We Who Grieve : understanding our most painful emotion by
Those in the throes of grief may find this work a comforting companion. It reassures the readers that they are not alone, and provides guidance to process bereavement and to reassure that life, though different, can be fulfilling again. The book is written to support those mourning for a vast range of reasons and relationships, and includes helpful information for those close to mourners who seek to be supportive. Chapters discuss the language surrounding grief, strategies for moving forward, methods of decompression and acceptance, and how other cultures view and mourn the death of their loved ones.
Incarnating Grace: a theology of healing from sexual trauma by
Prioritizes survivors of abuse by reexamining Christian ideals about suffering and salvation More than half of women and almost one in three of men in the United States have experienced sexual violence at some time in their lives. Yet our Christian tradition has failed survivors of sexual violence, who have been taught to believe that traumatic suffering brings us closer to God. Incarnating Grace attempts to save our broken ways of talking about God's grace by unearthing liberating resources buried in the Christian tradition. Christian ideas about salvation have historically contributed to sexual violence in our communities by reinforcing the idea that suffering is salvific. But a God worth worshiping does not want human beings to suffer. Drawing on the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila as well as contemporary political and feminist theologians, philosophers, and legal scholars, author and Associate Professor of theology Julia Feder offers an account of Christian salvation as mystical-political. Feder begins by describing the breadth of traumatic wounding and the shape of traumatic recovery, as articulated by psychologists. Since the fullness of post-traumatic healing requires reserves deeper than those which can be articulated by the secular field of psychology alone, the book then introduces the Spanish Carmelite Saint Teresa of Avila and her theological insights, which are most helpful for constructing a post-traumatic theology of healing. Arguing that God stands against violence and suffering, the book also examines the notion of "senseless suffering," a technical term that comes from Edward Schillebeeckx, a Catholic twentieth-century Flemish priest and theologian. The suffering of sexual violence serves no higher purpose or greater human value and pushes against all ways of making sense of the world as good and orderly. In the following chapters, Feder turns to two Christian virtues that animate post-traumatic recovery, courage and hope, and explores how Christian hope can provide a language to empower courageous activity undertaken toward healing. Incarnating Grace opens a new dialogue about salvation and violence that does not allow evil to have the last word.
Pastoral Virtues for Artificial Intelligence: care and the algorithms that guide our lives by
Pastoral Virtues for Artificial Intelligence (AI) acknowledges that human destiny is intimately tied to artificial intelligence. AI already outperforms a person on most tasks. Our ever-deepening relationship with an AI that is increasingly autonomous mirrors our relationship to what is perceived as Sacred or Divine. Like God, AI awakens hope and fear in people, while giving life to some and taking livelihood, especially in the form of jobs, from others. AI, built around values of convenience, productivity, speed, efficiency, and cost reduction, serve humanity poorly, especially in moments that demand care and wisdom. This book explores the pastoral virtues of hope, patience, play, wisdom, and compassion as foundational to personal flourishing, communal thriving, and building a robust AI. Biases of determinism, speed, objectivity, ignorance, and apathy within AI's algorithms are identified. These biases can be minimized through the incorporation of pastoral virtues as values guiding AI.
Pastoral Care for the Incarcerated: hope deferred, humanity diminished? by
This book explores and formulates a response to the question: How best can those held in modern systems of mass incarceration be cared for pastorally when many prisons diminish both hope and humanity? Employing the multi-disciplinary approach of practical theology, this ethnographic enquiry will be a guide for chaplains and all who strive to embody compassion wherever human flourishing is undermined. The book's structure follows the pastoral cycle method from practical theology, remaining context-based and practice-focused throughout. Pastoral insights are illustrated with personal, poetic and movingly reflective material drawn from the lived experience of indeterminately sentenced men who did not know if or when they would be ever released. The author, a former prison chaplain, remains reflexively and humanely present in the text, modelling the profound humane regard and pastoral presence that is central to this work. This book will take the reader deeply into penal spaces on a journey of both compassion and hope.
A Womanist Holistic Soteriology : stitching fabrics with fine threads by
A Womanist Holistic Soteriology is a construction of womanist holistic soteriology that is inclusive of many voices and perspectives and promotes communal responsibility. A soteriology which considers notions of personhood, theology, spirituality, and praxeology is one that is holistic, inclusive, and grace-filled.
The Concise Guide for Congregational Care : words to use in every setting by 
Counseling and Psychotherapy (2022): a Christian perspective by 
Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care : how to respond when things fall apart by
Clergy are more likely than ever to be called on to respond to community trauma, sitting alongside trauma survivors after natural disasters, racial violence, and difficult losses. In Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care: How to Respond When Things Fall Apart, pastoral psychologist Karen A. McClintock calls clergy to learn and practice "trauma-informed care" so they can respond with competence and confidence when life becomes overwhelming. Weaving together the latest insights about trauma-informed care from the rapidly shifting disciplines of neuropsychology, counseling, and theology, she explains the body's instinctual stress patterns during and after trauma, guides readers through self-reflection and self-regulation in order to care for others and lower the risk of obtaining secondary trauma, and suggests culturally sensitive models for healing from overwhelming experiences. McClintock particularly attends to the fact that across a lifetime in ministry, clergy accumulate and need to regularly heal multiple traumatic wounds. As a pastor and psychologist, she is perfectly positioned to help clergy recognize symptoms of trauma and commit to healing individual, community, and generational trauma with care and cultural sensitivity.
Pastoral Care in the Anthropocene Age : facing a dire future now by
This book considers the challenges and opportunities of the Anthropocene Age from the perspective of pastoral theology/care. The fundamental question and concern with regard to the Anthropocene Age for human beings and other species is, how are we to dwell together on this one earth. Care, LaMothe argues, is the central concept in answering this question. Effective care requires pastoral theologians to make use of multiple interpretive frameworks (e.g., theology, philosophy, human sciences, etc.) in the analytic pursuit of understanding and responding effectively to the realities of climate change. At the same time, it is also important for pastoral theologians to examine critically the theologies and philosophies that give rise to and impede pastoral interventions and, in the case of the Anthropocene Age, to be clear about how theologies and philosophies have contributed to ideologies that undergird both exploitation of the earth and other-than-human beings, while also contributing to climate change and obstructing climate action. These are necessary steps in developing pastoral responses aimed at caring for persons, communities, and other-than-human beings in need of a viable dwelling.
Integrating Psychology and Faith: models for Christian engagement by
"Helps students understand the range of options for integrating faith and psychology, allowing them to explore where various views fit on a continuum of approaches to integration and understand the perspectives of other Christians in the field of psychology"--
Spiritual Care: the everyday work of chaplains by 
Preaching to Those Walking Away by 
Addiction Recovery and Resilience: faith-based health services in an African American community by 
Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care in the Twenty-First Century: an introduction by 
Empowering laity to engage in pastoral care ministry : a proposal for capacity building and supervision for larger congregation with special reference to Kohima Ao Baptist Church, Nagaland, India by 