pastoral care in historical perspective - Bishopdale Theological ...

The Four Pastoral Functions 37
English royalty to practice healing,:i SI. Francis 0: Assisi (d. 1226) is
revered for having performed hea ling miracles [S EE [ XHIBIT 9J. After his
conversion, George Fox (d. 1691), founder of the Quaker movement,
became widely rc puted for healing not onl\" menial diseases but also
bodily ills. H is fo/1owels, wary of what the ~utho ri ties might do if any
hysteric:.ll belief in him as :.l mir:.lcle wOIker developed, toned down h is
healing succcsses. Regard less of attempts to minimize this charisma, it
seems certain tha t Fox's minis!r\" included a considerable number of
healings, which wcre probJbly dcscribed in a lost work called " Book of
r.,,[ iracJes. "lG
Pastora l healing at the hands of chJTismatic persons appeared as a
special power of !loth clerg}' and laymen after the Reformation in both
the Protestant and Ca tholic tradi tions. ;\'iany interesting records reDeet
this ongoing minisl f'·, few of them 1lI0re arresting!), than those regarding
Pastor Joh n Christopher Blu LlliJ.:ndt (1 805-1880), Lutheran pastor
in the village of Mottl.ingen in th e. Bl a~ l Forest, whose very homileti.cai
powen had th era peutic effects. I·lls bIographer reported the followrng
cure of an unbclic,·ing \,·orkman affl icted by an apparently incurable
disease of the slin; as a last, dcsperate resort, the man sought out the
noted pastor.
He C3me across the ~s t o r . just :IS B i llmh ~rd t was putting on his robes
bdore preaching in thc church . The man's diseaie was one of those
which had for long weighed upon Blumhardt's compassion. and he
r«ognizcd the s)"mptoms at once; for scarcely had the man begun to
describe his sickness, when Bl umhard t sa id. '· r-,Iy friend, you see I have
very little time. ~n d I call sce hoI\' wretched you aTe; go into the church
noo', and be ,·cry ~t t ent i" e, and l1la~ the Saviour help you." The man
eouid sca r eel~' control hi s indignation ~nd fury at th is rebuff. He mur·
mured to himself. ·'There's \·our merciful 8lumhardt! there are your
pious people! rm to go to d iurc11. am I?·· I-l owC'o·(T, he resolved to go
m. hopine: the p ~s t or mUlh t sa~' somtthing for his $uidance in . the
scnnon. BlumhMdt prt'ached on the t e ~t : ··Asl , :and It shall be gTVen
you." n,e man was quite unconscious how much Blumhardt's word,
impressed him: he ,till kept on murmuring to himself: "lie does not
ta lk of mc or for me:· and half in admiration. half in ~n ge r , he left the
church and the town aft er thc serdee. and began hil walk home. "These
pious people," '·this compassion:· rei terated themselves in his mind,
though jOined oow with milO)' of tht words of th ~ sermon. But soon
these con Ricting though ts wcre mingled with a new sensation: he began
to upcrience a peculiar feelmg in his skin. which seemed to start
and spread from certain spots: and tht feeling MiXed stronger and
stronger with the thought. ··Am [ be:ing healed?" Full of exeitemt nt, he
" H ~ggar d , op , cit. pp. 2Qt-2q6.
10 Ste Vernon :"obk. Th£ ,\/d" I" Lf~thfl B/fechtJ (New York : Philosophical
Lib:ary, 1953), pp. 7;-;i .