Helping the Good Shepherd : Pastoral Counselors in a Psychotherapeutic Culture, 1925-1975 Hardback
by Susan E. (Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University) Myers-Shirk
Part of the Medicine, Science, and Religion in Historical Context series
Hardback
Description
This history of Protestant pastoral counseling in America examines the role of pastoral counselors in the construction and articulation of a liberal moral sensibility.
Analyzing the relationship between religion and science in the twentieth century, Susan E.
Myers-Shirk locates this sensibility in the counselors' intellectual engagement with the psychological sciences.
Informed by the principles of psychology and psychoanalysis, pastoral counselors sought a middle ground between science and Christianity in advising anxious parishioners who sought their help for personal problems such as troubled children, violent spouses, and alcohol and drug abuse.
Myers-Shirk finds that gender relations account in part for the great divide between the liberal and conservative moral sensibilities in pastoral counseling.
She demonstrates that, as some pastoral counselors began to advocate women's equality, conservative Christian counselors emerged, denouncing more liberal pastoral counselors and secular psychologists for disregarding biblical teachings.
From there, the two sides diverged dramatically. Helping the Good Shepherd will appeal to scholars of American religious history, the history of psychology, gender studies, and American history.
For those practicing and teaching pastoral counseling, it offers historical insights into the field.
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:320 pages
- Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication Date:27/04/2009
- Category:
- ISBN:9780801890475
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:320 pages
- Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication Date:27/04/2009
- Category:
- ISBN:9780801890475