Orlo Strunk

A REDEFINITION OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION

At the turn of the present century the pioneers of the psychology of religion believed that religious behavior could be investigated by the same scientific methods being used to study other behavior. This scientific spirit permeated much of the early investigations of religious phenomena. Soon, however, theologically-oriented and psychoanalytically-oriented workers entered the field and less empirical methods were used by both groups. With the proliferation of behaviorism in psychology proper, the psychological study of religion was relegated to two groups, the theologically-centered and the medically-centered. The theologians objected to reductionistic attempts, thus leading to a marked decrease in the psychological study of religious behavior. The psychoanalysts, on the other hand, rarely used the experimental method and were prone to interpret all religious behavior in terms of a simple and sovereign theory. These historic events caused the psychology of religion-as initially conceived-to become practically extinct, despite the obvious affinities such a discipline might potentially have with contemporary social and personality psychology. In view of the current criticisms of a great deal of psychology and in light of the historic and contemporary status of the psychology of religion, the following definition of the psychology of religion is offered: T h e psychology of religion is that branch of general psy chokogy which attempts t o understand, c o n t ~ o l and predict h a m a n behavior, both propriate and peripheral, which is perceived as being religioas by the individual, and which is sasceptible t o one or more of the methods o f psychological science. This definition has within it certain contemporary emphases, notably the phenomenological approach, the cognitive emphasis, and the idiographic assertion. The appropriateness of this definition is problematic. It is offered in a problem-centered spirit. No strictly school-centered or method-centered approach is capable of handling the complexity of religious behavior. Research, of course, will be the final arbiter as to the future of the psychology of religion. It is hoped that the above definition, as incomplete as it may be, will lead to research programs in the psychology of religion and will perhaps serve as a stimulus to future concern in regard to this specialized field of scientific inquiry.

Book Review & Note: Counseling Troubled Older Adults: A Handbook for Pastors and Religious CaregiversCounseling Troubled Older Adults: A Handbook for Pastors and Religious Caregivers.KoenigHarold G. and WeaverAndrew J. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1997). 256pp. (Hardbound).

Counseling Troubled Older Adults: A Handbook for Pastors and Religious Caregivers. Harold G. Koenig and Andrew J. Weaver (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1997). 256pp. (Hardbound). Pastors and mental health specialists reading this book will find on every page references to aging that are both obvious and notable. The references to the obvious facts about aging are alluded to, such as 50 percent among mainline denominational churches consist of older adults and that the trend will continue over the next 30 years and that the last phase of human development is marked by diminished capacities ending inexorably in death. The less obvious-but references that need to be notedinclude reminders that at the end of the century the number of aging persons and associated problems they face will increase and deepen, that as our population ages federal dollars available to care for their needs will diminish, and that much talk about relation between religion and mental health falls short of providing ways to enhance genuine religious living in this growing population. So, whats new and unique about this careful work of the distinguished geriatric psychiatrist, Harold G. Koening, and the pastor/psychologist Andrew]. Weaver? The answer lies in the clear ways this work reveals the not-soobvious facts about aging and the implications for pastors and mental health specialists. The authors have taken seriously the escalation in numbers and the increasing complexity of the life-problems endemic

The Meanings and Nuances of Pastoral Care

I n reading John Pattons latest book, Pastoral Care in Context, I was once again struck by the richness of meanings surrounding the notion of pastoral care and by the nuances that notion can hold for the pastoral care community. And with the National Pastoral Care Week less than a month away (October 25-31), the dimensions of the pastoral care project appear especially lucid to me-and equally exciting. For me one of those many dimensions has to do with the varieties of settings in which pastoral care takes place. For most persons who reflect on the notion of pastoral care at all the assumption is that pastoral care is expressed within a particular faith community or within a congregational setting of some sort. And certainly that setting is primary in any serious consideration of the topic. But for the typical reader of this journal-and surely for those of us who edit this publication-pastoral care beyond the congregational context has a special interest. In my office I have a file in which I keep a list of settings in which pastoral care activities are carried out. It includes such contexts as general and mental hospitals, VA hospitals, pastoral counseling and pastoral psychotherapy centers, city and county jails, police and sheriff departments, prisons, juvenile detention centers, fire departments, motels and hotels, sports and recreational facilities, airports, businesses and industries, military establishments, community mental health centers, race tracks, recreational vehicle (RV) camps, congressional and other political arenas, Civil Air Patrol and Air Mission, rodeos, veteran organizations, geriatric and retirement facilities, cruise lines, seminaries, colleges and universities . . . Although this is in no sense a complete list (hardly a month goes by without my being reminded of another setting), it does illustrate something of the scope of the pastoral care community. That we are not always aware of one another, or even of the variety of contexts in which we move and express our ministry, is axiomatic-even a bit sad. That we nevertheless do have a common core of care spawned out of a religious faith also seems evident. At least that realization ought to be one of the aims in our celebration of National Pastoral Care Week.

The Circumference of the Circles we Draw

This is, I believe, an impressive list of participants in the pastoral care and counseling movement. Many of these editors will be recognized immediately because of their own writing and editing accomplishments. Still others may best be known-regionally, nationally, or internationally-by their clinical skills or their research mastery. By their acceptance to serve on the committee, all have agreed to engage in improving the quality of TheJournal of Pastoral Care and to assist in monitoring its future development.

