Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Care and Counseling

by Mcclure, Barbara J.

• ISBN13: 9780718892456
• ISBN10: 0718892453
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-09
• Publisher: Lutterworth Pr

Summary

Despite astute critiques and available resources for alternative modes of thinking and practicing, individualism continues to be a dominating and constraining ideology in the field of pastoral psychotherapy and counseling. Philip Rieff was one of the first to highlight the negative implications of individualism in psychotherapeutic theories and practices. As heirs and often enthusiasts of the Freudian tradition of which Rieff and others are critical, pastoral theologians have felt the sting of his charge, and yet the empirical research that McClure presents shows that pastoral-counseling practitioners resist change. Their attempts to overcome an individualistic perspective have been limited and ineffective because individualism is embedded in the field's dominant theological and theoretical resources, practices, and organizational arrangements. Only a radical reappraisal of these will make possible pastoral counseling practices in a post-individualistic mode. McClure proposes several critical transformations: broadening and deepening the operative theologies used to guide the healing practice, expanding the role of the pastoral counselor, reimagining the operative anthropology, reclaiming sin and judgment, nuancing the particular against the individual, rethinking the ideal outcome of the practices, and reimagining the organizational structures that support the practices. Only this level of revisioning will enable this ministry of the church to move beyond its individualistic limitations and offer healing in more complex, effective, and socially adequate ways.

Author Biography

Barbara J. Mcclure is Assistant professor of Pastoral Theology at the Graduate Department of Religion and the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Before teaching at Vanderbilt, she spent seven years as a practicing pastoral counsellor in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Development of Pastoral Care and Counseling as a Professionalized Practice
Contemporary Pastoral Care and Counseling: Definitions of Terms and Descriptions of Practices	p. 19
The Development of Professionalized Care and Counseling in the U.S.: History and Sociocultural Context	p. 80
Limits and Costs of the Current Model	p. 107
Accounting for Individualism's Persistence in Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling
Examination of Theory, Theology and Organizational Arrangements	p. 131
Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Care and Counseling: Theoretical, Theological, Practical, and Organizational Proposals
Imagining a Synergistic Relationship between Persons and Society	p. 181
A Broader Mission for Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling: From Insight to Engagement	p. 214
Proposals for the Field of Pastoral Theology: Aligning Mission with Theory, Theology, and Practice	p. 235
Appendix: Methodology and Research Protocol	p. 270
Bibliography	p. 277
Index	p. 291
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