I high-end overview of Pastoral Care, from the Biblical metaphor of the shepherd, to Historical Pastoral Care to Clinical Pastoral Care. Also considers other issues such as various views on how theology and psychology relate in a pastoral care/counseling ministry.

1. History and Foundations
of Pastoral Care
Historical Pastoral Care
Clinical Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care and Counseling Today
By Robert H. Munson, ThD
Celia P. Munson, BCCC (CPSP)
Bukal Life Care, 2017

2. What is Pastoral Care?
Etymology and Definition of Pastoral Care
– Pastor: A Latin word meaning “shepherd”
• Related to pastus meaning “feeding”
• A shepherd sees to the feeding, well being, and
growth of the flock
– Care
• watchful attention; supervision
• show concern for
– Pastoral Care: To be concerned for and give
watchful attention (feeding, well being, and
growth) for the “flock.”
– Came to mean “cure of souls”

3. Who is the “Flock” for the shepherd?
• Church members only?
• Those closely associated with the
church?
• Community/Parish?
<Reflect on John 10:16>
• People who do not recognize us as a
“shepherd”?

4. Who is the “Flock” for the shepherd?

For Chaplains, the flock most certainly
may include people of other
denominations, religions and ideologies.

In hospitals, the flock can be patients
(with family and friends) and staff.

In jails, the flock can be inmates (with
families and friends) and staff.

In military, the flock may include officers,
enlisted, civilian workers, and families.

5. Reflections on Pastoral Care in
Terms of Shepherding
Ezekiel 34
-Directs and gathers
together
-Provides healing and
safety
-Gives justice (liberation?)
Psalm 23
-Takes care of Needs
-Guides the way... safe
and right way
-Restores and strengthens
-Protects from dangers
John 10
-Cares for
-Protects
-Sacrifices for
Luke 4
-Give words of comfort to
the suffering
-Proclaim freedom
-Provide healing

6. How is Chaplaincy Different from
Pastoral Care?
“The term Chaplain refers to a clergyperson or
layperson who has been commissioned by a
faith group or an organization to provide pastoral
services in an institution, organization or
government entity.
Chaplaincy refers to the general activity performed
by a chaplain, which may include crisis ministry,
counseling, sacraments, worship, education,
help in ethical decision-making, staff support,
clergy contact and community or church
coordination.”

7. How is Chaplaincy Different from
Pastoral Care?
“ Although many faith groups and institutions
use "pastoral care" synonymously with
"chaplaincy services," some prefer to use
"pastoral care to refer to any services
performed by either ordained or non-
ordained persons, but reserve "chaplaincy
services" for activities performed by ordained
ministers, priests or rabbis.”
- The Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling: Rodney J.
Hunter, Ed., Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN.

8. Chaplain
The term comes from “Middle English:
from Old French chapelain, from
medieval Latin cappellanus, originally
denoting a custodian of the cloak of St.
Martin, from cappella, originally ‘little
cloak’”

9. Chaplain
St. Martin of Tours. Military Man. Born 335.
“Martin and his friends were entering the city of
Amiens when an almost naked and shivering
beggar asked them for alms. Martin had no
money for him, but he took off his cape, cut it in
two, and gave half to the beggar. According to
the story, later in his dreams Martin saw Jesus
coming to him, wrapped in half a soldier’s cape,
and saying: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of
the least of these my brethren, you did it to
me.”

10. Historical Pastoral Care
Key figure: Pope Gregory the Great. Wrote “Pastoral
Care,” a book that has been used for centuries.
Four assumptions: (reference Oden)
#1. Each case requires variable responses.
Each person is unique. Each situation is unique.
Therefore each symptom can have different
causes, and need different responses.
“One-size” answers do not fit all people.

11. Historical Pastoral Care
#2 The display of an outstanding virtue may conceal
a corresponding vice to which the pastoral
counselor must attend.

12. Historical Pastoral Care
#3 The pastor's care mirrors Christ's care for us.
When in doubt as to what we should do as
caregivers, the old line from the book “In His
Steps” (Charles Sheldon, 1896) does have value:
“What Would Jesus Do?”

13. Historical Pastoral Care
#4. Authority in ministry is paradoxically validated
only through humble service following the example
of Jesus Christ.
One of the key aspects of following the example of
Christ is the role as a humble servant. Our
influence as care providers may be tied somewhat
to POSITION. Such position may be tied to
ordination, certification, and role in an organization.
However, as John Maxwell has noted, Position is the
lowest level of influence in the lives of others.
In humble and competent serving, we have influence
in our ministry through the PERMISSION of others,
and through the observed PERFORMANCE.

