Thesis (D.Min.)--Liberty Theological Seminary and Graduate School, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Liberty Theological Seminary and Graduate School, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Liberty Theological Seminary and Graduate School, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Includes bibliographies. / In the circumstances prevailing in contemporary India, and certainly since AIDS, it is hardly possible for Christian Pastors to limit their hospital ministry, especially their ministry to the terminally ill, to members of their own denomination or religion. India is notoriously rich in its variety of religious traditions and, as we will see, there is a universal Indianness which seems to stamp itself upon even the representatives of the Abrahamic faiths present on that Continent. It is therefore vital that the Pastor should be able to enter gently and swiftly into a patient's religious world-view. To do this we need to see if the teeming chaos cannot be reduced to some conceptual categories and ways found to describe those categories and locate individuals within them. For this purpose we employed Cumpsty's General Theory of Religion. The theory establishes three coherent ideal types and sub-types of religious tradition in relation to which all actual traditions can be located. Central to the distinctions between them is that immediate experience can be real and ultimate, not real, or real but not ultimate, that is, reality can be monistic (in corporate or individual style) or dualistic. There are consequences of these, for example, the powers-that-be can be essentially personal or neither clearly personal nor impersonal; time is conceived as circular, rhythmical or linear. Sometimes life events are partially predictable and/or partially controllable or they are not. It is the mixing and matching of these, and similar, possibilities together with the affirmation that experience is chaos (the only overtly non-religious position) which provides a number of theoretical but recognizable profiles within the Indian situation. The crucial stage of the project was that in which these theoretical possibilities had to be operationalized in a set of questions meaningful within the context being investigated. The questionnaire which resulted was used to structure interviews in a pilot study in the Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities of Tamilnadu State, in response to which the questionnaire was accepted, but slightly extended for use in the main survey. The data obtained from both surveys allowed a number of actually existing profiles of different kinds to be identified and described, and also identified those questions which were the most discriminating in the location of respondents within these profiles. The instrument was then used in interviews with a, necessarily smaller, sample of terminally ill patients. The data from this study showed that in general the terminally ill fitted into the profiles identified for the "healthy". It also provided interesting information on the similarities and differences between the "healthy" sample and the terminally ill and (unexpected in its level of distinctiveness) differences between AIDS and cancer patients. The data also enabled the questions to be prioritized for use with terminally ill patients who had been located in a particular profile. Finally, a suggestion for an approach to pastoral care in each profile, based on an understanding of the "logic of belonging" operative in that profile, is offered.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. / The need of the Church for pastoral care, including especially pastoral care of groups, and the opportunity in clinical pastoral education for training to meet this need stimulated this study. It was undertaken as a first step in research to develop systematic understanding of small group processes from the pastoral standpoint and to evaluate the training groups which are a regular part of the program in clinical pastoral education at Boston State Hospital. One group of eight members was studied to assess the group's effect on its members and to describe its processes. As foundation for the study four steps were taken. First, the literature was reviewed. The review was comprehensive for evaluation of clinical pastoral education, pastoral care of small groups, and group training in clinical pastoral education. Also reviewed were representative books and articles on group work from the perspectives of religious education and church life. Attention was briefly given to secular disciplines which had influenced pastoral care of groups, especially group psychotherapy, education, and group training [TRUNCATED].

