Jay E. Adams


Jay Edward Adams is an American, Reformed Christian author who has written more than 100 books. His books have been translated into 16 languages, and he received his doctorate in preaching.

Nouthetic counseling

According to an interview by Aaron Blumer, Adams' major influence on counseling was the publication of his book Competent to Counsel in 1970. It is from that book that Adams developed what is known as nouthetic counseling. Over time, Adams has become a popular advocate of "strictly biblical approaches" to counseling, whose "perspectives are influencing evangelical Christianity today."
John F. MacArthur has stated that through Adams' book Competent to Counsel Adams gave the Church "an indispensable corrective to several trends that are eating away at the Church's spiritual vitality". Derek Tidball argues that Adams has made an "enormous contribution to the revival of biblical pastoral theology". According to Ian F. Jones, Tim Clinton, and George Ohlschlager, "Jay Adams brought a biblical revolution to Christian and pastoral counseling in the 1970s, challenging a field that was racing toward rancor, even dissolution by its fascination with all manner of anti-Christian psycho-babble." David Powlison has said that Adams has written "abundant resources for the development of counseling" and has led to the establishment of various institutions based on his views.
Psychologists have argued that nouthetic counseling can do considerable harm to patients. In addition to techniques which critics consider ineffective, patients who are not helped by nouthetic counseling often consider themselves religious failures. Further criticism comes from The Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling, which states that "Adams seems to be not fully knowledgeable regarding the theories he criticizes" and that "confrontation is also essential to the theory of Adams." However, it does go on to state that this confrontation "is defined as caring confrontation."
Mark McMinn has argued, however, that "Dr. Adams has received a great deal of unfair, uninformed criticism from the Christian counseling community. Although I do not share Dr. Adams' opinion on confronting sin in counseling, I do respect his pioneering work in biblical counseling."

Education

Adams has written more than 100 books, including: