Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the topic of epistemology and the use of Scripture in pastoral care and counseling. It examines the epistemological foundations of all theology and ministry in order to provide clarity and guidance for pastoral care within our current early twenty-first century context. The key problem that is implied in the topic ‘Epistemology and the use of Scripture in pastoral care and counseling’ is the following: What normative and methodological role should the Bible play in the counseling situation and what is the basis for this role? This problem essentially deals with the interaction between biblical and extra-biblical data in the pastoral encounter and how they are to be related. The following dynamics exist in systemic relationship: understanding and use of Scripture; epistemological foundations; theological method; ministry practices. The key assumption is that theology and pastoral care must deal with epistemological concerns, and that failure to do so has negative consequences. An indissoluble link exists between theory and practice: the elements of epistemology, methodology and practice should be consistent and in line with each other. This serves as a vital criterion for the integrity and validity of the various theories and practices that are examined and proposed in this dissertation. Pastoral care and biblical counseling are examined in terms of these dynamics. Comprehensiveness in epistemology, basic theological method, and pastoral practice is recommended. This is proposed as the best response to specific challenges posed by our current postmodern and pluralistic context. This research argues that it is possible to have a comprehensive and inclusive approach to knowledge, with a related comprehensive and organic practice of biblical counseling, while retaining an emphasis on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the key normative role of the Scriptures, all within a valid epistemological grounding. The issue of validation or warrant for this proposal is neither strictly foundational nor relative. It exists somewhere in between and finds its locus ultimately in God. Such a stance is firmly placed within the dynamics of faith as it interacts with reason and experience. There is therefore no ultimate, empirical proof that can be given, but this is true for knowledge and truth claims in all disciplines and realms of knowledge.

This study investigates the behaviour and pastoral role of the three Dutch-Afrikaans churches during the Second World War. The churches were not only affected by the emergency measures and the rationing, but also by division among themselves. Many members fiercely opposed war participation and supported the Ossewabrandwag as a resistance organisation, with the acceptance and approval of the local church council. Other members supported the war effort, which led to much tension in the congregations and in relationships. This division had such an influence on the congregations that churches rather strived towards peace in the congregations than to pastorally address the needs of the affected. Churches comfortably shifted this responsibility onto the civil organisations such as the Ossewabrandwag Emergency Fund, State funding and the provision of Field preachers by the government. This study shows that the churches neglected their pastoral responsibility towards those members affected by the war. / PhD (Church and Dogma History), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Are there vestiges or elements of African traditional cultural beliefs and practices that affect the psychological and spiritual well-being of African Christian students in Tangaza University College (TUC)? If there are, how best can pastoral carers work with the affected students to help them deal with the issues and regain congruence? These questions, arising out of our practice in the Student Life Ministry in TUC, are the puzzles I set out this study to try to resolve. Our experience was that some of the students were presenting issues in counselling and spiritual direction emanating from unresolved conflict between their African backgrounds and the Christian faith. Observation was that the issues did not surface easily and when they did the carers were not sure how best to help the clients. I thus felt a need to find out what cultural issues affect the students, how the issues manifest in their lives and how best the pastoral care team could work with those affected to help the issues surface and be resolved. This is an original research designed as an inductive case study and to collect data, a multi-dimensional approach including focus discussion groups with students and members of the SLM, depth interviews with SLM members, selection of some vignettes of counselling and spiritual direction and practitioner observation - were used. The main finding is that there indeed are elements of African beliefs and practices that impinge on the psychological and spiritual wellbeing of some of the African Christian students in TUC. However, not all the students experience such dissonance as some have developed a synthesis between their two world views. Those who have not are embarrassed about and reticent in disclosing the issues thus the need for the pastoral carers to help them to integrate their traditional culture with their Christian faith. Clinical experience has shown that by combining two counselling models – the Rogerian Person-centred and Albert Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, underpinned in a dialogical, theological paradigm, counsellors and spiritual guides can help the affected students not only to talk about the issues but also to work through them to re-gain equilibrium and enjoy greater fullness of life.

