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The theory and practice of pastoral counseling has come to be, over the last century, progressively more and generally related to that of psychotherapeutic intervention. The functional aim of pastoral counseling now appears to be little more than a merely spiritualized form of psychological practice. While this is amply observable in the literature, modern psychological theories and evidence-based protocols help to comprise an only comparatively new body of knowledge. What, then, was the art of pastoral care prior to the emergence of modern psychological theories? This article seeks to explore pastoral care as it has been conceptualized and practiced across the long centuries of Christian history and offer a meaningful point of distinction between pastoral care and clinical practice in modern life
The theory and practice of pastoral counseling has come to be, over the last century, progressively more and generally related to that of psychotherapeutic intervention. The functional aim of pastoral counseling now appears to be little more than a merely spiritualized form of psychological practice. While this is amply observable in the literature, modern psychological theories and evidence-based protocols help to comprise an only comparatively new body of knowledge. What, then, was the art of pastoral care prior to the emergence of modern psychological theories? This article seeks to explore pastoral care as it has been conceptualized and practiced across the long centuries of Christian history and offer a meaningful point of distinction between pastoral care and clinical practice in modern life
The focus of the pastor in "counseling" is the message of the cross; and the foremost priority of his work is articulating that message well. It is neither the general aim of the pastor to ease human suffering, nor the specific goal of strategically reducing sets of symptoms indicative of identifiable psychopathology. Perhaps, as Yalom and Leszcz (2005) suggested in their treatment of group psychotherapy, an ongoing priority of the counseling process is the installation of hope; but, for the pastor, that hope is neither in a therapeutic protocol, nor in the evidence- based role of adaptive behavior change. No, the focus and priority of the pastor in "counseling" is the installation of hope in the cross of Christ. What more substantive message can be delivered to those in suffering...