"Has Larry Crabb changed?" Has he moved away from integrating psychotherapeutic theories and techniques with the Bible? From the vantage point of having read Crabb’s books over the past twenty years, we contend that Crabb has made some cosmetic changes, but they are not substantial. He has not discarded his confidence in psychotherapy and its underlying psychologies. Instead, he has expanded his eclecticism and his potential involvement in churches. Larry Crabb’s Gospel answers the often-asked question, "Has Larry Crabb Changed?" and gives evidence to show that he continues to integrate psychotherapy and its underlying psychologies with the Bible.

Many people believed that Crabb’s talk at the 1995 Moody Pastors’ Conference and his 1995 Christianity Today interview, titled "Putting an End to Christian Psychology," signaled an about-face on psychology and Christian psychology. But, after reading and analyzing Crabb for years, we knew better. In a subsequent Christianity Today Letters to the Editor column, Crabb proved us right. The following is quoted from his letter to Christianity Today :

I am neither crusading against psychology nor do I want to put an end to Christian psychology. . . .

Positioning me as an antipsychology crusader who wants to end Christian psychology is badly inaccurate and places me in company where I don’t belong. I am a friend of Christian counseling; I am not part of the antipsychology movement; and I am grateful for the many godly men and women who faithfully represent Christ in their professional counseling.1

In spite of the Christianity Today headlines, it is obvious that Crabb still supports his past books, his psychologized model of "biblical counseling," counseling for pay, and the unbiblical American Association of Christian Counselors. Moreover, it is doubtful that Crabb disagrees with any of the books he has written. While he may sound as if he disagrees with his former emphasis, he justifies its use in the same breath, as in the following statement from his 1997 book, Connecting:

Before in my counseling, I spent too much time with the flesh. I over-studied doubt, denial, self-preserving psychological dynamics, and our selfishly driven strategies for relating to people. These topics are worthy of serious investigation, but it’s easy (and appealing to the flesh) to become more fascinated with these matters than we need to be and, in the process, less appreciative of the power available in experiencing Christ.2 (Bold added.)

But, where is the repentance? He says what he psychologically looked for in the powerful unconscious was "worthy of serious investigation." But, now he has added a new dimension to his psychological eclecticism. Following his secular counterparts, he is here searching the depths to find goodness. He says:

Looking back, I think I failed to emphasize that beneath all the bad is goodness, that a careful exploration of the redeemed heart does not sink us in a cesspool; it’s more like mining for gold in a dirty cave.3

Crabb is still fossicking about in the unconscious, but now he is looking for the "goodness" as well as the "doubt, denial, self-preserving psychological dynamics, and our selfishly driven strategies for relating to people." That may be a shift, but it is not repentance. It is what eclectic therapists tend to do to keep their therapy current.

1. Larry Crabb, Letter to the Editor, Christianity Today (October 2, 1995), p. 8.
2. Larry Crabb, Connecting (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997), p. 11.
3. Ibid., p. 11.

PAL V6N5 (September-October 1998)

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