Current Thinking in Pastoral Theology

2012 ◽  
Vol 123 (7) ◽  
pp. 323-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Stoddart
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
Current Thinking

The recipients and providers of pastoral care live in complex contexts in which they are shaped by not only Christian faith but multiple social, economic, political and cultural factors. This article traces current thinking in pastoral theology by eschewing the limiting of pastoral to ecclesial contexts and, instead, considers the more encompassing interests of pastoral-practical theology. Using the analogy of networks, three nodes of interest are identified in current literature: the parameters, coherence and dynamics of pastoral-practical theology. The scope of the discipline is discussed. Pressing challenges of normalcy and loyalty to traditions and experiences are explored. Questions of how people connect with God and with one another are considered. It is concluded that pastoral-practical theology is discomfiting because it complexifies experience, practice and doctrinal traditions. It is presented here as a discipline that looks not for one correct interpretation but inquires into how and why interpreters arrive at different understandings of similar practices.

scholarly journals Karl Rahner and the practical theology

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-83
Author(s):  
August Laumer
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Church

It is surprising that Karl Rahner (1904-1984), as a systematic theologian, provided essential impulses for practical theology. But he played an important role in planning and editing the "Handbuch der Pastoraltheologie" (1964-1972). The basis for this work was Rahners view of practical theology as a science of the self-fulfillment of the church in the respective current situation. However, this ecclesial conception of pastoral theology soon encountered opposition. On the other hand, his demand for a “new mystagogy” was often taken up for concepts of mystagogical pastoral care and mystagogical learning.

Being(s) in the World: Navigating the Macro Changes in Pastoral Theology in a Neo-Liberal Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-140
Author(s):  
Anthony G. Reddie
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Review Article ◽  
The World ◽  
Care Of Souls

Abstract This review article focusses on three new texts in Pastoral theology, each of which, offers an important and interesting turn in the discipline. The three texts – Caring For Souls in a Neo-Liberal Age, by Bruce Rogers-Vaughn1, Race, Religion, and Resilience in the Neo-Liberal Age, by Cedric C. Johnson2 and Care of Souls, Care of Polis by Ryan Lamothe1 – will be reviewed in light of the prevailing themes they share. In what ways are these three authors foregrounding important new dimensions in the study of Pastoral theology and Pastoral care?

scholarly journals The early Browning: Pastoral care in a pluralistic age and the method of practical moral inquiry

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hestenes
Keyword(s):  
Family Therapy ◽  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Moral Inquiry ◽  
Past President ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Academy

The past president of the International Academy of Practical Theology, Prof. Donald Browning, has written books and articles across a wide variety of topics concerning the correlation of many great fields of knowledge, including theology, psychology, philosophy, sociology, practical theology, ethics, family therapy and ecology over the past 40 years. Prof. Browning passed away on 03 June 2010. This left the author of this article with a desire to begin to reassess some of Browning’s earlier reflections regarding his vision of pastoral care in a pluralistic age and the importance of his method of practical moral inquiry.

scholarly journals Karoo fracking and the Christian faith community

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit Van Tonder ◽  
Roger Tucker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Faith Community ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
World Population ◽  
Waste Products ◽  
To Come

One of the challenges for Practical Theology in Africa is to engage with the continent’s concerns and challenges in such a way that the kingdom of God is realised in society and is seen to be relevant to these issues by people who are outside of academia. In our article, which was first presented at the Practical Theology congress in Pretoria in January 2014, the authors seek to demonstrate how this may be accomplished by applying insights to one concern, namely ‘fracking’. The objective is to mobilise the influential Christian faith community in South Africa to begin to exercise prophetic discernment concerning fracking in the Karoo. The fracking debate is a product of the tension between the environmental degradation that its waste products may cause, on the one hand, and, on the other, the greater energy demands of a rapidly increasing world population along with its expectations of an ever-increasing standard of living. Shale gas fracking in the Karoo region of South Africa promises to make vast reserves of oil and gas available to help meet a significant percentage of the country’s energy needs for many years to come, and so thus aid development and contribute to raising the standard of living of many people. Yet the management of the waste products associated with the process is an area of serious environmental concern. The article aims to apprise the South African Christian faith community of the technology and risks involved. Theological guidelines are presented by which fracking’s benefits and dangers can be interrogated so that the community may come to an informed decision as to whether or not to support fracking.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Vaccination: Concerns About Its Accessibility, Affordability, and Acceptability

