This is a book review that I wrote. It has been edited and published:
Wayman, D.V. (2022). Christian Meditation in Clinical Practice. [Review of the book, Christian Meditation in Clinical Practice: A Four-step Model and Workbook for Therapists and Clients]. Religious Studies Review, 48(4), 565
CHRISTIAN MEDITATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE: A FOUR-STEP MODEL AND WORKBOOK FOR THERAPISTS AND CLIENTS. By Joshua J. Knabb. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022. Pp. 252. Paper, $28.49.
In the past, meditation has been rejected by some in the Christian community as such considered that there was a connection to Buddhism and/or other eastern religions. However, meditation is a Judeo-Christian practice, and it is gaining a fuller re-acceptance. This text by Knabb compares/contrasts Christian meditation, secular meditation, Buddhist loving kindness meditation and Buddhist mindfulness with his well-researched tome. He emphasizes the transdiagnostic process: identifying and treating common psychological processes across diagnoses. Further, he includes transdiagnostic interventions found in meditation: focused attention, open monitoring, kataphatic (reading, meditation, and praying), and apophatic (contemplation) interventions. In continuing with his transdiagnostic theme, Knabb delivers a four-step model that targets transdiagnostic processes that are useful to therapists as well as their clients due to its practical application as a workbook that can be used with clients. He targets problems with cognition (repetitive negative thinking), problems with affect (impaired emotional clarity and distress intolerance), problems with behavior (behavioral avoidance), problems with the self (perfectionism), and problems with relationships (impaired mentalization). This is a scholarly and practical work that is very useful, concluding with 15 pages of references and a scripture index of over 150 passages.
Dale V. Wayman
Capella University
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