History of pastor's ministry in one place.

The emphasis on pastoral freedom is nearly spent?and found wanting. Many caregivers today are seeking to balance such freedom with a sense of God's transcendence and communal order, which entail personal and ritual formation.In Underwood's resulting spirituality, the soul of pastoral care is prayer. The substance is Scripture, studied in both liturgical and personal settings. The evangelical principle is reconciliation. Baptism lays the foundation for pastoral care by providing the paradigm for all transformations. Eucharist constitutes the eschatological horizon for pastoral care as ministry in the human encounter of God's presence.This winsomely written book stands at the forefront of a broad movement among scholars and clergy in nonliturgical traditions that aims at retrieving explicitly religious resources?the means of grace. The result is a rare, truly ecumenical contribution to pastoral care, which deepens practice by providing a vision and a spirituality.

Here, for the first time, the development of pastoral care as a discipline has been documented. Dr. Holifield details the shift in emphasis from saving souls to supporting individuals in self-realization, and in the process raises thought-provoking questions about the preoccupation with psychological methodology evident in modern society and clergy. Every pastor wittingly or unwittingly adopts some 'theory' of pastoral counseling, whether it be derived from the seventeenth century or from the twentieth, says Dr. Holifield. From colonial America's intellectual approach to today's therapeutic self culture, he explores those theories. Theological, social, economic, and psychological threads are interwoven with fascinating conversational examples to show how Protestantism helped to form--and was influenced by--changing social orders. Broad in scope, scholarly in detail, yet immensely readable, this is an important book for clinical pastoral educators, students, professionals--everyone interested in church and social history.

The study of lived religion is an enterprise which attempts to elucidate how 'ordinary' men and women in all times and places draw on religious behavior, media, and meanings to make sense of themselves and their world. Through the influence of liberation theology and postmodernism, pastoral theologians_like other scholars of religion_have begun more closely to examine the particularity of religious practice that is reflected through the rubric of lived religion. Pastoral Bearings offers up ten studies that exemplify the usefulness of the lived religion paradigm to the field of pastoral theology. The volume presents detailed qualitative research focused on the everyday beliefs and practices of individuals and groups and explores the implications of lived religion for interdisciplinary conversation, intercultural and gender analysis, and congregational studies. Reflecting upon the utility of this approach for pastoral theological research, education, and pastoral care, the studies collected in Pastoral Bearings demonstrate the importance of the study of lived religion.

In Thoughts on Preaching and Pastoral Ministry, James M. Garretson provides a detailed narrative of James W. Alexander’s life in order to better understand his approach to gospel labors. Garretson draws deeply from Alexander’s correspondence, tracking the spiritual development of his life as it shaped his practice of pastoral ministry. In addition, assessments of Alexander’s sermons, books, and especially reviews provide valuable personal statements that shed light on his character and convictions. Throughout, Alexander is allowed to speak for himself so that the reader may enter into the spiritual pulse that animated his life and actions. Bracing, heartening, and at times frustrating, Alexander’s growth as a Christian and development as a minister is the story of a man subdued by God’s grace and a life marked by a growing conformity to the likeness of Christ. For those whose privilege it is to serve as ministers of the gospel, Alexander’s life and instruction provide inspiration and wisdom for how to do pastoral ministry well and with all of one’s heart.