Title: Finding ourselves lost : ministry in the age of overwhelm /
Authors: Dykstra, Robert C., 1956-
Publisher: Cascade Books,
Year: 2018
Subjects: Pastoral theology.; Pastoral counseling.; Sex Religious aspects Christianity; Suffering Religious aspects Christianity; Suffering in children.; Self Religious aspects Christianity; Pastoral counseling; Pastoral theology; Self Religious aspects Christianity; Sex Religious aspects Christianity.; Suffering in children; Suffering Religious aspects Christianity.
Abstract: This book wrestles with quandaries of pastoral ministry in what psychotherapist Mary Pipher calls "the age of overwhelm." Drawing especially from the wisdom of Jesus' own teaching and healing ministries as portrayed in the Gospel of Luke, it offers an intimate narrative introduction to pastoral theology for guiding bewildering tasks of pastoral care and counseling. These essays encourage seminarians and ministers to embrace their role as agents of healing by exploring their own debilitating shame and daring to speak what in childhood could not be spoken; by revealing their discoveries to a trusted confidant so as to feel less loathsome or lonely; by attending to even minute individual differences, in self and others, that fuel social isolation; and by believing in those persons who first believed in them.
Contents: Finding ourselves lost -- Zombie alleluias : learning to live in the space between worlds -- Unrepressing the Kingdom : pastoral theology as aesthetic imagination -- The sacredness of individuality : introspection for refuting states of total conviction in boys and men -- Finding language for what matters most : hosting conversations about sexuality in pastoral counseling -- Follow the naked Christ naked : childhood suffering and the Christian body -- Wedding of the waters : reflections on the lost and found self.