Listening for the Soul: Pastoral Care and Spiritual Direction

by Jean Stairs

Overview

This book explores the relationship between the practices of pastoral care and the practices of spiritual direction with the aim of enabling pastoral caregivers to draw upon the guiding principles, resources and techniques of spiritual direction within the Christian tradition. With an emphasis on both "practice" and "presence," the book reclaims the tradition of "soul care" for the pastoral ministry, thereby complementing the medical, or crisis intervention, model of pastoral care with a wellness/growth model of pastoral care.

Listening for the Soul:

Challenges clergy to take seriously the relationship between pastoral care and spiritual direction.

Integrates theological and psychological insights with issues of spiritual life and formation.

Includes a chapter on the spiritual formation of children.

Provides practical guidance for integrating spiritual direction with pastoral care.

Tends to the pastoral caregivers own needs for spiritual deepening

Includes reflection questions and case studies to enable the text to function on both the individual reader and classroom levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800632397
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	08/21/2000
Series:	Integrating Spirituality Into Pastoral Counseling
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	222
Sales rank:	1,102,781
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Jean Stairs is the 10th theologian and the first woman to serve as Principal of Queen's Theological College. She is Associate Professor of the Practice of Ministry (Field Education, Homiletics and Pastoral Care).

Born and raised in Ottawa, Jean Stairs moved to Hamilton, Ontario to obtain a Bachelor of Music degree from McMaster University and a Master of Divinity degree from McMaster Divinity College. Following several years of pastoral ministry, she completed a Doctor of Ministry degree from the University of Toronto and the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto School of Theology.

Among her works are the books "Listening for the Soul: Pastoral Care and Spiritual Direction" (Fortress Press, 2000) and "Be My Companion: A Study of Spiritual Direction" (Image Press, 1982). In addition, she has published numerous articles and chapters in books, including "Dancing on the Edge" in "Gathered by the River: Reflections and Essays of Women Doing Ministry" (Artemis Enterprises, 1994).

Dr. Stairs belongs to The Association of Practical Theology, The Society for Pastoral Theology, The Canadian Theological SOciety, The Association for Theological Field Education, and the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion. In October 2000, Dr. Stairs delivered the prestigious "Chancellor's Lectures" for the Annual Conference at Queen's Theological College (Kingston, ON) on the theme of her recent book "Listening for the Soul".

Jean Stairs's interests include gardening, preserving (jams/pickles), journaling, cycling, swimming, singing as a solist and in her church choir, and long country walks with her miniature schnauzer "Cady".

Read an Excerpt

From the Introduction (pre-publication version):
Listening for the Soul Again

Look on my right hand and see-
there is no one who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for me.

I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living."

I stretch out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.

Psalms 142:4-5; 143:6

Those of us who are privileged to carry out the ministry of pastoral care are becoming increasingly aware that we have neglected to listen for the soul. What North American mainline Protestant churches once understood to be central in pastoral care is now marginal in pastoral practice. Because we have neglected to foster soulfulness (soul fullness),1 the church and the world alike cry out like the psalmist of old: "No one cares for me. . . . My soul thirsts for you like a parched land." A jarring dichotomy exists between society's pervasive longing for meaningful spirituality and the faltering pastoral responses of Protestant churches.

The Public Quest for Soulfulness
The world is crying out for the church to be more like the church, to represent the space and place where holiness, meaning, and God can be found, experienced, understood, and reimagined. Yet even at the beginning of a new century, for many, the traditional patterns of religious life remain too patriarchal, inadequate, and even obsolete. For others, the church seems too much in appearance like the world-too busy, too tired, too involved, too demanding, too unstable, too spiritually impoverished, too leadership deprived.

At the same timethat such strong and ambivalent feelings are being expressed about the church, people remain interested in spiritual matters. Spirituality is newsworthy and remains marketable. Pollsters report on religious trends and affiliations. Popular television programs from Touched by an Angel to NYPD Blue regularly address spiritual matters. Also, the increased plurality of North American society and the visible presence of Eastern religions have heightened our consciousness of spiritual traditions and the spiritual life. People are consistently providing evidence that there is a deep-seated craving for religious sensibilities and rituals. Even taking into account the sentimentality triggered by the Christmas holiday season, the notable increase in attendance at Christmas Eve services can be partly attributed to the fact that people want to connect in some way with the holy mystery of the Christmas event. Some men and women openly confess the need to feel more spiritually connected and alive. These needs are frequently demonstrated through pursuits that seek to merge the psychological, medical, and spiritual paradigms. Zealous interest in Yoga, Tai Chi, massage, meditation, and relaxation therapies, and chiropractic, homeopathic, and naturopathic care indicates that ours is a time of intense personal and social yearning for spiritual wholeness.

In such a climate, it is not surprising that enrollment levels for university and college religious studies courses have soared. People are devising personal spiritual belief systems and seeking with renewed vigor places and practices that put them in touch with spiritual values. Most bookstores contain entire sections on New Age spirituality, women's and men's spiritualities, and alternative health. The number of books (including this one!) published in the last few years with the word soul in their titles is staggering. We gorge on books, hoping to digest clues for fixing our bodies, our businesses, our relationships, our addictions, and now even our souls. No longer are retreat centers the sole/soul enterprise of the church. All sorts of healing, inner renewal, and spirituality centers are springing up in a secular context, advertised as getaway places from the stresses of work and our technological addictions. Alternative and holistic approaches to caring for body, mind, and soul are rapidly finding their way into an eager consumer-driven market. Attending to the soul, in all its emptiness and fullness, has now become a trendy and profitable enterprise. When our hunger is so intense, it seems that we will eat anything put before us that promises nourishment.

Many pastoral caregivers are acutely aware that people are desperately seeking to make connections with holiness, the mystery of life, and the divine force of creation. The reordering of priorities brought about by a decrease in financial resources, changes in employment and work patterns, and external stresses placed upon personal time commitments has led to a lack of balance in life. Many people simply are overextended and unable to discern what leads to a balanced life and what leads to burnout and long-term disability, the new dis-eases of our time. The fact of change has produced increased anxiety and turned up the volume of noise in our souls. So, too, the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots and a growing discomfort with the idolatrous nature of consumerism have evoked in many a quest for simplicity and a renewed spiritual life.

Protestant churches are now scrambling to respond to this renewed interest in matters of the soul, but it is clear that they are ill equipped to do so. Indeed, they are almost frantic in their quest to catch up with the public's emphasis upon matters of the soul, and they fear that inaction may indeed hasten the demise of the church's capacity to address spiritual matters and care for the soul. The church fears that its failure to attend to the soul has contributed to destructive patterns of disconnection with God, others, ourselves, and the earth.

While the public's interest in soul matters is surging, Protestant churches continue to flounder in their response to this phenomenon. Why is this so?

Table of Contents

Introduction: Listening for the Soul Again

1. Soul Inquiry: Evocative Listening for the Soul

2. Contemplative Living: A Preventative and Restorative Approach

3. The Soul's Rhythm: Death and Resurrection

4. Credible Caregivers: Sustaining Spiritual Practices

5. Soul Companions: Listening for the Soul in Daily Life and Work

6. Children's Spirituality: Listening for the Soul of the Child

7. Toward Complementarity: Pastoral Care and Spiritual Direction

Epilogue

Signs of Soulful Pastoral Care

Appendix

A Case Study: Listening for the Soul

Notes