KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study examines client resistance and free will in Christian counseling. Although obedience is a spiritual virtue, clients may view such expectations as autonomy threats that trigger reactance. Drawing on Brehm’s reactance theory, Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, and Gross’s emotion-regulation model, the paper frames resistance not as rebellion but as a protective response to perceived autonomy loss and emotional vulnerability. Theologically, the study engages Reformed voices—Luther, Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards—to explore human will in relation to sin, grace, and obedience. Free will is framed not as autonomous capacity but as a grace-enabled response to God. Christian counseling theorists Crabb and Adams show resistance can function both as a symptom of spiritual tension and a starting point for redemptive change. This study recasts reactance as a cue to restore autonomy and identity, and views obedience as grace-enabled, voluntary growth, not coerced duty. Counselors should meet the reactance–obedience tension with listening, empathy, and reinterpretation rather than censure. As literature-based, it could not empirically test counselor reactance or guilt-shame dynamics beneath resistance. Future qualitative work tracing “reactance–acceptance–response” dialogues can validate the model. Reactance thus opens a path to obedience, and accompaniment fosters free-will recovery and growth.

This study is an integrated theoretical study on the topic of uncertainty management to understand uncertainty in a comprehensive and multidimensional way, which is an inseparable element of human life and an important issue in modern society. To this end, this study integrates the free energy principle, psychology of uncertainty, worldview, and Christian worldview on the topic of uncertainty management through a literature review. The findings of the study are as follows First, uncertainty is defined as entropy. Second, because organisms naturally resist disorder, they manage uncertainty at the neural level by minimizing free energy. Third, uncertainty appears in different contexts, depending on the environment, and is both an object of aversion and a motivator of certain affect and behaviors. Fourth, worldviews are the unconscious representational systems by which individuals interpret the world, and Christians can manage uncertainty by giving meaning to the world because of the creation-fall-redemption narrative. This multidimensional and integrated approach reconsiders uncertainty as something that can be managed at the neural, psychological, worldview, and Christian worldview levels. Based on this, academic significance and practical implications are presented.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the essence and meaning of the experiences of theological seminary students who exhibit tendencies to avoid negative emotions in their ministry settings. It aims to explore the difficulties they face and the process of change within the context of Christian counseling. To achieve this, ten participants were selected from among seminary students who are actively involved in ministry, demonstrate avoidant attitudes toward negative emotions, experience relational difficulties and internal conflicts, and have shown signs of change during counseling. Data obtained through the counseling sessions were analyzed using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method. This analysis yielded 375 meaning units, which were distilled into 131 core meanings with four essential themes and 21 sub-themes. The four themes identified are: 1. The causes of avoidant attitudes toward negative emotions, 2. Ministry-related difficulties stemming from these avoidant tendencies, 3. Resources that facilitate change, 4. Experiences of transformation. With the role of Christian counseling, this study underscores that the tendency to avoid negative emotions is not merely a personality trait or a result of external circumstances, but is deeply intertwined with one’s identity as a minister and relationship with God.