By Mitchell D. Cochran
Christian Counseling and Natural Law Ethics (Pt. 2)
My previous post discussed the need for Christian counselors to think in terms of philosophical ethics and not merely professional ethics. Specifically, it was claimed that natural law ethics (i.e., the ethics derived from general revelation) may be of psychological and therapeutic value as counselors inevitably seek to promote human flourishing. This is because the concept of flourishing must include the flourishing of one’s character and virtue if said flourishing is to be holistic and true. Now, three potential benefits of natural law for Christian counseling are briefly discussed.
First, the natural law tradition provides a robust array of diagnostic terminology for virtues and vices related to every area of life, which can be used by a counselor as a part of conceptualizing client cases. The classical Lutheran theologian, Niels Hemmingsen, provides a very detailed list of virtues and vices in the Protestant tradition in his work On the Law of Nature. This nosology is simply begging to be operationalized (even more fully than the positive psychologists have done). However, without needing to spend months mastering the natural law tradition, counselors can benefit immediately from the language of the cardinal virtues, which are Justice, Prudence, Temperance (or Moderation) and Fortitude (or Courage). (The aforementioned positive psychologists also make use of these.) C.S. Lewis provides a helpful introduction to the cardinal virtues in the classic Mere Christianity. A summary of Lewis’s insights can be found here.
Second, a contextually appropriate psychoeducation on virtue and moral reasoning may be the precise therapeutic intervention that a client needs. Just as a counselor may explain major depressive disorder to a client, so too can an ethically-minded counselor explain virtues and vices. As psychiatrist Dan Siegel says regarding unruly feelings, “Name it to tame it.” One wonders if vices can be tamed and virtues reinforced whenever they are named. Just as a good counselor might want his clients to understand how to combat automatic negative thoughts, so too does the holistic counselor want clients to be able to use practical moral reasoning to navigate everyday life.
Third, thinking in terms of natural law allows for counselors to transpose biological or psychosocial phenomena to the realm of ethics and morality, even when transposition to the overtly Christian-Gospel-Spiritual realm is implausible or imprudential. As Eric Johnson notes, transposition is when the same apparent phenomenon is assigned a higher level of meaning. Embodied human experience is constantly occurring at all levels. However, there is a hierarchy of the realms with the Christian-Gospel-Spiritual realm representing the highest concerns and most ultimate meaning and purpose. Generally, Christian counselors ought to operate in the highest realm possible while being willing to operate in the lowest realm necessary.
However, many Christian counselors operate in an area in which explicitly addressing the spiritual realm is difficult. An understanding of natural law gives such a counselor a better framework for transposing the biological and psychosocial into the higher realms. Even in a relativized age, the ethical is an inherent part of human life. All Christian counselors, whether in a public school or in a secular mental health practice or in a local church, address ethical and moral concerns. A counselor in a public school may not be able to share the Gospel with a student in a brief counseling meeting. However, the school counselor frequently encounters the explicitly ethical in areas from academic integrity to peer conflict to drug use. Without philosophical ethics, Christian counselors lack ethical resources to transpose biological and psychosocial concerns into the ethical realm.
The transposition of the lower realms to the ethical realm prepares the way for the Gospel and for accessing the spiritual realm. As natural law flows from God and is a participation in Divinity, those who seek to follow the natural law are drawn to God. (Of course, this is not to say that seeking to follow the natural law merits the Gospel. There is a crucial difference between something preparing the way for the Gospel versus something meriting salvation.) The ethical and the spiritual are closely linked. God’s Law and God’s Gospel are both crucial to the Scriptural narrative. The law (both the moral law revealed in scripture and the natural law) prepares the way for the Gospel (see Gal. 3:24). A counselor may never have the chance for overt evangelism or for overt transposition to the spiritual. However, a consistent transposition to the ethical may open the door for the client to eventually consider ultimate spiritual concerns either in or outside of the counseling room.
In summary, the natural law ethical tradition, far from being of arcane interest only to philosophers and theologians, is field ripe for the harvest of psychological and therapeutic benefits. A basic understanding of the natural law can be of immense value to both counselors and clients. The secular positive psychologists have done much important work in the area of virtue and vice, but it is time for Christian philosophers, theologians, and counselors to work together to make the ethical therapeutic and the therapeutic ethical.
By Mitchell D. Cochran, MA, BCCC. Mitchell is a Board Certified Christian Counselor who works in a public middle school as a behavior interventionist. Mitchell also serves as a Licensed Lay Pastor in Northwest Colorado. He lives with his wife, Katherine, and his infant son, Abraham.
