Page 39 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Christian Psychology as a Challenge

logical discipline and connected to a unique in life and human dignity become core focal
source. At stake is the realm of Christian issues in a spirituality of healing and care-
faith and the interplay between life views giving.
and the perspective of the Bible on spiritual
wholeness. The dimension of ‘spirituality’ in soul care
• ‘Soul care’ implies more than merely coun- Within European circles, secularization
selling techniques, communication and li- brought about a radical change within the tra-
stening skills. The pastoral praxis refers to ditional paradigms of care and counselling. The
the realm of intentionality, meaning and Dutch, pastoral theologian, D. Tieleman, wro-
normative life values and worldviews within te in 19952 a book about the crisis in pastoral
human actions; the pastoral praxis is about care. He advocated for a new rediscovery of spi-
a very specific embodiment and enactment rituality. This emphasis on spirituality implied
of the compassionate praxis of God’s pre- that care should be more than the sum total
sence and intervention in the suffering of of psychological functions. Care should rather
humankind. Behind pastoral interventions focus on issues of human dignity as related to
and actions lurk paradigmatic issues as rela- our quest for meaning and the awareness of the
ted to different God-images. Pastoral theory ultimate within daily life (Tieleman 19952:124).
should therefore be connected to a theolo- With a growing awareness of the importance
gy of caregiving. Excellent theory prevents of spirituality in processes of healing, the focus
praxis from being merely a reflection on became life. According to Richards (1987:50),
daily practicalities; it safeguards pastoral “Christian spirituality is living a human life in
caregiving from becoming a manual for this world in union with God.”
ministry with prescriptive guidelines for ac-
tion, thus the need for clarity on the notion In more evangelical circles, a consensus gra-
of ‘pastoral theology’ and its connection to dually developed namely that Christian spiri-
“soul care’. tuality should be rediscovered and introduced
• ‘Soul care’ in the Christian and shepherding in pastoral counselling. In the USA, there was
tradition is closely connected to the notion a growing consensus that evangelicals failed
of paraklesis and compassion; it represents to take the pressures and realities of Christian
a kind of comforting hope that deals with a living in the modern period seriously enough
theopaschitic interpretation of the engage- to devise spiritual strategies to allow new and
ment of God (praxis of God) with the mi- struggling Christians to cope with them (Mc-
sery, dread, despair and anguish of human Grath 1994:13).
suffering. At stake in pastoral theology is
then the notion of a co-suffering and com- At the end of the twentieth century, pasto-
passionate God. The core theological and ral care became more exposed to the concept
theoretical problem in ‘soul care’ is the tra- of spirituality. Cura animarum was more and
ditional philosophical problem of theodicy; more interpreted and understood as spiritu-
i.e. how to merge the love, grace, mercy and al care and spiritual direction. Already in the
power of God with the experience of evil eighties K Leech emphasised the importance of
and destruction, and how to articulate the spirituality for pastoral care. In his book Spiri-
presence of God in the misery of human tuality and Pastoral Care (1986a) he advocated
transience. for both a Christian spirituality with the em-
• ‘Soul care’ in a pastoral hermeneutics is phasis on maturity (Leech 1986a:6), as well as
about the science and art of interpretation; a social spirituality (see also Leech 1986(b):9).
it deals with the question of meaning and The focus fell on transcendence and the my-
the quality of our being functions (habitus) stical component of our being human. It was
as connected to the encounter with God argued that all human existence has a spiritu-
within a covenantal embracement. In a pa- al aspect. (Leech 1986(a): xxvi). In this regard,
storal hermeneutics, the quest for meaning spiritual care linked with a very old tradition in

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