Drawing on psychological, theological, and cultural studies on suffering, Carrie Doehring encourages counselors to view their ministry through trifocal lenses and include approaches that are premodern (apprehending God through religious rituals), modern (consulting rational and empirical sources), and postmodern (acknowledging the contextual nature of knowledge). Utilizing strategies from all three perspectives, Doehring describes the basic ingredients of a caregiving relationship, shows how to use the caregiver's life experience as a source of authority, and demonstrates how to develop the skill of listening and establish the actual relationship. She then explains the steps of psychological assessment, systemic assessment, and theological reflection, and finally she delineates the basic steps for plans of care: attending to the careseeker's safety, building trust, mourning losses, and reconnecting with the ordinariness of life.

In this ground-breaking book, pastoral counselor Andrew Lester demonstrates that pastoral theology (as well as social and behavioral sciences) has neglected to address effectively the predominant cause of human suffering: a lack of hope, a sense of futurelessness. Lester examines the reasons that pastoral theology and other social and behavioral sciences have overlooked the importance of hope and despair in the past. He then offers a starting point for the development of addressing these significant dimensions of human life. He provides clinical theories and methods for pastoral assessment of and intervention with those who despair. He also puts forth strategies for assessing the future stories of those who despair and offers a corrective to these stories through deconstruction, reframing, and reconstruction. This book will be invaluable to pastoral caregivers who are looking for a vantage point from which to provide care and to pastoral theologians who are seeking to develop a theological lens through which to understand the human condition.

Examines how five books of the Old Testament provide direction for pastoral work. Focuses on the work of prayer-directing, story-making, pain-sharing, nay-saying, and community-building.

Pastoral care provision in schools has become increasingly marginalized in recent years. However, emphasis on the needs of the "whole learner" has become ever greater. Coupled with this is a growing recognition of theadverse effects of a wider social malaise on the development of students. This book stresses the need for a radical rethink and reprioritizing of pastoral support. It promotes the belief that pastoral care can contribute to and improve academic achievement, and analyzes every aspect of pastoral care and PSE.

A history of pastoral care is a history of the Christian church in action. But if any sense is to be made of the centuries of Christian work and effort, not only the practicalities of making the message of the Gospel a reality on earth, but also the ideas which have shaped the attempt, century by century, must be examined.This is the history of 2000 years of thought and practice in Christian pastoral ministry. Until comparatively late in that story the bulk of the formative thinking took place in the Middle East and in Europe and this forms the background for recent developments in understanding human nature, and the ways in which that understanding has influenced our thinking in pastoral care.Subjects covered range from the Biblical foundations to the sects and new religious movements; from the Fathers, the monks, the Friars, the Templars to the changes at the end of the twentieth century.

Valuable for both seminarians and practicing clergy, this basic work integrates theology and pastoral care in a practical and useful way. Citing actual experiences, with questions for personal reflection, this much-needed study brings about a new awareness of the ministry of pastoral care.

Building on the groundbreaking original work with the same title, these articles focus on current issues, such as certain life stages, special populations, the devalued and abused, the addicted and special issues of the 1990's.

Top international scholars in the field, including Paul Alpers and T.K. Hubbard, discuss the ways in which the pastoral tradition has been used and re-used in the Humanities, and assess the future of the pastoral genre.

A New York Review Books Original Whether you call her a coldhearted grifter or the soul of modern capitalism, there’s no question that Aimée is a killer and a more than professional one. Now she’s set her eyes on a backwater burg-where, while posing as an innocent (albeit drop-dead gorgeous) newcomer to town, she means to sniff out old grudges and engineer new opportunities, deftly playing different people and different interests against each other the better, as always, to make a killing. But then something snaps: the master manipulator falls prey to a pure and wayward passion. Aimée has become the avenging angel of her own nihilism, exacting the destruction of a whole society of destroyers. An unholy original, Jean-Patrick Manchette transformed the modern detective novel into a weapon of gleeful satire and anarchic fun. InFatalehe mixes equal measures of farce, mayhem, and madness to prepare a rare literary cocktail that packs a devastating punch.

A clear piece of musical criticism analysing the formal aspects of Beethoven's 6th symphony. Reviewed as very readable.