Copyright: © 2014. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. In the current times of change, deconstruction and ever-growing relativisation, pastoral praxis finds itself in methodological limbo. Pastoral practitioners currently face the challenge of effectively reaching postmodern people through the pastoral process. This ch...

As the United States becomes a more multicultural and multireligious society, the ranks of healthcare chaplains are no longer being limited solely to Judeo-Christian clerics. In an effort to increase interfaith understanding and ecumenical awareness, the author presents one model of healthcare chaplaincy that derives itself from a Buddhist perspective and how he uses it in his daily work at a l...

The discipline of pastoral counseling has developed to the point at which malpractice claims against pastoral counselors are a reality. The need for forensic psychiatrists to participate in such suits is likely to increase. In this article, we review the recent California case of Nally v. Grace Community Church. Kenneth Nally committed suicide while under the care of clergy. His parents claimed...

Nomadic pastoral systems in Inner Asia are facing sweeping changes. Designing new development models for the sustainable utilization of rangelands requires a better understanding of nomadic pastoral systems. Owen Lattimore’s writings, based on his experiences in Inner Asia in the 1920s and 1930s, are a valuable resource for those interested in nomads and pastoral development in Inner Asia. The ...

Pastoral crisis intervention may be thought of as the functional integration of crisis intervention and pastoral support. In effect, the practice of pastoral crisis intervention largely represents the use of faith-based interventions refined and augmented through the use of an emergency mental health delivery context. The value of pastoral crisis intervention seems apparent in situations involv...

The study was designed to assess the degree to which two sets of measures about chaplains' visits with patients predicted patients' perceptions that their spiritual/religious needs and their emotional needs were met by the chaplain. The first set consisted of seven items about the chaplain's demeanor during the visit. The second set measured patient satisfaction with seven aspects of the chapla...

Because o f the recent development in pastoral care, a hermeneutic model is proposed. Metaphors in pastoral care and counselling are embedded in the life stories o f parishioners. As an interpreter o f Stories/stories, it is the diagnostic task o f the pastor to make a pastoral assessment o f the meaning and significance o f these stories in terms o f God images. In order to do that, the pastor...

This research aimed to establish the level of consumer experience with pastoral/spiritual care provision in a large tertiary private hospital. Two hundred and twenty-seven patients and bereaved carers of deceased patients who had received pastoral care were surveyed, with a response rate of 20% (n1⁄4 44). The key finding was the positive impact of pastoral care encounters, with the majority of ...

This article uses a sibling metaphor to outline the relationship between science and spirituality. This metaphor forms the backdrop for exploring several directions in spiritual care research. It argues that science and functional spirituality were born as siblings and need to dance now without either estrangement or incest, intent on measuring the material effects of excellent pastoral care.