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Injustice and the Care of Souls: Taking Oppression Seriously in Pastoral Care
Pastoral care is often focused on individual problems, but much ofwhat harms and impedes us stems from the larger social maladies atwork in our lives. This unprecedented gathering of two dozen essaysdiscusses the realities of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism,ableism, and classism prevalent within the church and society in aneffort to broaden and inform pastoral caregivers with the knowledgeand the skills needed to respond effectively to oppressed andmarginalized persons. The volumes also help pastors to reflect on theways their own social location has an impact on their ministries andto gain familiarity with resources available to support pastoralcaregivers in a variety of contexts.
352 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 19, 2022
As is the case with any anthology of essays like this one, your mileage is gonna vary entry to entry based on your interest in the subject of focus and the writer undertaking it. With that said, I'd say this one's wins far outweigh its losses. I also think that it offers a valuable resource within the realm of pastoral care literature, both in its effort to make concerns of injustice explicit and its broad attention across many identities. While the inevitable setback of breadth is always depth, I was pleasantly surprised with the primers this offered on various demographics. There were some that felt more general and obvious, but many went above and beyond a basic introduction by employing theoretical models and presenting case studies to move deeper than the surface.
The first section contains some essays offering a theoretical basis for pastoral care that is attentive to context and diverse identity formations across difference, and I most appreciated Brita Gill-Austern's here ("Engaging Diversity and Difference: From Practices of Exclusion to Practices of Practical Solidarity"). From there, it offers an array of writers representing their own communities to offer guidance on pastoral care for that context, including African American Women, the Latina/o community, North American Asians, Jewish people, Muslims, and Buddhists. I found the latter one to be really enlightening, but overall these were some of the weaker ones for me, largely because of the huge subjects they were tasked with addressing; they occasionally veered into presenting monolithic understandings (though it's an inherent challenge to describe cultural trademarks and trends without doing so). From there, it focused on more specific identities and subjects (with my favorites starred and elaborated below): Oppression-Sensitive Pastoral Care*, Black/Gay/Christian/Veteran, Addiction and the Question of Powerlessness, A Liturgical Approach to Pastoral Care, Lamentation as Justice-Making**, People Living with HIV/AIDS, Ableism, Transgender People, Seniors, a Gay Man, Homelessness in Britian, Loss/Death/Dying from a Hospice Perspective***, and Rituals****.
I would honestly say that the vast majority of these were well-researched, thoughtfully written, and edifying, though some are more straightforward than others and the one on transgender identity reads WILDLY out-of-date in the 2020s. That, in fact, was one of the more interesting observations. This was published in 2009 and it's noteworthy how far we've moved within progressive culture around understandings of racial identity, gender, sexuality, our relationship with capitalism, and the language we articulate that with. There are aspects that feel out of date (e.g. non-heterosexual marriage is illegal) and others that can just feel a bit cringey, but not that significantly so, and overall it offers some encouragement for the progress that's occurred. Something else I really appreciated here was that it is genuinely written for a big-tent audience of pastoral care providers (chaplains, pastoral counselors, perhaps even a spiritual director) rather than directing everything to the specific context of parish ministry. So, despite some hangups, I definitely recommend it!
*My Favorite Chapters*
1. "The Task of Oppression-Sensitive Pastoral Caregiving and Counseling" by Donald M. Chinula: Problematizes what he considers the individualistic classical approach to pastoral care ("guiding, healing, sustaining, and reconciling") and draws from King's work towards the beloved community to introduce accompanying postures of reclamation, conciliation, transformation, and transcendence.
2. "The Politics of Tears: Lamentation as Justice-Making" by William Blaine-Wallace: AMAZING. Worth the price of the book alone. The topic is a compelling but not necessarily groundbreaking notion that lament is needed to break through the numb and muted culture we have around grief, but the writing was just spectacular. Easily one of the best things I've read for all of seminary. I can't wait to read more of Blaine-Wallace's books.
3. "Loss, Death, and Dying from a Hospice Perspective" by Webb Brown: A surprisingly thorough introduction to hospice ministry, featuring an overview of hospice's history, multiple genuinely moving case studies of hospice caregiving, goals of a funeral liturgy, and tasks of grief.
4. "Making (Ritual) Sense of Our Lives by Elaine Ramshaw: A well-written critique of the ways contemporary clericalism, individualism, and consumerism has diminished our capacity for ritual coupled with an argument for its return (especially centering corporate eschatology) and some practical means of guiding a community towards that embrace.
