The Discipline and Habit of Theological Reflection

This article describes the process of theological reflection and the necessity of its practice in the formation of pastoral identity and development of ministry. Drawing upon the philosophy of C.S. Peirce, pastoral theology of the past twenty-five years, and the authors' clinical and classroom experiences, the essay illuminates the distinctive work of pastoral care givers that makes them unique in health care settings.     

Pastoral counseling and pastoral care: is there a difference?

The author argues that there is little difference between pastoral counseling and pastoral care. Utilizing an evidence-based and narrative approach, he examines the ideas of a variety of historical and contemporary writers to illustrate this thesis. Along with historical and contemporary writings on the topic, the author includes his own clinical experiences and associations to illustrate his conviction that pastoral counseling and pastoral care are more alike than different.     

How to Be Fashionably Queer: Reminding the Church of the Importance of Sexual Stories

Abstract

This article compares experiences of working in the fashion industry with being a member of the Church It asserts that the Church's pastoral practice is often rendered ineffective by its unwillingness to embrace sexual stories and ironically demonstrates that in the unexpected context of a fashion store, where such stories were frequently shared, that there was a deep sense of trust and intimacy that allowed for meaningful pastoral experiences, especially during times of crisis. With reference to the work of queer theologians such as Marcella Althaus-Reid and Robert Goss, it employs the motif of the ‘theological catwalk’ to demonstrate that the biblical texts and the person of Jesus can be approached as sexual stories. By refusing to accept that queer people can only dress in the sexual outfit of church teachings, it opens the closet doors and reveals that in truth there are many stylish outfits that can be worn on the catwalk of life.     

Wild Things: Stories,Transition, and the Sacred in Ecological Social Movements

This article examines the role of stories in ecological activism. It first situates stories inside object ecologies, encompassing relationships of reliance, care, and maintenance of things. It suggests that ecologies of this sort work as an extended mind where our cognition takes place and meaning is apprehended, so that what we can think of is always a function of what we have “at hand.” The article then considers how these ecologies are impacted by discourses on climate change and peak oil, which stress the impossibility to keep ordering our lives through the same entanglements that have supported them so far. A dissonance arises between the sort of demands and dependencies we are still subject to on a daily basis and the anticipation that those demands and dependencies shall not be able to endure. Stories of transition, which tread a middle ground between denial and collapse hysteria, dissipate this tension. In so doing, they contribute to the growing of alternative sacred forms, working as attractors that constitute groups as moral collectives. These forms are woven through alternative entanglements of objects, bodies, and other stories, providing determinate implication for action, from the indeterminacy of the unknowns of climate change and peak oil.     

The ordo of care

What is the relationship between practices of care towards people living in marginalized life situations and liturgy? This article addresses this question by exploring the liturgical theology of Gordon Lathrop as the theoretical starting point for analysing a practice that would conventionally not be described as “liturgy”, but “ethical practice”. At the heart of the liturgical theology of Lathrop is the idea that the ordo of the Sunday service is organized by juxtapositions and broken symbols. In this article, Lathrop’s theology is brought into a hermeneutical dialogue with empirical material constructed from the Church of Our Lady, Trondheim, Norway, a Lutheran medieval church located in the middle of the city of Trondheim. Since 2008, the church has been run by the Church City Mission as an open church for all who need an open and hospitable sacred space in the city centre, especially people who live in marginalized life situations. The article demonstrates that when working inductively with an empirical material, Lathrop’s concepts are too narrow and hermeneutically closed. In order to be theoretically sensitive to the experiences of people who live in marginalized life situations and the ethical practices of care, liturgical theology has to reimage its understanding of space.     

