Physicians, medical professionals, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, financial consultants, nursing home workers, and managers will also find it useful. There are vast resources of wise counsel that ought to be brought to bear for counseling to worthy of the adjectives Biblical and Christian. Kettler includes many classic books on theology, Biblical exegesis, prayer, small groups, evangelism, preaching, and Christian living. Kettler seeks to draw from historic, orthodox Christianity. His sources span the centuries, from Augustine to Jay Adams, from John Bunyan to John MacArthur, from B.B. Warfield to Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
All references are to books in English.
His orientation is heavily toward nouthetic Biblical counseling and toward Reformed theology. But he casts a wider net, disclaiming that he agrees with every author's views and disclaiming that authors always agree with each other. Contrary to the popular self-help psychologies of the 1980s and 90s, wise counseling expresses a comprehensive theology and a comprehensive vision of church life. It arranges sources under some 100 topical headings, including crisis counseling, apologetics, affliction, anger drug abuse, sin, worry, homework, physiological problems, and so forth. Under some headings, where there was little if any Biblical counsel in print, Kettler listed other sorts of works, secular or semi-Christian, in order to prime the pump for discerning readers.