Reviewed Book: Patton, John. Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care. Louisville, Ky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993

Hennig, Val H.

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Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care

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ConsensusVolume 21Issue 1 Women and Men in Theological Education:Exploring the Present, Creating the FutureArticle 325-1-1995Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction toPastoral CareVal H. HennigFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationHennig, Val H. (1995) "Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care," Consensus: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 32.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol21/iss1/32166 ConsensusPastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to PastoralCareJohn PattonLouisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993288 pp. $20.00The author, John Patton, is Professor of Pastoral Theology, ColumbiaTheological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, and adjunct Professor of PastoralCare, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta. He haswritten many books on this subject and on Counselling and is an associateEditor of “Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling”. He is therefore anexpert in the field of pastoral care.If you like me have been absent from the classroom on Pastoral Carefor some years you may want to catch up, and find out where the levels oftoday’s teaching and training are, you may want to read this book. Theauthor introduces us to the whole context of Pastoral Care today.He identifies three paradigms of pastoral care:1. The Classical: This is the one with which pastors who have beenin the parish for some time are most familiar. The author underlines thenecessity to preserve this and to reinterpret it for today. It is the messageof a God who caringly creates human beings for relationship and who con-tinues to care by hearing and remembering them. It is these two themesthat are emphasized by the author.2. The Clinical Pastoral Paradigm: The author suggests that the mostimportant assumptions that are to be preserved in this one are: a. theway one cares for others is inescapably related to the way one cares foroneself, and b. pastoral caring always involves being someone as well asdoing something, and c. one can best learn about oneself and how tocare for others through experiential and reflective participation in caringrelationships. J?his understanding is part of the tools of those who havetaken CPE and have had the opportunity to work through this experience.Many of those who have been in the parish longer wonder at this newdimension; here is an opportunity to find out more about it.3. The Communal Contextual Paradigm brings these two together, inthe fact that it is based on the biblical traditions presentation of a Godwho cares and forms those who have been claimed as God’s own into acommunity celebrating that care and extending it to others. Its newness isin the emphasis it places on the caring community and the various contextsfor care rather than focusing on pastoral care as the work of the ordainedpastor. In this context pastoral care is understood to be a ministry of afaith community which reminds members of God’s scattered people thatthey are remembered.Pastoral care today employs all these elements, and the book presentsa rethinking of its message, person, and context, and calls for the carersto remember God’s action for them, to remember who they are as God’speople, and to hear and remember those to whom they minister.Book Reviews 167I found this book very text-bookish, but that is what the author in-tended. I also found the second section very informing, for it is in thissection that the author presents “Human Problems as Contexts for Care”.It is here that he presents four of the major human problems to which pas-toral care is addressed, and brings all three of the paradigms to reality inthe cases cited.The first part of the book brought me up to date with language andexperience, while the second gave me some tools that I can use effectivelyin my work as a pastoral carer.This was a good read!Val HennigWilfrid Laurier University and University of WaterlooMinistry in an Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers,Uncle Remus and Minnie PearlTex SampleLouisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994ii + 100 pp.Ministry in an Oral Culture is a book aimed at helping literate ministerstrained in academia to do more effective ministry among the “traditionallyoral” people of society. This is not a homiletics text with details on how topreach to an oral culture, although there are a few references to storytelling,illustrations, and the power of sound. As the title suggests, the book dealswith many issues of pastoral ministry (socializing, solving conflict, manag-ing change, etc.). Applying this material to preaching is really left to thereader’s imagination.The author describes 11 marks of a traditionally oral person. Someof these traits include: a preference for proverbs and storytelling, appren-ticing and learning by doing, the preservation of community relationships,importance of tradition, and resistance to experts from the outside. As anadvocate for oral people. Sample reminds us that they aren’t illiterate, orless important; they simply experience life through a different lens. In fact,he estimates that one-half of the U.S.A. and two-thirds of the world arepredominantly oral (p. 6). The popularity of rap and country music is anillustration of how dominant orality is in this culture (p. 11).Sample generalizes that the majority of ministers are not trained tounderstand the oral culture, and that most are even prejudiced against these“common/vulgar” folk (p. 6). A church that is not sensitive to their wayswill not attract them, keep them, or minister to them (p. 18). Throughoutthe book there are quotes and references as evidence that Sample has beeninformed and motivated by Walter Ong’s* Orality And Literacy.

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Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care

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