14. Other Practitioners and Writers of
Historical Pastoral Care
Cyprian,Tertullian, Chrysostom, Ambrose,
Augustine, Bonaventure and Thomas
Aquinas, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Bucer,
More, Herbert, Burnet, Baxter, etc.
These were commonly quoted by pastoral
care practitioners and writers of the 19th
century, but mostly ignored by those in the
20th
century.

15. Pastoral Care Functions
Hiltner
(1958)
Clebsch
&
Jaeckle
(1964)
Clinebell
(1966)
Lester
(1995)
Lartey
(2003)
Healing Healing Healing Healing Healing
Guiding Guiding Guiding Guiding Guiding
Sustaining Sustaining Sustaining Sustaining Sustaining
Reconciling Reconciling Reconciling Reconciling
Nurturing Nurturing
Liberating Liberating

16. Definition of Pastoral Care
“The ministry of the cure of souls, orpastoral
care, consists of helping acts, done by
representative Christian persons, directed
toward the healing, sustaining, guiding, and
reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles
arise in the context of ultimate meanings and
concerns.”
(fromClebsch & Jaekle)

17. Sustaining (Clebsch/Jaekle)
“Preservation- seeks to maintain a troubled
person's situation with as little loss as
possible.”
“Consolation- to communicate that actual losses
could not nullify person's opportunity to achieve
his destiny under God.”
“Consolidation- of the remaining resources
available to the sufferer to build a platform from
which to face a deprived life.”
“Redemption- by embracing the loss and by
setting out to achieve whatever historical
fulfilment might be wrested from life in the face
of irretrievable deprivation.”

18. Guiding (Clebsch/Jaekle)
“Guiding- is the function of the ministry of the cure
of souls which arrives at some wisdom
concerning what we ought to do when faced
with a difficult problem of choosing between
various courses of thought and action.”
Guidance is often done not so much by “advice
giving” (although that is certainly appropriate at
times) as by drawing out from the individual's
own experiences and values for their source as
criteria in decision making, “eductive
guidance”.

19. Healing (Clebsch/Jaekle)
“Healing- aims to overcome some impairment
by restoring a person to wholeness and by
leading him to advance beyond his previous
condition.”
Today, Pastoral Healing is less focused on
healing the physical body (although it is
done). The focus is often on other areas such
as social, mental, emotional, spiritual, and
holistic.

20. Reconciling (Clebsch/Jaekle)
Reconciliation can be thought of as healing of
relationships. Reconciliation is commonly
with others. However, it can be with God, and
it can be with self.
Clebsch and Jaekle suggest that Reconciliation
may be the area of Pastoral Care that is in
greatest need in this era.

21. History of Clinical Pastoral Care
Clinical Pastoral
Education (aka
Clinical Pastoral
Training) began in
the US in the 1920’s
through Anton
Boisen, Richard
Cabot, and Helen
Flanders Dunbar

22. History of Clinical Pastoral Care
Rev. Anton Boisen, father
of the Clinical Pastoral
Education/ Training
movement, saw the need
for pastoral care in mental
hospitals after being a
patient there himself. He
placed theological
students in supervised
contact with patients in
mental hospitals.

23. History of Clinical Pastoral Care
Dr. Richard Cabot's
efforts to define the
physician's, as well as
the health care
system's, role in
human well-being,
presaged medicine's
current attempts to
emphasize the social
context of the patient.

24. History of Clinical Pastoral Clinical
Helen Flanders. Her roots was
in homeopathic medicine.
She carved a theoretical
niche for psychosomatic
medicine--
She established the Journal of
Psychosomatic Medicine,
serving as its chief editor
from 1938 to 1947, and, in
1942 was instrumental in
founding the American
Psychosomatic Society.
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/dunbar.html

25. The integration of religion and psychology for
psychotherapeutic purposes began in the 1930’s
with the collaboration of Norman Vincent Peale,
a renowned minister, and Smiley Blanton, M.D.,
a psychiatrist, to form the American Foundation of
Religion and Psychiatry, now the Blanton-Peale
Institute.
Over the years, the role of pastoral counseling has
evolved from religious or spiritual counseling to
pastoral psychotherapy which integrates
theology and the behavioral sciences.
History of Clinical Pastoral Clinical

26. History of Clinical Pastoral Care
Psychological Influences
– Eric Erickson
• Ego development
• Life stages
• Stages of psychosocial development
– Carl Rogers
• Client centered therapy
• Reflective listening techniques
– Abraham Maslow
- Hierarchy of needs
– Viktor Frankl
- Will to Meaning, Logotherapy

27. History of Clinical Pastoral Care
Psychological Influences
Psychiatrist Karl Menninger was a pioneer in
the integration of the psychological and the
theological disciplines because he believed
in the "inseparable nature of psychological
and spiritual health."
Paul Pruyser (at the Menninger Clinic)
promoted the concept of pastoral
diagnosis.

