Psychologists often encounter clients or students who have questions that relate to particular passages of Scripture. Because the Bible is often an important part of their organizing worldview, it becomes imperative that both the therapist and client develop an accurate understanding of how to read and apply the Scriptures correctly. Reading and applying Scripture brings together a text (the Bible) and a reader (the individual's cognitive structures). For the accurate understanding and application of biblical passages the therapist and client need to examine textual matters and reader issues such as language, culture, and situational context, as well as personal and group presuppositions, expectations, history and experience. This article is an attempt to further clarify the significance of these interpretation issues for the therapeutic relationship.
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