The New Covenant as a Paradigm for Optimal Relations

The New Covenant as a Paradigm for Optimal Relations regards the New Covenant primarily as a gracious and merciful redemptive deal, springing from God's unilateral, unconditional, and proactive initiative. The New Covenant is adopted as representing both a salvific and an exemplary paradigm that displays God's gracious and merciful ways toward his children. Ten discrete, yet interwoven principles are extracted from, interpreted, and abstracted from Scriptures pertaining to the promised New Covenant. These principles apply to those who, as dearly beloved children, are invited to imitate God's loving ways. God's manner of love defines the foundational basis from which the author derives and elaborates the propositions that guide the considerations pertaining to thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviors that enter into play in relational transactions. In terms of style, an architectural design permeates the content of this book, offering and encompassing a metacognitive view of God's covenantal ways: a top-down perspective that applies to bottom-up endeavors of relational nature. The challenges posed by our cultural, postmodern trends--devoid of absolute principles and lacking a moral compass--are countered and addressed by the author in insightful fashion, offering theologically-based guidelines integrated to sound psychological principles, applicable to psychotherapeutic and counseling endeavors as well as to pastoral care. ""A highly respected and experienced expert in the field of clinical psychology, Pablo Polischuk has taken the time to engage serious academic work on covenants in biblical theology and has been perfecting his integrated approach in the seminary classroom for years. The rich insights found here will be of great help to the serious student committed to enriching their own relationships as well as those of the people to whom they minister."" --Roy E. Ciampa, PhD, Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship ""Pablo Polischuk has written an excellent book that is a substantial contribution to the integration of psychology and Christian faith in which he clearly elaborates on the new covenant as a paradigm for optimal human relations, focusing on how to imitate God and His ways in the power of the Holy Spirit. I highly recommend it as essential reading, especially in the context of marriage and family relationships."" --Siang-Yang Tan, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Christian Perspective Pablo Polischuk is the George Bennett Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Psychology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a clinical psychologist in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He is the author of several books, including La Depresion y su Tratamiento (1992), El Consejo Terapeutico (1994), Poniendo los Puntos Sobre las Ies (1997), and El Consejo Integral (2014).