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inayat Ali ◽  
Shahbaz Ali ◽  
Sehar Iqbal
Keyword(s):  
Current Literature ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Current Risk

By the mid of June 2021, after an almost 1.5-year-long COVID-19 pandemic that has significantly affected the world in multiple ways, various vaccines against COVID-19 have arrived and started worldwide. Yet, economic, (geo)political, and socio-cultural factors may influence its uptake at individual and country levels. Several issues will (and already have been reported in media) revolve around this vaccination regarding its accessibility, affordability, and acceptability at an individual level and a country level. Given that in this commentary, we provoke a discussion: Who—a country as well as the individuals—would have access to it, and who would economically afford it, and who would accept it? Centering these intriguing questions, we revisit the body of literature that explicates vaccine hesitancy, refusal, and resistance, and we also draw on the current literature and media reports about vaccination against COVID-19. We suggest that these backdrops need essential attention so that everyone can afford, accept, and have access to it. Otherwise, the current risk in the face of a year-old pandemic will continue.

scholarly journals Relationship Between Social, Economic and Cultural Factors and Women’s Tendency Toward Crystal Methamphetamine or Opium Use

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omid Massah ◽  
Ali Farhoudian ◽  
Roya Noori ◽  
Salaheddin Ghaderi ◽  
Elaheh Ahounbar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Crystal Methamphetamine ◽  
Opium Use

scholarly journals Re-appreciating the significance of historical perspectives and practices on reformed pastoral theology and care today

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphan Van der Watt
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Historical View ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Care Of Souls ◽  
Pastoral Care Ministry

This article investigates the issue of Reformed pastoral theology and care, from a historical perspective. Contemporary literature on this topic is not always informed by the actual pastoral care practices of historical church leaders, specifically up until and including the Reformation era. Consequently it can sometimes lack an important dimension needed to foster more theological depth and clarity, which is essential for sound pastoral care. Thus, it is necessary to clearly establish the connections between Reformed theology and practice in historical view, and pastoral care ministries in the church today. Despite huge societal changes that have taken place since the Reformation era, the core focus on the compassionate “care of souls” has remained unchanged. Can leading Reformers’ pastoral theological ethos and practices still be deemed relevant, whilst considering fresh issues in our contemporary pastoral care ministry contexts?

The Changing Role of Women in the Early Christian World

1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-238
Author(s):  
Howard Clark Kee
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Sexual Boundaries ◽  
Changing Role ◽  
The Church

“[T]he vitality of the church is regained when it recovers the revolutionary insights of its founders, Jesus and Paul. In the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and in the renewal movements that have taken place in both Roman Catholic and Protestant circles in the present century, it has been the fresh appropriation of the insights of Jesus and Paul about the inclusiveness of people across ethnic, racial, ritual, social, economic, and sexual boundaries that has restored the relevance and vitality of Christian faith and has lent to Christianity as a social and intellectual movement a positive, humane force in the wider society.”

Jurisdictional Formalism

2019 ◽  
pp. 138-174
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jahner
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Property Law ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Estate Management ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Christian History

This chapter explores post-Lateran IV ecclesiastical reformism, focusing on the ecclesiology and pastoral theology of Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. Grosseteste understood pastoral care not only as the clergy’s most vital responsibility to the laity but also as a form of participation in the divinely ordered natural universe. His pastoral and estate management writings to women accordingly reveal the degree to which this ecclesiology finds inspiration in the ideal of the justly governed estate. This chapter reads Grosseteste’s Anglo-French soteriological allegory, the Château d’Amour, alongside his writings to and for women, showing how the logic of secular property law becomes a means of narrating Christian time from the Creation through the Redemption to the Final Judgment. Grosseteste’s larger corpus, however, also reveals the extent to which his vision of Christian history is premised on Jewish exclusion, not only in theological but legal and practical terms.

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