New also believes the same kinds of issues he found in The Quick-Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling exist in other books from Clinton that Baker publishes, and New hopes those books will be pulled as well.
Author and blogger Warren Throckmorton, a retired Grove City College psychology professor, said Clinton and his co-author share the blame for missing attributions in the book. As part of the publishing process, authors get several chances to review a book manuscript before it’s published, especially when changes are made.
“The author should have looked at this book,” said Throckmorton. “Unless you allege the publisher took out the citations on purpose, you can’t pass it off on the publisher to be responsible for your mistake.”
Throckmorton, a former member of the American Association of Christian Counselors’ advisory board, said that in the past, Baker has been more forthcoming when a book was pulled. He pointed to a case in 2017, when Baker’s academic arm pulled a commentary by biblical scholar Andreas Köstenberger after the scholar admitted he had used material from D.A. Carson without attribution. Baker sent out a press release, said Throckmorton, and offered to make things right with customers. Köstenberger, according to a copy of that press release, took responsibility for the issues of the book.
No such public statement from Baker was made in the case of the guide co-authored by Clinton.
Winters declined to comment on concerns with Clinton’s other works, saying he did not know enough about the concerns to address them. He said Clinton and Hawkins may find another publisher for their guide, or they may end up self-publishing the book in the future. (The guide was originally published by the American Association of Christian Counselors in 2007.) Winters said the missing citations are “one of those things that should never have happened.”
“But unfortunately, it was the second time for this thing,” he said. “It was a nightmare to be honest with you, from what I understand.”
This article originally appeared here.