This thesis examines interactions between professionals and children who have been identified as having social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). More specifically, this thesis examines video-recorded interactions that take place during the delivery of two interventions: one-to-one pastoral care within a primary school, and group coaching for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Using conversation analysis (CA) and discursive psychology (DP) these data were analysed to identify the ways in which professionals package and deliver their support, and manage psychological notions to do with the self, or what I call self-work - moments within the interactions when children are supported to talk about their emotions, feelings, and behaviour in order to help them make sense of the difficulties they are experiencing; and moments within the interaction when children are given the skills and knowledge they need to manage, change, or overcome those difficulties. The main findings from this thesis are that support and self-work are not taken-for-granted outcomes simply achieved because children attend intervention programmes. Instead, support and self-work are packaged and delivered through ordinary conversational practices. Chapter 4 shows how encouraging self-assessment supports a child s agency and participation to construct a more positive version of their self. Chapter 5 respecifies reassurance as an interactional practice to show how it works to prevent the emotional affect of a child s personal troubles becoming internalised and self-imposed. Chapter 6 shows how questions promote the collaborative building of knowledge, and how person references normalise and unpathologise emotions often bound to ADHD constructs. The findings from this thesis demonstrate applicability to both research and practice by offering a unique insight into the interactional environments of pastoral care and coaching. Firstly, by examining the interactional landscapes of these two interventions Chapter 3 provides a rich overview of pastoral care and coaching activities to show how these interventions are accomplished as real life activities. Secondly, by examining the conversational practices through which pastoral care and coaching are delivered this thesis respecifies everyday notions of support and self-work as members situated actions, and in so doing furthers our knowledge and understanding of these somewhat abstract notions. Such findings are valuable because interventions are informed by theoretical guidelines that recommend children experiencing difficulty can be helped if they are supported to understand their difficulties and to develop a more positive sense of self. However, such guidelines offer little in terms of how such recommendations should be put into practice by the professionals working with children. This research uncovers some of the ways in which theoretical recommendations are delivered via interactional practices, to make visible members methods for delivering support and managing self-work . The need for this work to be done is that support and self-work are performed as much through the ways in which professionals deliver their interventions, as it is through the content of those interventions.

Certain educational institutions still claim to be Church schools and continue to employ chaplains in spite of post-Enlightenment cynicism and secularization. A number of chaplains face a struggle to balance obligations to both Church and school. Some face ambivalence about their continued appointment in their liberal educational institutions. In some cases it appears that they are merely appointed out of deference to tradition. In other schools, however, there is a strong declaration that the chaplain and all that the position entails in terms of chapel services and the teaching of the Christian religion, remains an integral part of the Church school. There is confusion regarding the role, expectations and prospects of chaplaincy. Certain chaplains are definitely marginalised from the mainstream of school life until traditional religious services require what is apparently a charade of Church faith at schools that are largely secularised. I argue that the marginalisation of the spiritual from the rest of the school programme is not in the best interests of continuing the excellence of the educational experience and the transformation of South African Independent Church schools. This would be better served by seeking an integrated worldview to sustain a way of life beyond school years. Chaplains may take on the role of encouraging education for the whole of life by facilitating critical thinking and broad conversations across the artificial barriers of school subject compartments. They may also lead a Church school community towards a fresh investigation of Christianity that will involve the chaplain’s liturgical, teaching, pastoral and social action roles, a marriage of theory and praxis to bring the balance of head, heart and hands.

