Sociedade Bíblica Do Brasil - The Therapeutic Bible – 1 and 2 Corinthians: Acceptance • Grace • Truth

The United Bible Societies is a world fellowship of National Bible Societies, joined together for consultation, mutual support and action in their task of achieving the widest possible, effective and meaningful distribution of the Holy Scriptures and of helping people interact with the Word of God. Bible Societies seek to carry out their task in partnership and co-operation with all Christian churches and with church-related organisations. You are invited to share in this work by your prayers and gifts. The Bible Society, in your country will be very happy to provide details of its activities.

The Therapeutic Bible - 1 and 2 Corinthians

Bible Society of Brazil, 2016

P.O. Box 330 06453-970 Barueri, So Paulo Brazil

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Bible text

The Good News Translation

1992 American Bible Society

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We are pleased to present The Therapeutic Bible to you. It is the fruit of the loving reading of the Word of God in the midst of our families. We, the authors, are Christian mental health professionals committed to a personal testimony of the grace and truth manifested in Jesus Christ.

We believe in personal salvation in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of his life, the Son of God the Father, the first fruits of the biology of resurrection by the powerful action of the Holy Spirit who inspires us, draws us close, and enables all of our relationships: with God, with others, and with ourselves.

Our professional task, psychotherapy and counseling, puts us in daily contact with the faces of our patients. It is in them that we have witnessed the daily mystery that reveals itself in their gaze. In this mystery we testify that God is indeed present.

The comments accompanying the sacred text originate from these meetings. They are rooted in wonder: consultation with our patients is scheduled by grace. In this sense we are happy to meet in our offices with the envoys of the Lord, who were sent to experience kinship with the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and become part of a new family that is the Church. They speak words in everyday language that testify to the decisive importance that faith has in our lives and professions.

These comments, thus, are written as prayers, designed to encourage listening of the text. The decisive turn is in the text that gives itself to us and that the Holy Spirit allows us to receive. The joy and satisfaction to awaken this wonderful experience is the goal of The Therapeutic Bible.

The authors

A group of eighteen Christian mental health professionals, members of the Brazilian Body of Christian Psychologists and Psychiatrists (CPPC) and supported by both the CPPC and the Brazilian Bible Society (SBB), have worked with great effort to identify and explain the various fostering elements of mental, physical, and spiritual health that exist in the Holy Scriptures. In 2011 the New Testament commentary was published in Brazil. What you have in your hands, though, is being published for the first time in any language: the New Testament commentary combined with commentary on the Book of Psalms.

We pray that God blesses all the readers of the biblical text, the commentaries, and the explicative boxes and hope that this work helps each reader to grow in physical, emotional, and spiritual health. We would appreciate any comments or suggestions that readers have so that we can improve our work after all, our objective is to cover the entire Bible, and there will certainly be much that needs improvement as we tackle this difficult yet enriching task which has blessed our lives so far. We solicit your prayers for our editorial team, that The Therapeutic Bible will be an instrument that brings acceptance, grace, and truth on the part of God to our people in need.

Jairo Miranda (team coordinator)

Karl Kepler (editor, The Therapeutic Bible)

The Brazilian Body of Christian Psychologists and Psychiatrists (CPPC), an active organization since 1976, researches and promotes the dialogue of the science and practice of psychology and psychiatry with the Christian faith. Through the years we have noted that in spite of occasional tensions, it is not necessary to give up either scientific truth or the truth revealed in Scripture we believe that both originate in God.

We promote conferences, meetings, fellowships, lectures, and agreements with educational as well as ecclesial institutions. We publish Psychotheology magazine and make ourselves available to our readers on our Internet site: www.cppc.org.br, where one can access diverse texts of our authorship, find professionals in every region of Brazil, and get to know us better.

The CPPC supports the initiative of The Therapeutic Bible, and hopes that its collaboration with this project will lead more people to encounter a path of wisdom and health in their lives, not only in the physical dimension, but also in the emotional and spiritual.

Jairo Gomes de Miranda. Pastor, theologian, and clinical psychologist in Rio de Janeiro. Holds a post-graduate degree in Higher Education Didactics. Co-founder of the Christian Theology College of Brazil (Braslia). Served as chaplain of the Clinical Hospital at the Federal University of Gois. Member of the Family Therapy Association/RJ and instructor at the Family Integration Institute (RJ). Author of A Country Called Way-Finder (Um pas chamado Jeitoso). CPPC full member. Coordinator of The Therapeutic Bible writing team.

Karl Heinz Kepler. Journalist, pastor and psychologist in So Paulo. Holds a masters degree in Theology. Author of several articles and books, among them Ecclesiastical Neuroses. Taught for many years at the Baptist Theological College of So Paulo and at the Evangelical Bible Institute (IBES). Served as CPPC national president. Editor of The Therapeutic Bible.

Ageu Heringer Lisboa. Clinical psychologist in So Paulo. Holds a masters degree in Psychology of Religion and is the author of numerous books, among them Sex, Nakedness, and Mystery. CPPC co-founder and ex-president.

Carlos Tadeu Grzybowski. Psychologist in Curitiba (PR). Family therapist with a masters degree in child and adolescent psychology and a doctoral candidate in applied linguistics. Author of several books, among them