“There is Nothing Good About this Work:” Identity and Unhappiness Among Nicaraguan Female Sex Workers

In a study of life satisfaction in Nicaragua, Cox (2012) found that female sex workers had dramatically low subjective well-being (SWB) relative to other marginalized groups in Nicaragua. Moreover, the SWB of these female sex workers was possibly the lowest recorded in the life satisfaction literature. A novel theory linking life satisfaction with life stories is proposed, and a method not heretofore used in SWB research is employed, the life story interview, in order to better understand the dramatic unhappiness of this sample. Seeing life satisfaction as an identity invoking process, the sample’s dramatically low life satisfaction judgments are framed within the larger context of narrative identity. Thematic analysis of the stories revealed a prototypical narrative arc: early family conflict, departure from home, a series of unsuccessful romantic relationships, birth of multiple children, dire economic crises, entry into sex work, and hope for a future exit from sex work. The life stories of these participants provided an identity and life course context to understand the dramatic unhappiness of this sample.     

Shame and Pastoral Care: Implications from an Asian Theological Perspective

Using the story of a Korean woman as a case study for pastoral caregivers, this article attempts to address some appropriate pastoral responses toward the “human impasse” from an Asian theological perspective. This article highlights the significance of remembrance and connection rather than repression and forgetfulness in order to bring justice to shamed persons, like this Korean woman. This article builds on Jacoby’s “social amnesia,” calls for redefining the meaning of community, and attempts to address the human predicaments such as shame experiences from an Asian perspective. In order to address pastoral responses, this article also builds upon Martin Luther King, Jr.’s concept of interrelatedness and shared destiny. It critically examines Jung Young Lee’s theology of marginality and draws the pastoral implications of this theology of marginality with respect to shame experiences. This article concludes with an Asian model of pastoral care and counseling.     

Living the vision: health care, social justice and institutional identity.

This paper will examine the topic of identity in Roman Catholicism from the perspective of topics contained in or absent from mission statements of 25 Catholic health care institutions. In particular, I will look at these from the perspective of social justice as well as how this and other topics such as human dignity, sanctity of life, stewardship, pastoral care and the likelihood of mergers with other institutions will affect the healing ministry of Catholic health care providers. The article will conclude that there are three key dimensions to Catholic health care: leadership in advocating reform of the current health care system, care for the marginalized and under-insured, and the provision of pastoral care in all institutions.     

Political Dimensions of Pastoral Care in Community Disaster Responses

All caregiving takes place in multiple political contexts and assumes or actually furthers various political agendas, whether acknowledged or not. When strategically incorporated into pastoral and spiritual care, politically responsive actions may enhance the practice of care. When disaster strikes a community, ritual engagement of the larger public context provides a significant opportunity for pastoral caregivers to function as public pastoral theologians and to influence the corporate response to communal challenges. In these circumstances of community vulnerability, pastoral caregivers and communities of faith are positioned to provide spiritual care that combines solace and safety for the victims with guidance and shaping influence on the ritual practices and rhetorical interpretations called upon to assist the community to endure, respond, and heal. This article examines some central political aspects of the pastoral caregiver’s repertoire that might further a stricken community’s ritual and rhetorical resources necessary to sustain life, share loss, reclaim goodness, and rebuild for a strong future. Drawing upon a view of lamentation as a tri-partite process of sharing anguish, interrogating causes, and reinvesting in hope, I suggest how the spiritual and pastoral caregiver may collaboratively participate in a “disaster-response matrix” that organizes corporate responses to catastrophic disaster. This article pays particular attention to macro-, meso-, and micro-level political negotiations necessary to ensure respect for diversity and shared responsibility in creating rituals, memorials, and public narratives at the onset of disaster and in its aftermath over the generations. Illustrations from the experience of religious caregivers at Columbine, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Aurora, Newtown, and Boston are presented to guide pastoral engagement of civil society in disruptive times.     

“Now there are diversities of gifts,but the same spirit.” (1Cor 12:4): images of the self and concepts of office of LGBTQ* pastors in Germany

ABSTRACT

After providing background information on the legal status and admission of LGBTIAQ* pastors in Germany, the paper focusses on experiences of LGBTQ* Protestant pastors in the major German Protestant church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland) to explore how they include their sexual orientation and/or gender in their pastoral work. LGBTIAQ* pastors face the challenge of managing visibility and discretion, in relation to a heteronormative setting, as well as the specific expectations of LGBTIAQ* Christians. The presumption of shared experiences and knowledge by similarly marginalized people plays a part in their ministry. The paper argues that embracing those experiences and community knowledge as part of pastoral theology can strengthen their reflection on pastoral work.     

