Pastoral theology as the art of paying attention: Widening the horizons

International Journal of Practical Theology

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2008, Pages

  McClure, Barbara J ^a  

^a VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61249150917     PISSN: 14306921     EISSN: 16129768     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1515/IJPT.2008.9     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. See: Gerkin, Widening the Horizons. Pastoral Responses to a Fragmented Society, Philadelphia (Westminster/John Knox) 1986.
2. See: J.R. Burck/Rodney J. Hunter, Pastoral Theology. Protestant, in: Rodney J. Hunter, ed., The Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Nashville (Abingdon) 1990, 867-872.
3. See: Edward Farley, Practical Theology. Protestant, in: Hunter, The Dictionary, 934-936. Practical theology can be widened even further into a theory of experience, action and practice, where "practice" can refer to public and world-transforming political activity.
4. See: Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology, in: Dawn Devries/Brian Gerrish, eds., New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Louisville (Westminster/John Knox) forthcoming, 8.
5. th edition, Kandy, Sri Lanka (Buddhist Publication Society) 1981, 61.
6. Catherine Soanes/Argus Stevenson, eds., Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd edition, New York (Oxford University Press) 2005, 101;
7. Maurice White, ed., Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. Of Current English, New York (Oxford University Press) 2007, 56.
8. R. Richard Niebuhr, The Strife of Interpreting. The Moral Burden of Imagination, Parabola, 10(2) 1985, 42.
9. Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy, eds., New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New York (Oxford University Press) 1991.
10. Philip Novak, The World's Wisdom. Sacred Texts of the World's Religions, San Francisco (HarperSanFrancisco) 1994.
11. Simone Weil, Waiting for God, New York (G.P. Putnam's Sons) 1951, 115.
12. James Edwards. The Great Concern of a Watchman for Souls, 1743, quoted by E. Brooks Holifield, History of Protestant Pastoral Care (United States), in: Hunter (n. 2), 511-515.
13. E. Brooks Holifield, A History of Pastoral Care in America, Nashville (Abingdon Press) 1983.
14. William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 83-151.
15. Carl Rogers, Client-centered Therapy. Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory, Boston (Houghton Mifflin) 1951.
16. Heinz Kohut, The Restoration of the Self, New York (International Universities Press) 1977;
17. Donald W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality, Philadelphia (Brunner Routledge) 1971.
18. Frank Summers, The Work of Heinz Kohut, in: .Frank Summers, ed., Object Relations Theories and Psychopathology. A Comprehensive Text, New Jersey (Jason Aronson Press, Inc.) 1994, 254.
19. Summers F., Object Relations Theories and Psychopathology. A Comprehensive Text, Ibid., 258.
20. Michael E. Kerr/Murray Bowen, Family Evaluation, New York (W.W. Norton & Co.) 1988, 7.
21. Harriott Lerner, Is Family Systems Theory Really Systemic? in: Journal of Psychotherapy & the Family, 3/4, 1987, 47-63.
22. For example, Christie Neuger brought her feminist lens to bear on the issue of depression, revealing a more culturally complex etiology than the dominant psycho-dynamic interpretation had offered. Intrigued by the fact that more women than men reported severe depression, Neuger was not entirely convinced by the psycho-dynamic explanation of depression as anger turned inward that it was the result of "negative cognitive tapes", or that it was primarily a biochemical imbalance. Neuger argued that this explanation gave no account for the increased prevalence of depression among women. The psycho-dynamic explanation describes depression as originating in childhood anger upon the discovery of parental failure to meet the child's needs completely. This early disappointment generates anger, but since its expression will only elicit rejection by the parent, the child learns to turn the anger towards herself, setting the stage for depression. This etiological narrative, however, neglects to address the link between cultural practices that are oppressive to women, and also are generators of anger and depression. Without attending to these connections, depression is seen as existing in women's psyche alone, and the broader social contributors to depression are missed. In this way, and others, feminist theorists have pushed psychological and pastoral models to look beyond the intrapsychic dynamics and beyond intrafamilial relationships to recognize the role of larger cultural forces - viz., patriarchy - in the etiology of particular distress responses. Christie Cozad Neuger. Women's Depression. Lives at Risk, in: Maxine Glaz/Jeanne Stevenson Moessner, eds., Women in Travail & Transition. A New Pastoral Care, Minneapolis (Fortress Press) 1991, 146-161.
23. Larry K. Graham, Care of Persons, Care of Worlds. A Psychosystems Approach to Pastoral Care and Counseling, Nashville (Abingdon) 1992, 75.
24. Graham L.K., A Psychosystems Approach to Pastoral Care and Counseling, Ibid., 37.
25. Larry K. Graham. Pastoral Theology as Public Theology in Relation to the Clinic. Journal of Pastoral Theology 10, 2000, 1-17;
