Relational Ministry
Integrating Ministry and Psychotherapy
This item is available to order.
Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
Paperback / softback
£44.00
QTY
Publisher: Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 9783034322515
Number of Pages: 221
Published: 14/06/2016
Width: 15 cm
Height: 22.5 cm
Historically, the relationship between religion and psychotherapy has been more negative than positive. Are there inherent contradictions between the two, or can advances in the area of mental health care offer insights that are useful for the work of those in ordained ministry? This book presents an analysis of the relationship between ordained ministry on the one hand and counselling and psychotherapeutic practice on the other. It draws on extensive interviews carried out with current and former clergy in three churches (the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland) in order to clarify why some have stayed in ministry and combined it with psychotherapy, while others have left and continue their practice as psychotherapists. The book explores possible links between the sense of ministry in these two important areas of human experience – religion and psychotherapy – and goes on to investigate how combining these might lead to a different form of ministry.
Contents: Background to the Research – The Societal Context of Ministry in Ireland – The Ecclesiastical Context of Ministry – Three Rites of Ordination – Causal Conditions – Contextual and Intervening Conditions – Strategies – Consequences – Institutional Structures – Socialisation, Culture and Organisations – Power and Clericalism – New Possibilities: Relational Ministry – Afterword: Toward Further Dialogue.