Abstract
The principal concern of this essay is the spiritual growth which life crises make possible. My assumptions are a) that every crisis can arouse within us a fresh awareness of the transcendent source of and goal for every human life, and b) that precisely in the trauma which every crisis brings, we are given the opportunity to reassess the principles by which we have lived, in the direction of a more encompassing and adequate set of values, informed by a deeper faith. For such reassessment to occur, however, we must be willing to call into question our whole lives, and not just those decisions contributing to the specific crisis now confronting us. I believe that close to the very heart of pastoral work is that enlivening and encouraging pastoral presence which supports change in the face of obstacles and overwhelming anxiety, and which mediates the Giver of Life in a way which makes radical change truly possible. I elaborate upon this conviction in two sections: the first discusses the role of the pastor in crisis intervention and the second advances the claim that exacerbating a sense of crisis for the sake of facilitating peoples' growth in faith is the uniquely pastoral contribution to helping people in crisis.
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Reference Notes
Paul W. Pruyser,The Minister as Diagnostician: Personal Problems in Pastoral Perspective. Philadelphia: The Westminister Press, 1976, p. 50.
Paul Tillich,The Courage to Be (New York: Yale University Press, 1952).
For example, present-day liberation theologians are suggesting that the struggles against oppression, world-wide, represent the fundamental spiritual crisis of this present generation.
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Howe, L.T. Crises and spiritual growth. Pastoral Psychol 36, 230–238 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01760098
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01760098