Page 33 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Christian Psychology as a Challenge

on of spirituality also exemplified reductionism, cient tradition. In the Greek world, ‚soul care‘
in that spirituality is essentially “reduced” to was concerned with the development of those
“psychological constructs”. The challenge is to ideological elements and ideas that could influ-
balance moral guidance and a Christian under- ence people‘s attitudes and enable them to deal
standing of comfort with compassion and em- with life more effectively. Within the Christian
pathy (Sperry 2002:8-10). tradition, the term ‚pastoral care‘ has gained ac-
ceptance. ‘Pastoral’ gradually starts to point to
The care of souls which developed from this what can be called the shepherding perspective
perspective was based on the theological noti- (Hitner 1958) (Hirtendienst - Kiesow 1978:151)
on that grace was already incarnated in the hu- in caregiving.
man person, and, due to the fact that all human
beings are created in the image of God (imago Hiltner (1959:20), writing from an American
Dei), human beings participate in a kind of di- perspective, provides a broader basis for the
vine autonomy and dignity. Grace, already pre- term ‚pastoral care.‘ He connects the Biblical
sent in the human heart, should be cultivated so metaphor of the shepherd (with its connotati-
that the individual could attain a self-produced ons of the solicitous, tender and individualized
form of psychoanalytical ‘wholeness’. care of the sheep) to the more general term, ‚he-
aling.‘ For him, the whole purpose of pastoral
It seems as if the rise of psychology in the Nort- care is to bring the person and the congrega-
hern hemisphere changed the scenario of pasto- tion to optimal healing. Thus, the connection
ral care forever. Hope shifted from the notion of to ‘wholeness’; i.e. to use the term ‚healing‘ in
salvation to the notion of self-actualisation. Due its general and comprehensive sense, involving
to processes of secularisation and democrati- the restoration of functional wholeness that has
sation, a paradigm shift developed from ‘God’ been impaired (Hiltner 1959:19).
to the human person as an individual with the
emphasis on the claim for human rights. The The shepherd/flock metaphor (cura pastoralis)
source for hope does not reside necessarily in (Nauer 2010:56) has traditionally been viewed
an outer, transcendent horizon of religious spi- as an expression of God‘s loving care for human
rituality, but in an inward potential of psycho- beings in need. During the 19th century, this
logical energy and social-contextual resources. shepherd-dimension of pastoral care attained a
What even can be called the American model more exact meaning and resulted in the term
of inner resources has put pressure on the tradi- ‚poimenetics.‘ Due to the emphasis on the cle-
tion of cura animarum in pastoral theology. In rical and ecclesial dimension of shepherding, it
order to adhere to the criteria of ‘scientific’, ‘psy- attained the meaning of the work of clergy to-
cho-therapeutic’ and ‘professionalism’ the pres- wards lay people (Nauer 201:61).
sure became to renounce the methodology of a
deductive approach and to revert to an inducti- ‘Pastoral’ is derived from the Latin term pasce-
ve (client-centred) approach. This approach to re (Waruta & Kinoti 2000:5), which means ‘to
pastoral care insists that the dominant empha- feed’. “In view of this Latin root, the adjective
sis should not be the Word, but the need of the ’pastoral’ suggests the art and skill of feeding
person. or caring for the well of others, especially those
who need help most (Waruta & Kinoti 2000:6).
But what is meant by ‘soul’? Is soul merely a In connection to cure or care, pastoral care re-
Christian variant for the psyche and the indivi- fers to both healing (Greeves 1960) and com-
duality of personhood, and pastoral care a kind passionate helping, thus the emphasis on beco-
of spiritual translation for psychotherapy? ming ‘whole’.

The connection ‘soul care’ - ‘pastoral care’ The Dutch pastoral theologian Heitink
The term ‚soul care‘ is not merely a ‘Christian’ (1977:68) points out that in the literature, the
concept, (Greeves 1960:4-7) but stems from an- terms ‚soul care‘ and ‚pastorate‘ are often used

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