Canadian ethnographic study of sources and definitions of theological reflection in pastoral care and counseling

What are the sources and definitions of theological reflection developed by Canadian practitioners of pastoral care and counseling? This study is part of a larger qualitative research project on theological reflection. This research reviews the literature, describes the ethnographic method, and presents the findings with a sample of 75. Main sources are sacred texts, personal experience, experiences of clients, and traditions of faith group. Definitions are meaning making, discovering the divine and discipleship with recommendations for future research listed.     

The impact of trauma on drug users' identities

This article addresses drug users' identity construction, and invites counsellors, psychotherapists, researchers and others who work with drug misusers to notice how cultural and societal discourses can shape drug misusers' stories, and the positions from which helpers listen and respond to them. By representing and analysing parts of two life stories, gathered as part of a wider narrative inquiry, this article draws attention to the learning embedded in a person's story about how traumatic life experiences shaped their drug misuser identity during adolescence and young adulthood. It suggests that by focusing on identity construction and reconstruction we can enable drug users to identify the discourses that have shaped their identities and thereby open up spaces for new and more hopeful stories of identity to emerge.     

Survivor of That Time, That Place: Clinical Uses of Violence Survivors' Narratives

Narratives by survivors of abuse offer compelling entries into the experiences of abuse and its effects on health. Reading such stories can enlarge the clinician's understanding of the complexities of abuse. Furthermore, attention to narrative can enhance the therapeutic options for abuse victims not only in mental health arenas, but also in other medical contexts. In this article we define the genre of survivor narratives, examine one such narrative in particular (Push by Sapphire, 1996), and explore the clinical implications of narrative in abuse victims' clinical care.     

The Long and Winding Road: An Autobiographic Study of an Elite Athlete Mother’s Journey to Winning Gold

Within sport psychology, researchers have explored elite athlete mothers’ experiences. More work is needed to understand the nuanced psychosocial aspects of their athletic journeys. Studying autobiographical narratives is useful toward understanding the psychosocial nuances of motherhood and athletics in sociocultural context. Within the present study we sought to extend this understanding through studying one elite athlete’s—British runner Jo Pavey—journey as an athlete mother within her autobiography This Mum Runs (26 chapters totaling 253 pages). Thematic narrative analysis of key chapters focusing on pregnancy and motherhood in relation to training and competition allowed for the identification of a central theme—discovery narrative–reconfiguring the performance narrative—along with two subthemes: go with the flow and best of both worlds. The subthemes are used to illustrate the navigation of tensions in relation to an athlete mother identity grounded in family relationships to facilitate training and competition goals, within a discovery narrative. Applied sport psychology recommendations are made using narrative theory in relation to key findings. Recommendations focused on athlete stories and narrative resources as concrete entry points to encourage compatible athlete mother identities and sport career engagement. This study adds to sport psychology work that has used autobiography as theoretical, analytical, and applied resources to expand understanding of marginalized and/or hard to access topics in elite sport. This is the first autobiographic study to focus on elite athlete mother identities, furthering understanding of nuanced identity negotiation and experiences over time.

Lay Summary: Understanding of elite athlete mother's negotiation of identity and athletic career is expanded through studying published/public autobiographical narratives. A discovery narrative grounded in personal growth and family relationships facilitates strategies that facilitate training and competition goals.     