The first section contains some essays offering a theoretical basis for pastoral care that is attentive to context and diverse identity formations across difference, and I most appreciated Brita Gill-Austern's here ("Engaging Diversity and Difference: From Practices of Exclusion to Practices of Practical Solidarity"). From there, it offers an array of writers representing their own communities to offer guidance on pastoral care for that context, including African American Women, the Latina/o community, North American Asians, Jewish people, Muslims, and Buddhists. I found the latter one to be really enlightening, but overall these were some of the weaker ones for me, largely because of the huge subjects they were tasked with addressing; they occasionally veered into presenting monolithic understandings (though it's an inherent challenge to describe cultural trademarks and trends without doing so). From there, it focused on more specific identities and subjects (with my favorites starred and elaborated below): Oppression-Sensitive Pastoral Care*, Black/Gay/Christian/Veteran, Addiction and the Question of Powerlessness, A Liturgical Approach to Pastoral Care, Lamentation as Justice-Making**, People Living with HIV/AIDS, Ableism, Transgender People, Seniors, a Gay Man, Homelessness in Britian, Loss/Death/Dying from a Hospice Perspective***, and Rituals****.
I would honestly say that the vast majority of these were well-researched, thoughtfully written, and edifying, though some are more straightforward than others and the one on transgender identity reads WILDLY out-of-date in the 2020s. That, in fact, was one of the more interesting observations. This was published in 2009 and it's noteworthy how far we've moved within progressive culture around understandings of racial identity, gender, sexuality, our relationship with capitalism, and the language we articulate that with. There are aspects that feel out of date (e.g. non-heterosexual marriage is illegal) and others that can just feel a bit cringey, but not that significantly so, and overall it offers some encouragement for the progress that's occurred. Something else I really appreciated here was that it is genuinely written for a big-tent audience of pastoral care providers (chaplains, pastoral counselors, perhaps even a spiritual director) rather than directing everything to the specific context of parish ministry. So, despite some hangups, I definitely recommend it!
*My Favorite Chapters*
1. "The Task of Oppression-Sensitive Pastoral Caregiving and Counseling" by Donald M. Chinula: Problematizes what he considers the individualistic classical approach to pastoral care ("guiding, healing, sustaining, and reconciling") and draws from King's work towards the beloved community to introduce accompanying postures of reclamation, conciliation, transformation, and transcendence.
2. "The Politics of Tears: Lamentation as Justice-Making" by William Blaine-Wallace: AMAZING. Worth the price of the book alone. The topic is a compelling but not necessarily groundbreaking notion that lament is needed to break through the numb and muted culture we have around grief, but the writing was just spectacular. Easily one of the best things I've read for all of seminary. I can't wait to read more of Blaine-Wallace's books.
3. "Loss, Death, and Dying from a Hospice Perspective" by Webb Brown: A surprisingly thorough introduction to hospice ministry, featuring an overview of hospice's history, multiple genuinely moving case studies of hospice caregiving, goals of a funeral liturgy, and tasks of grief.
4. "Making (Ritual) Sense of Our Lives by Elaine Ramshaw: A well-written critique of the ways contemporary clericalism, individualism, and consumerism has diminished our capacity for ritual coupled with an argument for its return (especially centering corporate eschatology) and some practical means of guiding a community towards that embrace.
July 31, 2018
Everyone should read this book. It was fabulous. I’d love an updated edition though
March 4, 2023
Must read for anyone doing pastoral care. This book gently guides you away from your comfort place to experience briefly the experiences of those who are on the receiving end of oppression. Pastoral care givers need to be aware of their immense power in a situation where a persons soul is involved. Pastoral care providers have the ability and the training to help or hurt. Read this book.
July 5, 2023
I kept trying to remind myself that these short chapters are introductions to pastoral care for particular communities. But then I got to the chapter on HIV and care for People Living With HIV (PLWH) and it was so incredibly out of date and incorrect and the language was so out of date and stigmatizing that I can’t overlook it. This book needs an update or it needs to go out of print.
August 12, 2024
incredible book
This book is a must have for Chaplains. Unlike most books on Chaplaincy, this one narrows in on issues of diversity injustice. It is an essential reading for all spiritual care in my opinion.
This book is a must have for Chaplains. Unlike most books on Chaplaincy, this one narrows in on issues of diversity injustice. It is an essential reading for all spiritual care in my opinion.
April 19, 2021
Such a helpful resource. Loved it and will keep it handy for future reference.
February 4, 2022
As with many books written by many contributors, the chapters really vary - but some offer an important and unique perspective.
April 9, 2012
It's hard to rate this book outside the context of the class in which it was read for. The book, in general, definitely has some informative chapters regarding specific groups of marginalization that are present around us but again I wouldn't find this book to be too terribly captivating (I hope that doesn't come across crassly considering the subject matter). I not only read this book for class, but we also wrote essays critiquing each chapter along with a class discussion involving our critiques. This process of learning to read critically, to process in a written format, and to have in-depth discussions was important in enriching the experience of reading this book.
January 7, 2016
A text for one of my courses at Brite in Spring 2016 - Ministry of Pastoral Care - From the publisher: "This is a collection of 24 essays discussing the realities of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism and classism prevalent within the church and society today. The book attempts to help pastoral caregivers find the knowledge and skills needed to respond effectively to oppressed and marginalised persons."
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews