Pastoral Care and Social Conflict: Essays in Honor of Charles V. Gerkin

By Pamela Couture

Book Overview

This volume honors the life work of Charles V. Gerkin, Franklin N. Parker Professor of Pastoral Theology, Emeritus, at Candler School of Theology. Eighteen scholars attempt to determine to what extent... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0687302676
• ISBN13: 9780687302673
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Changing Contours of Pastoral Care

In Pastoral Care and Social Conflict, numerous authors combine to stretch the boundaries, challenge the barriers and define the changing dynamics of pastoral care. What is the nature of pastoral care? In what ways is it, and should it, be in dialogue with its ever-shifting environment of conflicting pressures and needs? Furthermore, how can theology, sociology and psychology work to strengthen and deepen the work of pastoral care? These are some of the issues the authors seek to probe in this volume. They invite us to wrestle with issues such as single parenting, abortion, inclusivism and postmodern ways of constructing family life. In this regard, the book does a fine job of helping readers to see the need of having a theologically-anchored, yet fluid-around-the-edges type of pastoral care ministry to persons who are facing these, and other, real-life challenges. The anchor keeps pastoral care in the cultivating context of the church community -- while the fluidity reminds pastoral care providers that pastoral care must not be kept within the confines of the church, but it must keep both informed and informing in relation to the social cures as well as the social conflicts escalating in the world today. Pastoral Care and Social Conflict is not an easy read but it is a worthy read. Some chapters will inevitably appeal to certain readers more than others. Such is the nature of such a multifaceted volume. Any serious and prolonged interaction with the book, however, should cause nearly any reader concerned with the shape and significance of pastoral care to consider and reconsider its present work through the church and into the world.