Yu Yan Ting Renee. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-71). / Abstract --- p.",ii" / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.V / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter (I) --- Overview --- p.1 / Chapter (II) --- Statement of Research Questions --- p.3 / Chapter (III) --- Definitions of Professions --- p.4 / Chapter (A) --- Pastoral Counseling --- p.4 / Chapter (B) --- Pastoral Care --- p.6 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- Stone´ةs Theology in Pastoral Counseling --- p.8 / Chapter (I) --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter (II) --- “The Word of God´ح in Stone´ةs Theology in Pastoral Counseling --- p.10 / Chapter (III) --- “Acceptance of Self and Spirit´ح in Stone´ةs Theology in Pastoral Counseling --- p.14 / Chapter (IV) --- Theodicy in Stone´ةs Theology in Pastoral Counseling --- p.17 / Chapter (V) --- Theological Assessment in Pastoral Counseling --- p.20 / Chapter (VI) --- Spiritual Direction as a Concern in Pastoral Counseling --- p.21 / Chapter (VII) --- Pastoral Care as Community Endeavor --- p.23 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- Stone´ةs Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.26 / Chapter (I) --- Introduction --- p.26 / Chapter (II) --- Methodologies of Stone´ةs Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.28 / Chapter (III) --- Practice of Stone´ةs Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- A Dialogue Between Stone´ةs Theology in Pastoral Counseling And His Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.45 / Chapter (I) --- Word of God in Pastor-Counselor and Parishioner-Counselee Relationship --- p.45 / Chapter (II) --- Proactive Role of Pastors as Means of Grace or Means of Goal --- p.48 / Chapter (III) --- Assessment in Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.49 / Chapter (IV) --- Making Change as the Goal in Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.51 / Chapter (V) --- Role and Meaning of Suffering in Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.54 / Chapter (VI) --- Community Endeavor --- p.57 / Chapter (VII) --- Influence of Solution-Focused Approaches in Stone´ةs Brief Pastoral Counseling --- p.58 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Conclusion --- p.63 / Appendix 1 ： Pastoral Counseling Checklist --- p.66 / Bibliography --- p.70

Lai Mei Fung. / "June 2012." / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter I. --- Problem Statement and Research Question --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Statement of Purpose --- p.3 / Chapter III. --- Methodology and Delimitation --- p.4 / Chapter IV. --- "Definition of the Term: Hope, Pastoral Care and Positive Psychology" --- p.4 / Chapter V. --- Significance of this Study --- p.8 / Chapter VI. --- Overview: Structure of this Thesis --- p.8 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO: --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.10 / Chapter I. --- Historical Development of Hope Construct: No Consensus on Hope --- p.10 / Chapter II. --- Theological Approach: Pastoral Literature of Hope --- p.15 / Chapter III. --- Psychological Approach: Positive Psychology of Hope --- p.17 / Chapter IV. --- Literature About the Interdisciplinary Discussion on the Topic of Hope … --- p.19 / Chapter V. --- Summary --- p.20 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- THEORETICAL FOUNDATION --- p.21 / Chapter I. --- Why are Charles Rick Snyder and Andrew D. Lester chosen? --- p.21 / Chapter II. --- Psychological Perspective: Snyder's Hope Theory in Positive Psychology --- p.23 / What is Hope? Looking Hope Through a Psychological Lens --- p.23 / "Context: Making Excuses, Cognitive Influence and Fritz Heider" --- p.24 / "Content: Goal, Pathway and Agency" --- p.26 / Chapter III. --- Theological Perspective: Lester's Notion of Hope in Pastoral Care --- p.29 / What is Hope? Looking Hope Through a Theological Lens --- p.29 / Context: Experience of Struggling and Existential Influence --- p.29 / Content: Future and Transfinite Hope --- p.32 / Chapter IV. --- Summary --- p.35 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE --- p.36 / Chapter I. --- Common Ground: Hope is a Virtue --- p.36 / Positive Psychology: Hope is a Virtue for Human Flourishing --- p.37 / Pastoral Care: Hope as a Theological Virtue --- p.39 / Chapter II. --- Tension in the Practical Life Context: Daily Life and End-of-Life Context --- p.41 / Hope in Daily Life: Empirical Research and Operative Measurement --- p.41 / Hope in the End-of-life Context: Cognitive vs Existential Approach --- p.44 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- "FINDING, SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION" --- p.51 / Chapter I. --- Finding and Discussion --- p.51 / "Whether: Yes, Positive Psychology Contributes Hope-nurturing" --- p.51 / How: Pastoral Theology Should Maintain its Indispensable Role --- p.52 / Chapter II. --- Limitation and Suggestion for Further Research --- p.55 / Chapter III. --- Conclusion --- p.56 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.58

