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Incarnation and pastoral care

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Abstract

This essay is an examination of the usefulness of incarnation as a theological metaphor for pastoral care and counseling. Understanding the incarnation as both an event and as a paradigm of God's relationship to the world provides a theological perspective for examining four interrelated questions about identity and the helping relationship frequently asked by the pastoral care-giver. The incarnation metaphor finally frees us to care in the confidence that in God the Incarnating One, all things, including our care for the sick, are held together.

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References

  1. Edward Thurneysen,A Theology of Pastoral Care (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1962. “Pastoral care is a conversation resting on a very definite assumption. It intends to be a conversation that proceeds from the Word of God and leads to the Word of God.”

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  8. Karl Rohner has understood the neighbor as Christ for me in a remarkable way. “To accept and assume one's human condition without reserve (and just who really does this remains uncertain) is for a person to receive the Son of man because in him (Jesus) God has received human beings. If Scripture discloses that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law, this is the ultimate truth for the reason that God himself has become this neighbor, so in every neighbor we accept and love that one neighbor who unites what is nearest and farthest from us” (Karl Rohner, S.J., “Jesus Christ” inTheological Dictionary (New York: Herder and Herder, 1965), 241–42.)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa

    Herbert Anderson Ph.D.

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  1. Herbert Anderson Ph.D.
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Dr. Anderson is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Counseling at Wartburg Theological Seminary, 333 Wartburg Place, Dubuque, Iowa 52001.

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Anderson, H. Incarnation and pastoral care. Pastoral Psychol 32, 239–250 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01046317

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01046317

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