Renewing Pastoral Practice: Trinitarian Perspectives on Pastoral Care and Counselling (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780754655657)

This is the first comprehensive treatment of the relationship between the doctrine of the Trinity and pastoral care and counselling. Neil Pembroke contends that an in-depth reflection on the relational dynamics in the Godhead has the capacity to radically renew pastoral practice. Pembroke applies the notion of relational space to care in a parish setting. The life of the triune God is defined by both closeness and open space. The divine persons indwell each other in love, but they also provide space for the expression of particularity. This principle of closeness-with-space is applied in three different pastoral contexts, namely, community life, spiritual friendship, and pastoral conversations. The specialized ministry of pastoral counselling is the focus in the second half of the book. Informing the various explorations is the principle of participation through love: the divine persons participate in each other's existence through loving self-communication. Pembroke shows how this trinitarian virtue is at the centre of three key counselling dynamics: the counselling alliance, empathy, and mirroring.

Author: Neil Pembroke
ISBN-10: 0754655652
ISBN-13: 9780754655657
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 09/13/2006
Pages: 126
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.79lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.38d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2007 pg. 28