Spiritual Development in Social Context: The Role of Christian Psychotherapy in the Formation of Identity

Spiritual growth and development enable complete self-actualization. In the three stages of spiritual development – described in Christian psychotherapy and based on a practical spiritual life established in Christian patrology – man from an individual becomes a person. He builds his identity during this process. The main goal of this paper is to represent the practical aspect of spiritual Christian life and its impact in a social context. In addition, it offers a representation of the spiritual development process – a model in Christian psychotherapy, as well as a description of each stage at which spiritual identity is formed. It is a descriptive paper where the basic methods of this process are elaborated: establishing a personal relationship with a spiritual father – psychotherapist, implementing the FCP and metanoia. Analysis of identity is made by utilizing two dimensions: personal and social one. The concept of personality is profoundly connected with the ego, identity, self and identification. Identification outside of the Divine Person with partial forms of existence leads to individual and social splitting, and polarization of particles. Building a spiritual identity enables formation of personality that exists out of their spiritual self and builds a pastoral relationship in all life areas: personal, family and social. A spiritually realized person – out of the borders of individual script – is socially useful, creative and functional in the wider social context.

Family Matters: Peter Canisius as Confessor and Spiritual Guide in Early Modern Augsburg. A Case Study

After Peter Canisius’s arrival in the bi-confessional city of Augsburg in 1559, he quickly succeeded in winning over a large number of converts to the Catholic Church through his impressive abilities as a preacher and confessor. One of his most remarkable successes was the conversion of Ursula Fugger, a member of the influential Fugger dynasty and a devout Protestant. This article examines the pastoral relationship that developed between Peter Canisius and Ursula Fugger as well as her family. It also analyzes the specific strategies developed by Canisius and his fellow Jesuits for guiding the different genders and generations belonging to this important Augsburg family.

Creating the cloud-tent-ship conceit in Exodus

The enigmatic description of the columna nubis in lines 71b–92 of the Old English Exodus juxtaposes images of substances that shield God's people from their hostile environment; understanding the relations among these protective coverings requires cultural and literary knowledge not explicitly articulated in Exodus. Metaphors and typologies developed in Arator's sixth-century Historia apostolica and subsequently conventionalized in Bede's eighth-century Expositio actuum Apostolorum, texts used in the Anglo-Saxon monastic curriculum, provide an interpretative framework for the complicated accretion of images in Exodus. Using insights about metaphorical processing from cognitive science, this article argues that the Exodus-poet crafted a sophisticated tripartite conceit to generate a pastoral relationship with his audience, first by adapting metaphoric mappings from Arator and Bede and then by extending their domains with culturally specific entailments about how ships and tents functioned as protective covers in Anglo-Saxon material culture.

Comfort, O Comfort, Corinth: Grief and Comfort in 2 Corinthians 7:5–13a

Paul's correspondence with the Corinthian congregation chronicles the story of an absent leader trying to encourage an often wayward congregation to hold fast to his message of God's reconciling action in Jesus. As the conclusion to 2 Cor 2:14–7:4,1a unit in which Paul explores the nature of his apostolic relationship with the Corinthian congregation, 2 Cor 7:5–13a portrays Paul's pastoral relationship with the Corinthians as near its breaking point.2In this passage, Paul looks back to a time (before his current tentative reconciliation with the Corinthians) when Paul's trusted associate Titus had brought him comforting news of the Corinthians’ repentance and renewed faithfulness to the Pauline apostolate.3Previous studies of Paul's practice of pastoral care in 2 Corinthians have focused on comparing his approach with those advocated in Greco-Roman philosophy. Other studies of 2 Corinthians have attempted to uncover the background of Paul's theology of reconciliation in Isaiah and other texts from Israel's scriptures and have emphasized his appropriation here of the Isaianic motif of comfort from the so-called “Book of Consolation” (Isaiah 40–55). Through an examination of Paul's language of grief (λυπέω/λύπη) and comfort (παρακαλέω/παράκλησιϛ) in 2 Cor 7:5–13a, however, a more complex picture of the roots of Paul's approach to the care of the Corinthian congregation emerges. As I will show, Paul's language of grief and comfort in 2 Cor 7:5–13a differs from broader Greco-Roman understandings of these concepts, such as those we find in the writings of Epictetus. In this pericope Paul draws on his interpretation of the cycle of grief and comfort in not just Second Isaiah but also Lamentations 1–2 in order to call the Corinthians back to faithfulness to the gospel and to give voice to their own experience of loss and consolation.

Pastorale elemente in Hebreërs

Pastoral elements in Hebrews In this article the letter to the Hebrews is scrutinised in order to investigate possible elements that can be applied in pastoral care and ministering. After indicating certain expressions used for different nuances of proclaiming in Hebrews, the expression “parakalein” as central concept for pastoral care will be focused on. The spectrum of the ensuing research includes aspects like the great High Priest’s purification of sin as foundation for pastoral care, and sympathy and empathy in the work of the great High Priest. Furthermore, viewpoints on the following are given: a pastoral relationship, the Hebrew term, “therapon”, as specific expression for a caring minister; the instruction to the members of the congregation to be pastors for one another; spirituality, and possible indications of the meaning of suffering. Finally the pastoral elements of faith, hope and perseverance are discussed. In conclusion a summary of the most important pastoral elemens is given.