'Pastoral Care: A Thematic Approach' offers a much needed development of the thematic approach in the study of personality as a theoretical basis for pastoral care. This approach, which includes the personality theories of Henry Murray, Robert W. White, Robert J. Lifton, and especially Erik H. Erikson, is notable for its emphasis on personal and institutional change. The book emphasizes the role that pastoral care can play as a "change agent" in the local parish, pastoral counseling as a model for change, and the role of pastoral care in effecting change through personal and institutional crises. Selected case studies illustrate how the thematic approach applies to pastoral care situations. Primarily a contribution to pastoral psychology, it also touches on problems and issues in pastoral theology.