28. History of Clinical Pastoral Care
Influencers in Pastoral Care/Psychology
– Donald Capps
• Psychosocial & theological themes
• Focus on personal change
– William Arnold (Union Seminary)
• Human development model
– James Fowler (Emory University)
• Stages of faith
– Henri Nouwen
- “Wounded Healer”

29. Psychology and Theology

30. Levels of Explanation Model
Affiliated groups: Christian Association for
Psychological Studies (CAPS); The Journal of
Psychology and Christianity; Fuller Seminary School
of Psychology
Basic premise: Psychology deals with psychological
and natural problems in human behavior and
relationships. The Bible looks at spiritual problems
and our relationship with God. As such they are
separate disciplines that deal with unrelated
problems.
<Note: Descriptions of the four major models here are based
generally on Timothy Keller's article “Four Models of
Counseling in Pastoral Ministry”>

31. Integration Model
Affiliated Groups: Rosemead School of Psychology
at Biola University, La Mirada, CA; American
Association of Christian Counselors; Reformed
Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS.
Basic premise: Psychology and biblical theology
are both looking at the same thing—human
nature. Two different tools to study human
beings, “general revelation” and “special
revelation.” They give priority to the Bible
when there is conflict, but may give science
priority in common practice.

32. Christian Psychology Model
Affiliated Group: Covenant Theological
Seminary, St. Louis, MO
Basic premise: The Bible/Theology critiques
psychology at a foundational level.
Foundationally, theology dominates, but
psychological techniques may be brought in as
part of the therapy. In practice, tends to be
counselor driven rather than theory-driven.

33. Biblical Counseling Model
Affiliated Groups: National Association of
Nouthetic Counselors (NANC); Christian
Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF)
Basic premise: A high level of distrust of modern
psychology and psychological methodology.
Psychological insights should be used with
extreme caution. The older approach, formulated
by Jay Adams, put great emphasis on behavioral
change and the adoption of patterns of biblical
living. Much emphasis on sin, repentance, and
redemption.

34. What About “Pastoral Care”
 Pastoral Care has always tended to
seek integration (many early church
fathers applied practices that
foreshadowed modern psychology).
 Historical Pastoral Care comes closer to
the Christian Psychology Movement.
 Clinical (Modern) Pastoral Care comes
closer to the Integrationists, with more
emphasis on psychology.

35. “Pastoral Care” vs “Spiritual Care”
 Some people prefer Spiritual Care. For one thing
it sounds more interfaith... less specifically tied to
the Christian Faith. Also, some people don't
really know what pastoral care is.
 On the other hand, Pastoral Care has 2000+
years of history behind it. It also is a better
metaphor because the descriptor is “concrete”
rather than “abstract.” Additionally, Spiritual Care
seems to suggest a more limited form of care
(does spiritual care only apply to “the spirit,”
ignoring social, psychoemotional, economic, and
physical concerns?)
 We prefer “pastoral care” but recognize that both
terms find traction with different people.

36. A Few Challenges
 Finding a healthy integration of
psychological principles, theological
principles, and personal faith.
 Integrating one's humanity into one's
clinical role (Dykstra).
 Juggling the roles of representative of God,
one's denomination, oneself, and the client.
 Balancing care of client and care of self.

37. References

“Pastoral Care in Historical Perspectives,” Book. by Clebsch and Jaekle,
1964.

“Care of Souls in the Classic Tradition,” Book. by Thomas Oden

“Skillful Shepherds: An Introduction to Pastoral Theology,” Book, by Derek
J. Tidball.

“Preface to Pastoral Theology,” Book. by Seward Hiltner, 1958.

“Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling,” Book. by Howard Clinebell, 1966.

“Hope in Pastoral Care & Counseling,” Book. by Andrew Lester, 1995.

“The Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling,” Book. by Rodney J.
Hunter, Ed.,

“Six Functions of Pastoral Care,” Internet Resource, by Jan Corbett-Jones.

“Four Models of Counseling in Pastoral Ministry,” Article. By Timothy Keller,

“Reviews from History of Pastoral Care,” Celia Munson, 2014

“Volunteer Chaplain Training,” Presentation, Al Honager, 2001.

“Bukal Life CPE Review,” Presentation, 2012.