Dan B. Allender approaches the subject of sexual abuse from two parallel perspectives. He bases his analysis of the adult experience of persons who were abused sexually as children on the fact that he has counseled many victims of sexual abuse as both pastor and clinical psychologist and that he, too, has had to deal with the reality of sexual abuse that he experienced as a child.. His perspective is, accordingly, twofold. Even though he explains that he has taught secular courses in psychology and is a conventionally trained psychotherapist, Allender's principal focus is that of a pastoral counselor, and it is from the standpoint of Christian pastoralism that he elaborates his view of how those who have been sexually abused as children can come to terms with the experience, lay its ghost, and take up life as a fully emotionally integrated human being.
The duality of focus--professional psychotherapy and theologically grounded pastoral counseling--sets up a complex mission for Allender's text and requires some elaboration. Allender accepts and articulates the idea that the experience of all persons, including victims of sexual abuse, is part of a divine plan for humanity: "It is God's kindness to orchestrate the events of our life so that our heart will be tested and then humbled, so that our heat will hunger for the kind of bread that comes only from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:2-7,15-18)."
It is important to recognize that this does not mean sexual abuse is part of God's plan, since the individual abuser is responsible for his or her actions. Allender's focus is, rather, on the given circumstance of an abuse history for the person who has been abused. In a broad sense, it is as if the fact of the abuse supplies the abused individual with an opportunity to access God's love, to reclaim individual integrity through the power of God to heal. That is important because the abused person may not necessarily realize or acknowledg...