The Lessons of Artistic Creativity for Pastoral Theologians

This article applies David W. Galenson’s (2006) typology of artistic creativity to pastoral theology. Galenson identifies two types of painters—conceptualists and experimentalists—and shows that their most important innovations occur at different stages of an artist’s career, that their methods are very different, and that each type produces predictable career frustrations which may, however, be counteracted. The fact that these types are found among sculptors, poets, novelists and film directors leads Galenson to propose that they are also found among scholars, thus inviting application of the findings of the study to pastoral theology as a discipline and to individuals who identify themselves as pastoral theologians. Galenson’s work is supplemented by Thomas Dormandy’s (2000) study of older painters.     

A Theory of Natural Change Revisited: Theology,Psychology, and Pastoral Counseling

To whatever school of psychology we lay claim, it makes modest sense as pastors engaging in counseling as an act of faithfulness to the God who created the creature with the capacity to change, that we remain first and foremost the theologians we are called to be. We may lament that legions of priests and priestesses from the pantheon of classical and popular psychology have bowed the knee to an unknown God as though there were no God, and turned Psyche herself into a fragmented oracle. This reflects the pride of human achievement and the limitation of human learning. Nonetheless, it is this believer's persuasion that from cradle to grave, at the crossroads of suffering and thresholds of pain, at the heights of development and depths of regression, the beginning of wisdom is the confession of faith in the living God. Any thoroughgoing psychological theory of natural change encompasses more than psychology. Nature, including human nature, is never bereft of the forming and transforming presence of the Holy. is adjunct in philosophy and theology at     

Bioethics and Pastoral Concern: Some Possible New Directions in Pastoral Theology

This special issue of the journal is comprised of papers given at a conference in May 2011 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston on the theme of “Social Justice and the Health Professions.” This article offers the following rationale for this special issue in particular and for pastoral theologians to contribute to bioethics in general: (1) two contemporary theological thinkers in bioethics, Karen Lebacqz and Lisa Cahill, argue that theological discussions of justice broaden and deepen discussions of justice in mainstream bioethics—thus the focus on social justice provides an area for interdisciplinary and intersectional work; (2) pastoral theologians have not, to a great extent, contributed to discussions of religion and bioethics—this has been the territory of theological ethicists, especially during the 1970s; (3) one influential pastoral theologian, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, has called for (a) a broader concern for health in pastoral theology beyond psychological health and (b) more disciplinary approaches within pastoral theology beyond psychology so as to attend to “the living human web”; and (4) one way to advance the theological contributions in bioethics is by inviting pastoral theologians to focus on matters of social justice (an established area of intersection) as identified by health professionals, thus providing (a) new areas for inquiry and (b) new theological perspectives in bioethics. This article also suggests that pastoral theologians can contribute to bioethics by focusing on both “macro” issues (issues relating to structures and groups) and “micro” issues (issues relating to persons and experiences) as a way of pursuing the topic of justice in bioethics. The bulk of this article focuses on “macro” issues, but, in closing, the author articulates how he has been addressing “micro” issues in his own work. The author argues that both of these approaches—“macro” and “micro”—are legitimate ways for pastoral theologians to express pastoral concerns in bioethics.     

A Modest Proposal: A Pastoral Political Theology

A pastoral political theology, I contend, has four goals, namely, (a) critical, systemic examination of political governance, policies, programs, and structures vis-à-vis the concept of care—theologically understood, (b) facilitating cooperation and collaboration with diverse others in cultivating public spaces of appearances, (c) offering concrete plans in meeting the needs of particular others—citizen and non-citizen, and (d) assessing the implementation of these solutions. In this article, I offer an outline of and foundational theological premises for a pastoral political theology, indicating its distinctions from and contributions to political theologies that focus on justice and liberation. More specifically, I focus on the first goal, relying on the concept of care, theologically understood, as a hermeneutical framework for assessing the political milieu.     

Wounds of Dislocation and the Yearning for Home: Re-Imagining Pastoral Theology

This article contributes to current conversations concerning the role pastoral care and theology can play in the renewal of public life.     

Pastoral excellence and Pastoral Theology: A slight shift of paradigm and a modest polemic

The existence of Pastoral Theology as a discipline is problematic. The possibility of becoming a discipline is discussed as requiring a shift from a clinical/therapeutic to an ecclesial paradigm as its center. The shift would foster a valuing of the pastor as an interpreter of human existence, attention to the need for a pastoral hermeneutic, and an appreciation for particularity. The field needs to attend its intellectual tasks and to assess the debits/credits of its relations to secular disciplines.     

Unrepressing the Kingdom: Pastoral Theology as Aesthetic Imagination

This essay draws from Jesus?? convictions, expressed in the Gospel of Luke and elsewhere, that the kingdom of God is to be found within and among persons and is epitomized in the lives of infants and young children. It locates children??s intuitions of the kingdom in their aesthetic sensibilities and capacity for artistic abandon, and considers possible psychosocial mechanisms, especially psychoanalytic conceptualizations of repression and its consequences for honest self-expression, by which these intuitions and sensibilities become displaced over time. It conceives of pastoral theology, like psychotherapy and the arts, as an heroic effort to unearth repressed shame and desire, i.e., to find language for what matters most, in service to recovering childlike attunement to the beauty of God??s kingdom.     

The Art Type Theory of Art

Abstract

The theory I present and defend in this paper—what I term the art type theory— holds that something is a work of art iff it belongs to an established art type. Something is an established art type, in turn, either because its paradigmatic instances standardly satisfy eight art-making conditions, or because the art world has seen fit to enfranchise it as such. It follows that the art status of certain objects is independent of what any individual or culture might say about it, while the art status of others fundamentally depends on the judgment of the art world. Because of the theory's quasi-institutional component, I conclude by defending it against four objections that have been raised against institutional definitions.     

Explorations in the Aesthetic Pastoral Theology of Donald E. Capps

This paper will examine the curative effects of art and the reorienting perspective of poetry in the aesthetic pastoral theology of Donald E. Capps by exploring two key volumes, The Poet’s Gift and At Home in the World. The paper identifies some of the key contributions of Capps’s exploration of art and poetry including the recovery of perception, the advancement of reframing perspective, the notion of embodied pastoral conversation and the roots of religious sensibility. The therapeutic effect of the imaginative aesthetic pastoral theology in these two volumes is further developed by integrating three corollary themes in Capps’s particular orientation to pastoral theology, namely hope, freedom and authenticity.     

Immigrant Mothers of Color,Pastoral Theology,and the Law

The idealization of motherhood is based on a white, heterosexual, middle-class, and married woman. This has caused problems for most women, especially for women of color. I examine these problems and how the law should address the expectations that are associated with the status of motherhood. I also introduce the current conversation on caretaking among feminist legal theorists. I focus on Martha Fineman’s arguments on the public nature of caretaking work, which includes public assistance to women who care for children as well as dismantling the institution of marriage. I argue that a feminist pastoral and legal theoretical analysis also needs to engage in a patri-kyriarchal analysis that examines issues of citizenship for immigrant women of color.     

The Subject of Pastoral Care: A Discussion Based on the Theology of Henning Luther

In this article the author discusses the differences between pastoral care and psycho-social therapy. She clarifies the specific identity of pastoral care on the basis of Henning Luther’s theology. He distinguishes different anthropological presuppositions in pastoral care and psycho-social therapy. Consequently, she demonstrates the relevancy of Luther’s theology for today’s Practical Theology.