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Existential crises are now intertwined with the paradigmatic framework and noetic system of people’s lives in their search for meaning, significance and value. In this respect, a close connection exists between thought processes and values. The core issue in the research is to unlock the hermeneutical connection between thinking patterns, philosophical systems, and meaning structures at the level of noetic understanding. The basic hypothesis is that spiritual healing is realized within the qualitative interaction between systemic-hermeneutic networks and the attempt to determine how certain thinking patterns within frameworks, especially schemas of interpretation, the behaviour and attitudes of people regarding the meaning of life is determined. In this regard philosophical counselling in pastoral care can play a crucial therapeutic role. Philosophical counselling differs from Rational Emotive Therapy in the sense that meaning perception comprises more than rational thought categories (cognition) with the possible pathology of irrational thoughts. Sense meaning refers to attitudes as determined by idea-moderate wisdom systems such as embedded in cultural convention, attitudes and value systems that motivate behaviour, and a form of calling and commitment determined by existential pathos. The connection between religious thought and the dimension of God-images must be investigated. In this regard the research works with the basic presupposition that philosophical counselling can play a supportive role in a pastoral diagnosis that focuses on distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate God-images. It is to examine how ideas about God’s involvement in human suffering (theodicy question) processes suffering within existential realities. Particular attention is given to how P. Raabe’s four-stage model of philosophical counselling can play a role in pastoral care and the making of pastoral diagnosis. Therefore, to look at the connection between faith, hope and meaning. We also look at the dynamics between noetic philosophy, life convictions, life perspectives and processes of conceptualization in a pastoral epistemology. In this respect the research joins the classical connection between wisdom and insight with the tradition of cura animarum (soul care) and the current approach in pastoral theology to enlarge cura animarum with cura vitae (the healing of life). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Eksistensiële krisisse is nou verweef met die paradigmatiese raamwerk en noetiese verwysingsisteem van mense se lewensoortuigings in hul soeke na na sin, betekenis en waarde. In hierdie opsig bestaan daar ‘n noue verband tussen denkprosesse en waardes. Die kernvraagstuk in die navorsing is om die hermeneutiese verband tussen denkpatrone, filosofiese stelsels en betekenisontsluiting op die vlak van noetiese verstaan te ontsluit. Die basiese hipotese is dat spirituele heling gerealiseer word binne die kwalitatiese interaksie tussen sistemies-hermeneutiee netwerke en die poging om vas te stel hoe dat bepaalde patrone van denkraamwerke, en veral skemas van interpretasie, menselike gedrag en houdings ten opsigte van lewensin bepaal. In hier die verband kan filosofiese berading in pastorale sorg ‘n beslissende terapeutiese rol speel. Filosofiese berading verskil van Rasioneel Emotiewe Terapie in die sin dat dat betekenis/sin meer omvattend is as rasionele denkkategorieë (kognisises) met die moontlike patologie van irrasionele gedagtes. Sin verwys na houdings soos bepaal word deur idee-matige wysheidsisteme soos ingebed in kulturle konvensies, gesindhede en waardestelsels wat gedrag motiveer en ‘n vorm van roeping en toewyding (eksistensiële patos) profileer. Die konneksie tussen religieuse denke en die dimensie van Godsvoorstellinge word ondersoek. In dié verband werk die navorsing met die basiese voorveronderstelling dat filosofiese berading ‘n ondersteunende rol kan speel in ‘n pastorale diagnose wat daarop fokus om tussen toepaslike en ontoepaslike Godsvoorstellinge te onderskei. Dit wil veral kyk na hoe idees oor God se betrokkenheid by menslike lyding (teodiseevraagstuk) die verwerking van lyding binne eksistensiële realiteite bepaal. Daar word veral andag gegee aan hoe P. Raabe se vier fasemodel van filososfiese berading ‘n rol kan speel in pastorale versorging en die maak van pastorale diagnoses. Daarom dat gekyk word na die verband: geloof, hoop en singewing. Daar word ook gekyk na die dinamika tussen noeties-filosofiese lewensoortuigings/lewensperspektiewe en prosesse van konseptualisering in ‘n pastorale epistemologie. In dié opsig sluit die navorsing aan by die klassieke verband tussen wysheid en insig binne die tradisie van cura animarum en die hedendaagse poging in pastorale teologie om cura animarum te verruim met cura vitae (die heling van lewe).

No description available.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Liberty Theological Seminary and Graduate School, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, March 2007.

Thesis (MTh(Practical theology)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.