SCM Studyguide Pastoral Theology

Margaret Whipp

Description

Through the course of their work with people engaged in ministries of various kinds - spiritual directors, healthcare chaplains, local clergy, theological educators, youth workers, the authors of this groundbreaking book have become convinced of the need to provide a practical guide to the practice of pastoral supervision understood as a core discipline of the Christian church and enriched by the best of what other supervision disciplines have to offer. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of pastoral supervision, embedding it theologically and offering rooted examples from their own practice. At the end of each chapter practical exercises are offered to help the reader reflect on their own practice and tools are suggested for use with supervision groups and in work with individuals.

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334049609
• Langue: English

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SCM STUDYGUIDE TO PASTORAL THEOLOGY



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SCM STUDYGUIDE TO PASTORAL THEOLOGY
Margaret Whipp





© Margaret Whipp 2013
Published in 2013 by SCM Press
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.
The Author has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
978-0-334-04550-2
Kindle edition 978-0-334-04551-9
Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon



Contents


List of Figures


1. The Humble Pastor – Imagining Pastoral Care


Part 1 Life in all its Fullness: The Call to be Human
2. Being Human – Life, Love and Longings
3. Faithful Change – Growth, Transition and Maturity
4. All Desires Known – Sexuality and the Call of Love
5. The Fragility of Life – Attachment, Trauma and Loss
6. Growing Together – Religion, Relationships and Ritual


Part 2 For Their Sakes: The Call to Care
7. Tend my Flock – The Story of Pastoral Care
8. The Art of Pastoral Conversation – Listening, Love and Language
9. Boundaries and Power – The Limits of Pastoral Care
10. Serpents and Doves – Integrity and Good Practice in Pastoral Care
11. Messy Moments – Unsought, Untamed, Unimaginable Encounters
Epilogue
12. The Paradoxical Pastor


Sources and Acknowledgements



List of Figures


Table 3.1. Erikson’s eight stages of development
Figure 3.2. The U curve of transition
Figure 5.1. The U curve of loss
Figure 6.1. Rites of passage
Figure 7.1. An ecology of Christian pastoral care
Figure 8.1. The shape of pastoral conversation
Figure 10.1. The effect of the role on the personal self
Figure 10.2. The effect of the personal self on the role
Figure 10.3. The supervision continuum
Figure 11.1. Embracing the pastoral moment
Figure 11.2. Pastoral care as narrative interpretation



1. The Humble Pastor
Imagining Pastoral Care
Pastoral theology is the study of how and why Christians care. In essence, we find that this caring impulse is devastatingly simple. We love because God in Christ has first loved us. But what that love will entail, in all the deep and demanding outworkings of pastoral practice, can bear a lifetime of critical exploration and prayerful discovery. This study guide aims to provide some helpful accompaniment along the way.
The first thing that we must acknowledge, before embarking on any serious study in this area, is that caring in itself need not be terribly complicated. It is in the nature of most pastoral activity, in fact, to proceed by quite modest pathways, often bumbling along through chance encounters and half-understood exchanges towards some first glimpses of human hope and healing. A stance of humility, therefore, both intellectually and spiritually, seems to be an essential prerequisite for authentic pastoral care; and some of its finest practitioners may appear, on the surface at least, to be surprisingly untutored.
What status should we assign, then, to a field of study which is designated ‘pastoral theology’? Is it a specialized discipline which is the proper province of highly trained academics and professional theologians? Can we stake out a critical body of pastoral expertise and advanced proficiency which will elevate caring to a standard above the level of the ‘ordinary’ Christian? Or is there, possibly, something of immeasurable value in the care of the ‘amateur’ – a word which originally meant lover before it came to mean unskilled – whose unassuming compassion authentically reflects the humble generosity of a gracious God? We shall do well to stay grounded in humility as we take upon ourselves any formal study or ministry in the field of pastoral care.
This book is addressed to a readership that is both humble and also rather eclectic. Some readers may be approaching pastoral theology as part of their formal training for ordained ministry in the Church. For them, the expectations of an official and representative role will powerfully shape an emerging vision of pastoral integrity which they seek to embody in their vocation. Others, inhabiting a place amid the plethora of more or less formally recognized lay ministries in the churches, will be reading this book in the context of a role which is not so easy to define or delimit, but whose vocational expectations may be no less searching or profound. Still other readers, sensitive to the pastoral dimension of the whole of human life, may be drawn to explore an area of personal study which promises not only to enrich their stock of human wisdom, but also to enlarge their resources of compassion as members of a caring Christian community. In reading and discussing this book, it will be helpful to remember the distinctive contribution that each particular vocational perspective may bring to the overall scope of our pastoral vision.
This study guide will invite a stance of humble curiosity in relation to a wide canvas of human knowledge. To this end we shall explore, at least in an introductory way, some of the rich insights gathered from a thoughtful appropriation of research in many fascinating fields of enquiry relevant to pastoral care. Traditional theology, in the sense of a serious study of the nature of the good news that calls us into relationship with a loving God, will be indispensible to all our considerations. But so also will be our excursions into the behavioural sciences, whose sophisticated accounts of human well-being in all its biological and cultural, psychological and social dimensions will shed much light on the subtle depth and detail of how the good news of God’s love might be shared and experienced. Within this multidisciplinary enterprise of pastoral theology, while garnering a rich harvest of knowledge about the human condition from many quarters, we may never pretend to be specialists in all areas. The pastor always remains in an important sense a non-expert, who holds her learning humbly, never forgetting the profound mysteries that will always lie beyond her grasp.
This introductory book will promote, therefore, an ongoing agenda of humble learning and reflective practice. However experienced we may be as pastors, and however much the quality of our care may be appreciated by others, we shall recognize that the more proficient we become as ministers, the more essential it will be for us to develop our understanding and to deepen our pastoral integrity. What makes our caring theologically authentic? Is our pastoral practice coherent in both social and spiritual terms? And how faithfully does it witness to life-giving compassion and grace? Without anxious navel-gazing or an obsessive preoccupation with the methodologies of reflection, this book will invite a continual questioning of our theological presuppositions and a humble evaluation of practice.
With such challenges in mind, this book will not be shy about discussing prayer. It is one of the tragedies of much modern reflection on the many-faceted tasks of ministry that the cultivation of pastoral skills has sometimes been examined in isolation from any attention to the spiritual heartbeat which sustains them. Such functionalism is misleading and damaging. To be a Christian pastor is to dwell deeply, day by day, in the love of God. Our pastoral care draws its whole life and integrity, its orientation and sustenance, from a deep well of divine grace that flows in and through a personal and corporate life of prayer and worship. Nothing less than a quiet prayerfulness beneath and beyond our outward caring will plumb the depths of incarnational ministry which we are called, in Christ, to share. We shall do well to pause often in our studies, as well as in our pastoral activities, to return humbly to the spiritual wellsprings of this ministry within the fathomless compassion of God.
These, then, are some initial pointers to the vision of pastoral theology which we hope to inspire through this study guide. Pastoral theology is a challenging and deeply illuminating field of study which wil