26. Homer Ashby, Jr., Pastoral Theology as Public Theology. Participating in the Healing of Damaged and Damaging Cultures and Institutions, Journal of Pastoral Theology, Summer 10, 2000, 18-27;
27. and Bonnie J. MillerMcLemore, Pastoral Theology as Public Theology. Revolutions in the "Fourth Area," in: Nancy J. Ramsay, ed., Pastoral Care and Counseling. Redefining the Paradigms, Nashville (Abingdon), 2004, 45-64.
28. Pamela Couture, Rethinking Private and Public Patriarchy, in: A. Carr/M.S. Van Leeuwen, eds., Religion, Feminism and the Family, Louisville (Westminster John Knox) 1996, 249-274.
29. This argument extends those made previously by other pastoral theologians such as Rodney Hunter, Charles Gerkin, Homer Ashby, and Seward Hiltner, though they were not concerned primarily with the experience and contexts of work, or even organizations beyond the ecclesia. For example, Rodney Hunter proposes that "community formation, institutional participation and loyalty, and individual processes of commitment related constructively to processes of health and healing and can be related positively to clinical pastoral methodology." Rodney J. Hunter, Religious Caregiving and Pedagogy in a Postmodern Context. Recovering Ecclesia, Journal of Pastoral Care 8, 1998, 15-27.
30. Seward Hiltner argued that one perspective in pastoral theology is that of organizing (where pastoral attention is directed toward the corporate and institutional needs and welfare of the church and the wider community). Hiltner's interest in the "organizing" function is underrepresented in our field; this is a weakness I am seeking to address. Seward Hiltner, Preface to Pastoral Theology, Nashville (Abingdon) 1958, 198-215.
31. See Juliet Schor, The Overworked American. The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, New York (Basic Books) 1993.
32. Anne Swidler, Saving the Self. Endowment Versus Depletion in American Institutions, in: Richard Madsen et.al., eds., Meaning and Modernity. Religion, Polity and the Self, Berkeley (University of California Press) 2002, 45 ff.
33. Arlie Russell Hochschild, Timebind. When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work, New York (Henry Holt Books) 2001.
34. An increasing number of citations are made to work and religion, or work and spirituality, in popular publications. See, for example: Lisa Armstrong, Have Faith, in: Working Mother, Dec 2007/Jan 2008, 53-56.
35. Harvey Cox, The Market as God, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1999, 18-24.
36. Rodney Hunter argues that pastoral theology is concerned with developing practices of care for a variety of contexts that, while funded by religious traditions, express and enliven meaning in its broadest dimensions and avoid "narrow pictisms." Rodney J. Hunter, The Future of Pastoral Theology, Pastoral Psychology 29(1), Fall 1980, 69.
37. Pastoral theologians also seek flourishing and meaning in our work contexts, whether the academy, clinic, or hospital. Rodney Hunter points to the possibility of finding meaning and flourishing as an academic, while Homer Ashby, Jr., reflects on the burnout of pastoral theologians. See: Hunter, Work as Quest. Confessions of a Romantic Academic, in: William Cleary, ed., Selving. Linking Work to Spirituality, Wisconsin (Marquette University Press) 2000, 23-31;
38. Ashby, Pastoral Theology as Public Theology. Participating in the Healing of Damaged and Damaging Cultures and Institutions, Journal for Pastoral Theology 10, Summer 2000, 18-27.
39. Rodney J. Hunter, The Future of Pastoral Theology, Pastoral Psychology 29(1), Fall 1980, 69.
40. Hunter R.J., Pastoral Psychology, Ibid., 69.
41. Brian Hall, Values Shift. A Guide to Personal and Organizational Transformation, Rockport, MA (Twin Lights Publishers) 1995, 21.
42. Ali Farazmand, Introduction. The Multifaceted Nature of Modern Organizations, in: Ali Farazmand, ed., Modern Organizations. Theory and Practice, Westport, CT (Praeger) 2002, xv-xxix.
43. Farazmand A., Modern Organizations. Theory and Practice, Ibid., 17.
44. Self actualization is "the inner drive toward experiencing and expressing the totality of one's being through spiritual, psychological physical and mental exercises that enhance the development of one's maximum potential." (Hall (n. 36), 233). Law/guide is "seeing authoritative principles and regulations as a means for creating personal criteria and moral conscience, and questioning those rules until they are clear and meaningful." (230). Global justice is "commitment to a world order in which all persons have equal value but different gifts and abilities to contribute to society, combined with the ability to elicit interinstitutional and governmental collaboration to provide the basic rights and life necessities for the poor in the world" (229). Human dignity is "consciousness of the basic right of all human beings to have respect and to have their basic needs met to that each person has the opportunity to develop to full potential" (230).
45. Interface website, www.interfaceinc.com, December, 2007.
46. Ray Anderson, Midcourse Correction. Toward a Sustainable Enterprise - The Interface Model, Atlanta (Peregrinzilla) 1999.
47. Anderson R., Toward a Sustainable Enterprise - The Interface Model, Ibid., 1.
48. Gary Erikson, Raising the Bar. Integrity and Passion in Life and Business, San Francisco (John Wiley & Sons) 2004, 125.
49. Erikson G., Integrity and Passion in Life and Business, Ibid., 286.