Text in German / In dieser Untersuchung werden Fragen zu der pastoralen Seelsorge der ungarischen Baptis-ten beantwortet. Die Pastoren werden in ihrer Ausbildung in Poimenik und Psychologie unterrichtet und tragen offiziell die Verantwortung für den Seelsorgedienst in ihrer Ge-meinde. Ausgangspunkte für die Untersuchung sind eine allgemeine Einführung, die theologische Grundlegung der Begriffe und ein historischer Überblick über die verschiedenen europäi-schen Seelsorgeverständnisse. Dabei werden die Einflüsse der modernen Wissenschaften, Psychologie, Psychotherapie und Pastoralpsychologie auf die Seelsorge ab dem 19. Jahr-hundert aufgezeigt und ihre Wirkungen auf das heutige Seelsorgeverständnis vorgestellt. Zunächst werden die Bestände jener Bibliotheken und Archive in Ungarn auf Publikatio-nen zu Seelsorge hin untersucht, zu denen baptistische Pastoren bzw. deren Lehrer typi-scherweise Zugang haben. Um Informationen zu den verschiedenen Seelsorgerichtungen zu bekommen, werden ferner Facharbeiten, Gemeindezeitschriften und Handreichungen herangezogen. Insbesondere wird die aus verschiedenen Sprachen ins Ungarische übersetz-te Seelsorgeliteratur vorgestellt. In der empirischen Untersuchung werden anhand der gewonnenen Informationen aus der Literaturstudie Pastoren interviewt und diese Ergebnisse mit ihren praktischen Konsequen-zen aufgezeichnet. / This study will answer questions about the pastoral care in Hungarian Baptist churches. In their education, pastors are taught in poimenics and psychology, and are thus officially responsible for the pastoral care in their churches. The starting point for this study will be a general introduction, then the theological explanation of the terms used, and finally a historic overview over the different European understandings of pastoral care. The influ-ences of the modern sciences psychology, psychotherapy and pastoral psychology since the 19th century on pastoral care will be shown as well as their impact on presentday under-standing of pastoral care. First, the holdings of those Hungarian libraries and archives will be screened for publica-tions about pastoral care to which Baptist pastors or their teachers primarily have access. To gain information about the different understandings of pastoral care, research papers, church magazines and handouts will be consulted. In particular, pastoral care literature will be presented which is translated into Hungarian from other languages. In the empirical study, pastors will be interviewed on the basis of information gained from the literature analysis. The practical consequences of these results will then be outlined. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology (Pastoral Therapy))

According to the literature school refusal is a complex disorder. Whilst the condition only occurs in 2% of the general school population, more interestingly the problem accounts for about 8% of clinically referred children (Burke & Silverman, 1987). This study focuses on the school refusal of a young adolescent male. This thesis has examined the degree to which school refusal can be minimised through employing a whole school approach underpinned by effective pastoral care (WSNPC intervention program). The research questions were as follows: To investigate the effects the WSNPC intervention program has on the: minimisation of school refusal; replacement of the motherlfigurehead in the mother-child relationship relative to separation anxiety; and = improved emotional, social and intellectual wellbeing of the school refuser. The methodology adopted for the study of school refusal regarding a young adolescent male was based on a grounded theory approach and also included a combination of action research and case study methods. Qualitative paradigms measured the degree of the participant's school refusal. A variety of instruments were employed to measure the participant's perceptions of school refusal. The implementation of multiple strategies were based upon data collected and evaluated, both as a result of intentional efforts, or as an unintentional by-product of the study with the expressed aim of maximising the participant's school attendance. The evidence presented in this study indicates the strategies employed via the WSA/PC intervention program were helpful in improving the participant's attendance at school. The results give an insight into the level of comprehension for the sample of school refusal and its response in terms of understanding the reasons for such thinking. The limitations of single case methodology are acknowledged in the study and suggestions for further research discussed.

Thesis (M. Th.(Practical theology))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-92)