“Idols of the Heart and ‘Vanity Fair’” was published in 1991, and then republished in CCEF’s Journal of Biblical Counseling in 1995. How well does the article hold up after twenty years? You be the judge. But as I reread it, I think it does pretty well. Let me make two introductory comments, first to orient you, and second to caution and remind you of important things.
One of the great questions facing Christians in the social sciences and helping professions is this one: How do we legitimately and meaningfully connect the conceptual stock of the Bible and Christian tradition with the tech¬nical terminologies and observational riches of the behavioral sciences? Within this perennial question, two particular sub-questions have long intrigued and perplexed me.