grace.  ("Soul Physicians" p. 8)