Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

132One consequence has been a growth in dialogue between theologicallybasednotions of pastoral care and those fields of enquiry that impinge on thespecific socio-political contexts in which the pastoral care occurs. Doehring notesthe 1980s’ shift in thinking regarding the role of pastoral theology. She observesthe transition from it being largely viewed from a therapeutic perspective to thatof practical theology. 364 One consequence has been the growing awareness of thecontextual nature of pastoral care. Related to this, sociologist George Furnisspoints to the contemporary openness of pastoral care as being under the influenceof various sociological critiques such as those which emanate from feminism,cross-culturalism, liberation theology and forms of family systems theory such asclinical pastoral education. 365Such critique allows for pastoral care to develop a specific relevance tounique socio-political situations and peoples, including people with forms ofdisability, rather than being presented as a generic or neutral brand of caringdeemed irrelevant, unhelpful or harmful by the care receivers. As pastoraltheologian Stephen Pattison indicates in criticising pastoral neutrality, "[a]llpastoral care takes place in a special social and political context and its ideas andpractices either question or affirm the values and structure of that order." 366However, despite Pattison’s assertion, there are those pastoral care forms,such as some that focus on the individuals’ personal care, which could beobserved to be seeking a politically neutral pastoral position. 367 However, it canalso be argued that such a pastoral posture, as a consequence of disregard for orindifference towards the socio-political circumstance, are endorsing the politicalstatus quo by default.364 Doehring, Carrie. "A Method of Feminist Pastoral Theology." In Feminist and WomanistPastoral Theology, edited by Bonnie Miller-McLemore and Brita Gill-Austern, 95-111.(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999), 100.365 Furniss, George. The Social Context of Pastoral Care: Defining the Life Situation.(Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), vii.366 Pattison, A Critique of Pastoral Care, 90.367 For example, the strong focus in some forms of pastoral therapy concerning the need forpainful self-discovery tends to indicate a certain level of neglect or supposed neutralitytowards the lived socio-political context of the individual in question. As pastoral carer BriceAvery states, "The business of pastoral therapy is to create a context between two peoplewhere spontaneous exploration can occur. It is only then that the painful and threateningbusiness of unwinding or dissolving some of the false-self cocoon can be contemplated bythe client."Avery, Brice. The Pastoral Encounter: Hidden Depths in Human Contact. Edited by MarleneCohen, Handbooks of Pastoral Care. (London: Marshall Pickering, 1996), 11.