Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

170In terms of this extended reflection, the pastoral practitioner’s preunderstandings,represented by the pastoral and theological traditions of thechurch, are brought to bear upon the pastoral context as a pre-condition ofpastoral commitment to the context. Also incorporated into this commitment arethe practitioner’s contemporary theological understandings, including insightsinto liberation theology, as well as contemporary pastoral understandings.In the midst of pastoral commitment to the context and people underconsideration, pre-understandings and contemporary understandings generatesuspicions 466 concerning the nature of the implications of pastoral care beingexercised in a specific socio-politically constituted context. This commitmentalso leads to suspicions concerning the nature of practitioner prejudices towardsboth the overall pastoral context as well as those who live in that context.The pastoral context is analysed in a holistic manner. Traditional andcontemporary theological perspectives, as well as socio-political perspectives, areapplied to the pastoral context with a view to analyzing the authenticity orotherwise of recently-formulated suspicions. Such analysis also generatesconsideration of the authenticity of previously-held theological and pastoralunderstandings.466 The concept of suspicion in the hermeneutical process refers to an openness to thequerying and critiquing of that which is a source of analysis. It could refer to text, systems orpersonal narrative. See,Tracy, “Some Concluding Reflections”, 466.Here Tracy describes a hermeneutics of suspicion expressed in terms of calling into questionthe privatising and silencing elements contained in traditional elements of Western Christiantheology. See also,Clapton, A Transformatory Ethic of Inclusion, 308.Here, the author speaks of a hermeneutics of suspicion “exposing the hidden assumptions andlegitimacy of a hegemonic socio-symbolic order.” A similar tone is adopted by,Hollinger, Robert. "Introduction: Hermeneutics and Pragmatism." In Hermeneutics andPraxis, edited by Robert Hollinger, ix-xx. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,1985), xviii.as well as,Karaban, Roslyn. "Always an Outsider? Feminist, Female, Lay, and Roman Catholic." InFeminist and Womanist Pastoral Theology, edited by Bonnie Miller-McLemore and BritaGill-Austern, 65-76. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999), 71.Here the author, from a feminist theological perspective, applies this hermeneutic to acritique of patriarchal structures and clericalism that influenced the writing of the Scripturesand the development of the Church.The works of Tracy make consistent reference to the term amidst hermeneutical criticaltheory considerations. For example,Tracy, David. "Hermeneutical Reflections in the New Paradigm." In Paradigm Change inTheology, edited by Hans Kung and David Tracy, 34-62. (Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd, 1989),45.