Christian Reflections on Stress Management

Abstract

An enormous volume of literature has emerged in the past decade regarding stress and its management. As the Christian views this literature in psychology, an immediate impression is gratefulness for the contribution these advancements have made to Christ's Church. In addition, one has some reservations regarding the almost value-free environment surrounding some of the literature as well as the tendency of a few authors in this field to expand stress management techniques into an all-embracing philosophy of life. It is helpful for Christians to understand stress and its management in the context of the more familiar death and dying spectrum of truth. Learning from stress may be more appropriate for the Christian than simply managing or reducing it.