An Introduction to Pastoral Care

I came upon this book as a doctoral student -- after extensive, intensive experiences over years doing pastoral care in clinical settings. Charles Gerkin has written much about pastoral care, and in this late volume, as a professor emeritus, it is as though "all his wanderings" have brought him to where he started out, to a book that sees clearly the basics of pastoral connection and a theology that undergirds them.

If you are interested in learning more about what "Pastoral Care" is; how it has been practiced in the past; and how it might adapt itself to the challenges of our own time, this book is the place to begin your study. I appreciated the historical overview as well as the insightful theological rationale presented by the author. I would have given the book five stars except that in several instances the author lapses into barely muffled episodes of conservative-bashing (e.g., he criticizes the so-called "religious right" without ever calling into question the equally misguided "religious left").

Charles Gerkin does an excellent job of surveying the history of pastoral care and making the field of pastoral care relevant in the present context of the parish. This is an exellent text for both the classroom and the parish, because it does address these relevant themes.

Here's an informative book from a man with a lot of theoretical and practical experience. It also reads like any corporate rhetoric from the 1990's: full of buzzwords like "schema" and "paradigmatic". If you can deal with the jargon, you can learn quite a bit.