Talk:Theophostic Prayer Ministry

POV check
I have tagged this article for POV-check. A large proportion of the current content is just re-cycled puffery sourced from Theophostic literature and Ed Smith, its originator. MatthewTStone (talk) 10:01, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

Isaiah 41:21 JohnSHolder (talk) 20:41, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

To balance out the point of view, add:

Critics of Theophostic counseling challenge it on several fronts, such as its:

•	Epistemology of pragmatism (pragmatism has always been deficient philosophically, never attempting to offer a comprehensive philosophical worldview of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and logic); at times arguing from an anti-logical irrationality (but irrationality renders all argumentation superfluous);

•	Psychological roots—uncritically adopted from anti-Christian psychologists, especially Sigmund Freud and the occultist Carl Jung;

•	Scientifically questionable assumptions regarding the accuracy of human memory;

•	Occult/new age practices: guided imagery/visualization, hypnosis, meditation, etc.;

•	Doctrinal errors in its views of: the sufficiency of Scripture; its superficial view of sin; its unbiblical anthropology; its praxis of continuing revelation (e.g., whatever the client hears at the cathartic point is received as the infallible word of the Lord);

•	Hermeneutical errors, such as eisegesis (reading into Scripture what is not in the text—sometimes anachronistically) and subtle usage of Biblical terms with unbiblical definitions (contra standard academic commentaries, lexicons, dictionaries of theology, dictionaries of Biblical theology, systematic theologies, Bible encyclopedias, etc.). For example, its unbiblical teaching regarding the biblical terms: forgiveness, self-denial, self-control, suffering, etc.;

•	Blasphemy—“Go ahead and hit God”;

•	Theophostic counseling is not taught in Scripture

Bobgan, Martin and Deidre. TheoPhostic Counseling: Divine Revelation or PsychoHeresy? EastGate Publishers, 1999. ISBN-13: 978-0941717151 http://www.amazon.com/TheoPhostic-Counseling-Divine-Revelation-PsychoHeresy/dp/0941717151

Fugate, Robert. Psycho-Heresy: Christianizing Pagan Psychologies. Lord of the Nations, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-9847422-2-6. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RL2AQAE — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.74.30.145 (talk) 18:18, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Heading of this page needs revision
Hello,

I have been a practitioner of Theophostic Prayer Ministry for 13 years, and would like to suggest that there is no such thing as "Theophostic Counseling" as the page header suggests. Because it is a method of Christian healing prayer and does not require any training in counseling, the title can be misleading to refer to it as Theophostic Counseling. If it is referred to as counseling, that places it in a realm of professional regulations, which it is not.

Please consider a more accurate name for the page title: "Theophostic Prayer Ministry". This will clear up some confusion in the general public.

Thank you, 64.31.232.185 (talk) 14:47, 28 August 2013 (UTC) Reverend Kathy Eason Executive Director, Serenity Retreat for Healing and Spiritual Renewal
 * It comes back to Ed Smith, and the lede of this article explains why. If you read the second cited reference, you'll find the following on page 2: "...When Ed Smith first founded this ministry, he called it TheoPhostic Counseling but later changed it to Theophostic Prayer Ministry. Smith admits that part of his motivation for doing this was to protect Theophostic practitioners from litigation..." He now claims that is not counselling at all, however, many people still evidently believe that it is. M Stone (talk) 00:57, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

The cited reference about Ed smith changing the name for legal reasons is not based upon fact. The source of this information was stating an opinion that was not verified. ed Smith himself denies that this was ever a part of the reason for the name change. This reference cited needs to be removed in that it is propagating misinformation form a secondary source.

Please change the title to Theophostic Prayer Ministry — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snickers53 (talk • contribs) 15:46, 3 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Can't see any convincing reason to change the title of the article, and the source seems OK for this section. Smith may have changed his tune. Sometimes people do that. M Stone (talk) 21:41, 3 October 2013 (UTC)

I have no skin in this game at all — I'm just collecting research-based data on what is now called "Transformation Prayer Ministry." Nonetheless, I found the Wikipedia article by googling "Theophostic Prayer Ministry." I think it is highly anachronistic that the title of the page is "Theophostic counseling" when the article itself repeatedly and consistently refers to "Theophostic Prayer Ministry." Hythlodayau (talk) 03:45, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
 * I have changed the title. RobP (talk) 20:07, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
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Ed Smith has once again changed the name of his approach, now Transformational Prayer Ministry, though keeping the TPM abbreviation (see https://www.transformationprayer.org/). He has also reorganized TPM from a for-profit organization into a non-profit organization, according to the TPM website. Both the name change and shift to non-profit status are "explained" here: https://www.transformationprayer.org/history-of-transformation-prayer-ministry-previously-known-as-theophostic-prayer/ The old theophostic prayer ministry website has been taken down. 2600:1700:4FD2:4B30:EC84:1D5D:EE31:28A8 (talk) 23:16, 21 July 2023 (UTC)