Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

162 capacity for honest self-awareness and self-assessment 432 ability to work cooperatively in a collegial environment 433 capacity for metaphorical interpretation of the lived reality and pastoralpractice 434 openness to change in the exercising of pastoral practice.5.3.5 Tentative ApplicationsIn taking account of the constructed reality this pastoral practitioner willapply his skills of interpretation, meaning and sense-making to the sourcednarratives in order to develop a comprehensive understanding. The developmentof a thorough understanding will then form the basis of a model of pastoral carethat will most effectively offer a measure of liberation. 435Further to this, understanding and meaning can only be regarded as validin an impermanent sense. Those whose conceptualisations of understanding havebeen sourced will, over time, change their understandings according to personalfactors such as experience. 436431 Dunlap, "Discourse Theory and Pastoral Theology."432 Moustakas, Clark. Heuristic Research: Design, Methodology, and Applications. (NewburyPark: Sage Publications, Inc., 1990), 9-16.Liamputtong, Pranee. Researching the Vulnerable: A Guide to Sensitive Research Methods.(London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2007), 17.433 Participatory action researchers particularly emphasise the significance of collegial-basedinterpretation and understanding. See,Kemmis, Stephen, and Robin McTaggart. The Action Research Planner. (Melbourne: DeakinUniversity, 1988).Robinson, "Current Controversies," 267, 284.434 Various pastoral theologians and researchers advocate, either implicitly or explicitly, forthe role of metaphor in defining theoretical understanding, and practical, pastoral action. Forexample,Doehring, "Developing Models," 27.Lane, Belden. "The Tree as a Giver of Life: A Metaphor in Pastoral Care." The Journal ofPastoral Care 45, no. 1 (1991): 15-22, 21.Mair, Miller. Kelly, Bannister and a Story Telling Psychology 2007 [cited 27/03/2007.Available from http://www.oikos.org/mairstory.htmMcFague, Sallie. Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language. London:SCM Press Ltd, 1983.Niven, Alan. "Pastoral Rituals, Ageing and New Paths into Meaning." In Ageing, Disabilityand Spirituality: Addressing the Challenge of Disability in Later Life, edited by ElizabethMacKinlay, 217-32. (London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008), 221.Rappmann, Susanne. "The Disabled Body of Christ as a Critical Metaphor – Towards aTheory." Journal of Religion, Disability & Health 7, no. 4 (2003): 25-40, 25.Schmidt, William. "Power as Theological Problem." The Journal of Pastoral Care 46, no. 1(1992): 71-77.435 The tacit nature of the data gathered through the constructivist approach will beconsidered in further detail later in this chapter.436 Bednar, Anne, Donald Cunningham, Thomas Duffy, and David Perry, Theory intoPractice, 21.