Page 173 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 7

The Work and Thinking of David Benner

Wolfram Soldan

(Germany) in Wolfram Soldan
(Germany) is a
Conversation with David Physician, psy-

G. Benner`s Pastoral chotherapist and
one of the main
Conversation lecturers for cli-
nical psychology
at the IGNIS-In-
in David G. Benner, Care of Souls: stitute. He wor-
Revisioning Christian Nurture and Counsel, ked two years in
1998, pp. 143-148 the DE‘IGNIS

Hospital, about five years as head of the for-
mer IGNISTherapy-Center. His main topics
“If the challenge of therapeutic conversation include forgiveness processes, dealing with
is to not allow reductionistic analysis, clinical the Bible in counselling and sexuality.
techniques, or therapeutic roles to impair the
genuine and deep encounter of two people, the Articles by Wolfram:
challenge of pastoral conversation is to find a http://emcapp.ignis.de/2/#/76
path between listening to the other and speaking and
for God that does not confuse dialogue and pre- http://emcapp.ignis.de/4/#/6
aching. Whereas dialogue was earlier described
as a posture of “Here is how I see the world: tell Several centuries later, Dietrich Bonhoeffer em-
me how you see it so that I can see more clear- phasized the same point, but with even stronger
ly”, at its worst, pastoral conversation has some- words.
times been little more than “Here is how God “Many people are looking for an ear that will
sees the world; what more is there to say?”. listen. They do not find it among Christians be-
This is obviously not a posture of genuine dia- cause Christians are talking when they should
logue. Nor is it an accurate picture of typical pa- be listening. He who no longer listens to his
storal conversation. Under the influence of the brother will soon no longer be listening to God
clinical pastoral education movement, pastoral either . . . One who cannot listen long and pati-
care, conversation, and counselling have been ently will presently be talking beside the point
sensitized to the importance of listening, not and never really speaking to others, albeit he be
simply proclaiming God’s word. But in being not conscious of it.” 2
reminded of the value of listening, pastoral care
givers are not simply being offered the latest Wolfram Soldan: In the whole of chapter 7,
distillations of therapeutic soul care, they are from which this excerpt is takes, the concern
more properly being called back to the best of is with a posture of dialogue enabling a genu-
their own tradition. Consider, for example, the ine deep engagement of the two participants.
advice of the seventeenth century French pastor Benner succeeds in bringing out how easily
Fénelon, advising others on the provision of specialist therapists can be caught in a tech-
spiritual counsel: nique-centred trap of making their vis-à-vis
into an object for diagnosis and treatment, a
danger to which the classical forms of beha-
“Speak little; listen much; think far more of un- vioural therapy and psychoanalysis are parti-
derstanding hearts and of adapting yourself to cularly open. In the more recent, more huma-
their needs than of saying clever things to them. nistically influenced forms of therapy, on the
Show that you have an open mind, and let eve- other hand, a posture of dialogue is also given
ryone see by experience that there is safety and a theoretical justification, typically as follows:
consolation in opening his mind to you.” 1 “You, the client, are the expert on your inner

1 F. Fénelon, Spiritual Letters to Women (New Canaan, 2 D. Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper, 1959),
CT: Keats, 1980), 24. 97-98.
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