COMPETENT TO COUNSEL
Jay E. Adams, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Nutley, New Jersey, 1977, 287 pages, $4.50 paper.
Jay Adams has come up with one of the most practical books for the pastor to be published in recent years. In Competent to Counsel he maintains that the Bible has much to say about people's personal problems and how to approach them in counseling. Adams believes that failure to meet life's problems often stems from unforgiven and unaltered sinful behavior.
The author's involvement with inmates at two mental institutions convinced him that most of them were there not because they were sick, but because they were sinful. Adams' book relates the dramatic recoveries that took place when spiritual matters received attention. Since his experience with these mental patients, Adams has been proclaiming his conviction that many mentally ill people can be helped by the ministry of God's Word.
This book will give the counseling pastor many insights into how the Bible can assist those he seeks to help.
Ernie Voyles
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION AND OTHER DANGEROUS THERAPIES
John de Romanett, M.D., Audiotronics, Route 1, Box 245A, Wenatchee, Washington, 1977, more than 90 pages, $2.00.
Someone has said that the capacity of the human intellect to practice self-deception seems limitless. Today, as never before, we see the truth of this statement in the unbounded popularity of hypnotism, transcendental meditation, acupuncture, and other highly questionable therapies.
John de Romanett, M.D., presents well-documented material exposing the procedures as false sciences. The book presents historical aspects as well as safeguards available to the Christian against these pseudosciences, and climaxes in a chapter defining the true Biblical principles that in application assure good mental health. It presents practical and accurate answers to many questions a pastor may receive concerning the occult.
Bobbie Jane Van Dolson
THE FAT IS IN YOUR HEAD
Charlie Shedd, Words Books, Waco, Texas, 1977, 142 pages, $1.50 paperback.
In the avalanche of all kinds of books on obesity, diet, overweight, and weight control this new book, written by the author of the best seller Letters to Karen, is a real delight to read.
Some twenty years and one hundred twenty pounds ago Charlie Shedd asked for God's help in moving his "mountain of flesh." Now he calls his personal weight history "The odyssey of a fat man who lost a ton." The good news is that he discovered a life style to keep it off—and so can you!
The Fat Is in Your Head presents a very practical yet spiritual approach to the problem of obesity. Shedd says, "Most of us heavies know that pounds are not our only problem. Something is bugging us besides our avoirdupois. What goes on in our minds can be every bit as important as what we eat."
This delightful, practical, and yet probing little book is 142 pages of good common sense. The four main divisions are divided into forty-nine mini-chapters. Charlie Shedd approaches weight problems with very sound medical advice from a panel of medical doctors representing specialties of orthopedics, urology, industrial medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology.
The numerous thought-provoking check questions interspersed throughout the book are well worth the price in themselves. For example, "Question for today: Are there forces in my history still pushing me beyond what is natural for me? Do I face personal shortcomings realistically or take self-anger out in my eating? Are my goals based upon good sense or fantasy?" —Page 66.
It is hoped that many along with this reviewer will accept the personal challenges of this delightful volume and develop a new life style in 1979 to not only take it off but keep it off!
E. W. Voyles
WHAT A YOUNG MAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SEX
John F. Knight, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California, 1977, 223 pages, paperback, $4.95
WHAT A YOUNG WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SEX
John F. Knight, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California, 1977, 231 pages, paperback, $4.95.
Dr. John F. Knight, a medical doctor, has prepared two excellent books that ministers should share with their young people. I personally appreciate his balanced view of a delicate subject. These volumes in a very practical way cover a much broader range of subjects than just those dealing with sex. Excellent recommendations on the care of the body, such as diet, hair, and fingernail care, are included. Guidance for young people in successful boy-girl relationships, methods of academic achievement, and appealing warnings against health-destroying habits, which are today judged acceptable in some circles, are included. It would be nice if every congregation would present a copy of these books to their teen-age young people, as a gift from the church organization. This could be done in a special service, or perhaps a class could be started for young people on prayer-meeting nights, using this book as a textbook. In these days when many forms of vice and health-destroying practices are acceptable, we need to do all that we can to help educate our young people to follow after purity and honesty.
J. R. Spangler
