Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

51[i]t recognises not only the inconclusiveness of allconceptualization when dealing with matters between God andhuman beings (an insight as old as religion itself) but also the painand skepticism – the dis-ease – of such reflection. Theology of thissort is not neat and comfortable; but neither is the life with andunder God of which it attempts to speak. The parables accept thecomplexity and ambiguity of life as lived here in this world andinsist that it is in this world that God makes his gracious presenceknown. A theology informed by the parables can do no less – andno more. 83Although speaking here of the limitation of more conceptual forms oftheological expression TeSelle nonetheless advocates for the interplay of themore imaginative and systematised modes of theological endeavour. She statesthat “the parable lies somewhere behind systematic theology,” 84givingexpression to that which remains incomprehensible in its purely conceptual form.The nature of this interplay is descriptively explained by pastoral theologianDonald Capps when he states that “... the ostensive reference is the springboardfor the world-disclosure. The world-disclosure occurs when the metaphorical ideais freed from its ostensive meaning, but without this ostensive meaning therewould be no world-disclosure.” 85 Feminist pastoral theologian Carrie Doehringspeaks of the interdependence and complementarity of these two linguistic formswhen she describes metaphorical language feeding conceptual language, andconceptual language disciplining metaphorical language, and the sterility of onewithout the other. 86In terms of this extended reflection, the interplay of systematisedtheological understanding with the pastoral theology derived from the narrativeimage will be more fully described within the methodological considerations of83 TeSelle, Speaking in Parables, 7.84 ibid., 63.Similarly, pastoral theologian David Tracy speaks of this interplay when he states,To rediscover that metaphors and metonyms are present in all systems of conceptualthought is not to disparage efforts at second-order thought. We enrich all thought bythe use of concepts faithful to the original symbols, metaphors, and metonyms. ...We shall also often need those refined forms of argument – theories, methods, andexplanations – to test further our best insights and all our claims that we have indeedrecognized some manifestation of truth.Tracy, David. Plurality and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics, Religion, and Hope. (San Francisco:Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1987), 30.85 Capps, Donald. Pastoral Care and Hermeneutics. Edited by Don Browning, Theology andPastoral Care. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 24.86 Doehring, Carrie. "Developing Models of Feminist Pastoral Counseling." The Journal ofPastoral Care 46, no. 1 (1992): 23-31, 27.