Fiction as an aid to therapy: a narrative and family rationale for practice

Stories of literary merit written by others (novels, plays, etc.) can be used in therapy to help people tell their personal stories. Existing approaches to the use of fiction draw mainly from psychoanalytic assumptions. From a narrative and family perspective, the claim is that when persons of all ages spontaneously report on the content of a favourite story, this story functions as a 'safe' vehicle for them to talk about their own lives, experiences and emotions that have been marginalized or shaped to fit transgenerational themes. In addition, the form of a favourite story can help in the transformation of a non-intelligible and/or pessimistic self-narrative. A case example is used to illustrate the suggested steps for working with clients on a favourite novel. The therapist encourages family member(s) to claim ownership of the assumed experiences, wishes and positive life developments of their favourite characters, and to help them see the narrative structures and linguistic features they have used for the various retellings of the story as properties of their own self-narratives.     

Science teaching: science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago share their stories

Qualitative narrative inquiry using exploratory interviews with five experienced secondary school science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago were analysed to reveal what learnings can be derived from the experiences and stories shared by these individuals. The stories present science teaching as an evolutionary process, which portrays science teaching with the following attributes: a work in progress, a haven for students, a lifelong vocation, and a personal commitment. Integral elements of science teaching as a process rather than a product in an atmosphere of discipline, respect, and trustworthiness were revealed. While this work is instructive for aspiring teachers and has several implications for teacher preparation programmes, the aim in this instance is to share the stories of these five teachers, and in that regard it serves a celebratory rather than a theoretical purpose.     

Story and promise in pastoral care

The writer describes the pastoral office and considers the difference his theological orientation makes in understanding its work. The gospel is described as narrative and as promise. As narrative it concerns a particular person, Jesus, and especially his passion and resurrection. Becoming Christian means allowing one's own story and that of one's communities to be shaped and reshaped by Jesus. As promise, the gospel comments on the final outcome of the human enterprise. Ministers are those to whom the community grants the burden of tending the life of the gospel in the church. Their temptation in pastoral care is to lose the specificity of the gospel in slogans that are temporary and partial, e.g., identifying health care with the liberation of the gospel. Pastoral care is described as sacramental and as eschatological.He is the author ofStory and Promise: A Brief Theology of the Gospel About Jesus.     

Victims' Stories: A Call to Care

In her book Victims' Stories and the Advancement of Human Rights, Diana Meyers offers a careful analysis of victims' stories as a narrative genre, and she argues that stories in this genre function as a call to care: they both depict a moral void and issue a moral demand, thereby fostering the development of a culture of human rights. This article, while finding Meyers's articulation of this idea compelling, questions Meyers's account of how victims' stories do their moral work. Whereas Meyers argues that victims' stories are complete narratives, characterized by a distinctive form of closure, it suggests that the moral power of victims' stories may lie in part in their open‐endedness or lack of closure. In telling their stories, victims engage their audiences in a new moral relationship and implicitly give them a role to play in bringing about the moral (and narrative) closure they seek.     

The Fallen and the Forgotten: Henry Brooks,Howard Thurman,and All Sheroes and Heroes of Long Ago

This article results from an invitation. It is a certain reflection upon a movement in pastoral care during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. If it is the case that typically very little historical perspectives enter pastoral care analysis, then this article attempts a corrective. The picture above invites us to think in terms of a visual metaphor. There is evidence of a pathway through the terrain toward the sea, and various plant life, big and small size lava rocks. Some appear to be standing or fallen and covered by the rising tide of the sea. Still others may not be seen at all- even with a receding sea. All co-exist within a larger, yet changing environment of things, which include sky, sand, sea and all that is invisible. Therefore, pastoral care is encouraged to pay close attention to detail and gestalt. Nothing stands alone. This article features collective, systemic and reciprocal effects, an early, perhaps invisible or yet-to-be-recognized pastoral care influence upon Edward Powell Wimberly, a prolific African American pastoral theologian. In-order to appreciate E.P. Wimberly’s contribution and see things more clearly, one needs to situate them within an interpretive frame work or enlarged and still unfolding “picture”. I argue that it takes historical perspectives and a lot of people over a period of time, seen and unseen to influence a thought-shift in an entire paradigm. But, the collective efforts of many contributors to a paradigm shift may have been overlooked or ignored, fallen and forgotten.