Helping the Good Shepherd
Pastoral Counselors in a Psychotherapeutic Culture, 1925–1975
Helping the Good Shepherd
Pastoral Counselors in a Psychotherapeutic Culture, 1925–1975
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Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801890475
Number of Pages: 320
Published: 27/04/2009
Width: 15.2 cm
Height: 22.9 cm
This history of Protestant pastoral counseling in America examines the role of pastoral counselors in the construction and articulation of a liberal moral sensibility. Analyzing the relationship between religion and science in the twentieth century, Susan E. Myers-Shirk locates this sensibility in the counselors' intellectual engagement with the psychological sciences. Informed by the principles of psychology and psychoanalysis, pastoral counselors sought a middle ground between science and Christianity in advising anxious parishioners who sought their help for personal problems such as troubled children, violent spouses, and alcohol and drug abuse. Myers-Shirk finds that gender relations account in part for the great divide between the liberal and conservative moral sensibilities in pastoral counseling. She demonstrates that, as some pastoral counselors began to advocate women's equality, conservative Christian counselors emerged, denouncing more liberal pastoral counselors and secular psychologists for disregarding biblical teachings. From there, the two sides diverged dramatically.
Helping the Good Shepherd will appeal to scholars of American religious history, the history of psychology, gender studies, and American history. For those practicing and teaching pastoral counseling, it offers historical insights into the field.
Myers-Shirk has provided us with a clear, rather thorough and accurate history of the pastoral care and counseling movement during the period that she treats. -- James N. Lapsley Journal of Pastoral Theology 2009 Raises important and still relevant questions about the relationship of psychology, culture, and pastoral practice. -- A.W. Klink Religious Studies Review 2010 Through lucid descriptions and sensitivity to her subject, she offers a significant historical description of contemporary therapeutic presumption. -- Kathryn Lofton American Historical Review 2010 Helping the Good Shepherd defines the history of pastoral care and counseling in the United States. Scholars and practitioners in those areas will surely welcome her meticulous descriptions of key figures and debates in their field... It deserves a wide scholarly audience. -- Matthew S. Hedstrom Journal of Church History 2010
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