Book Review: Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling: Resources for the Ministry of Healing and GrowthBasic Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling: Resources for the Ministry of Healing and Growth.ClinebellHoward (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1984). 463pp.

Nearly twenty years have passed since Clinebell first published the book which has become a standard text in teaching seminarians, pastors, and pastoral counselors. The new, revised and enlarged edition is fresh, contemporary, and useful. There is a rich synthesis of material that was helpful in 1966 mixed with new ideas, especially the emphasis on liberation and empowerment. The text is designed both for pastors wishing to sharpen skills and for pastoral counselors doing in-depth therapy in a specialized ministry setting. The book aims at comprehensiveness and has chapters on growth models, theological statements, spiritual wholeness, values, support, crisis care, bereavement, marriage and family, group, lay ministry, referrals, and pastoral psychotherapy. The central theme is growth and wholeness. The pastor is encouraged to be a whole person with an androgynous blending of the feminine and masculine. Pastoral care and counseling should demonstrate wholeness in integrating historic biblical theology with contemporary behavioral science research. The counselor needs to speak the whole truth in love; namely, to care and confront. The text demonstrates wholeness by adding at the end of each chapter a suggested reading list and several practice sessions implementing the theory. Throughout the book, the theme of liberation appears. The author sensitizes the readers, primarily white male clergy, about power issues related to counselees, the majority of whom are females. We are reminded that in Christ there is neither male nor female. The liberation model calls on pastoral counselors to find methods for ministering to the poor and the minorities. The call is for pastoral care and counseling to transcend white, male, middle class models in favor of inclusiveness and wholeness. The author reveals how he was sensitized by his wife about feminine liberation, and the importance of liberation in growth and wholeness. This revised and enlarged text speaks to contemporary pastoral care issues in an exciting manner. It is a valuable contribution to the field.

Principles of axiotherapy

Axiotherapy is not another psychotherapeut ic school to be piled atop the growing pyramid. In and of itself, it is not a full-blown psychotherapeut ic approach with buil tin techniques. Nor can it be dismissed as s imply an adjunct to counseling and psychotherapy, for there are instances in which it can s tand on its own. It is also true that some therapists engage in axiotherapy without being aware of it. Simply put, axiotherapy is an interpersonal encounter that gives special a t tent ion to clarifying the specific values at stake in any t roublesome situation, asks how these values are functioning or dysfunct ioning in relation to the long-range fulf i l lment of the self, and how they might be open for review and behavioral change. 1 In the axiotherapeut ic project, there are at least three principles tha t help to make the approach a bona fide modali ty. My purpose in this paper is to note and comment on these three principles and to describe a case i l lustrating them.Axiotherapy is not another psychotherapeutic school to be piled atop the growing pyramid. In and of itself, it is not a full-blown psychotherapeutic approach with built-in techniques. Nor can it be dismissed as simply an adjunct to counseling and psychotherapy, for there are instances in which it can stand on its own. It is also true that some therapists engage in axiotherapy without being aware of it. Simply put, axiotherapy is an interpersonal encounter that gives special attention to clarifying the specific values at stake in any troublesome situation, asks how these values are functioning or dysfunctioning in relation to the long-range fulfillment of the self, and how they might be open for review and behavioral change.1 In the axiotherapeutic project, there are at least three principles that help to make the approach a bona fide modality. My purpose in this paper is to note and comment on these three principles and to describe a case illustrating them.

VARIABILITY WITHIN THE THEOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF BEHAVIOR OF THE BELIEFS-ABOUT-BEHAVIOR INVENTORY

The Beliefs-About-Behavior Inventory, designed to identify 3 concepts about behavior as theological, illness, psychological, was administered to 116 religious professionals, including Protestant seminarians, Roman Catholic priests and nuns, and pastoral counselors. Wide variability was discovered within these theological groups and between these groups and the original criterion groups. When groups were combined and then divided in terms of liberal-conservative categories, the theological scale differentiated better, suggesting that the theological scale may be biased toward a particular type of theological way of thinking (conservative) rather than a general theological cognitive style per se. Several possible explanations for the variability are suggested.

Book Review and Notice: The Structure of AwarenessThe Structure of Awareness: OdenThomas C.; Abingdon Press, Nashville and New York, 1969. 283 pp.

plications, no theologian interested in an empirical theology can afford to miss this study. Jung believed that there is empirical evidence, derived non-experimentally, for the reality of an autonomous, nonphysical organizing factor which affects both the human psyche and soma. Men, he found, come to wholeness and maturity only as they relate to their reality, and to the parapsychological phenomena that often accompany it. These conclusions were influenced by Jungs study of alchemy, which offered historical evidence of experiences similar to those of Jung and his patients. Mrs. Jaffe provides a simple and definitive analysis of Jungs study of alchemy and its relation to parapsychology. Her last two chapters are of particular interest to those who are already fascinated by Jung as a person. She offers a most comprehensive study of Jungs controversial stand toward Nazi Germany during World War II, showing that neither the critics nor his devotees have dealt with what actually happened. Jung, as she delineates, was never a Nazi sympathizer. Instead, during the first years of the Nazi revolution he made a serious error in judgment, and this, in fact, was one thing that he always regretted.

6.50.

A pilot course in suicidology for clergymen is described and evaluated. Various instruments designed to evaluate curricular and instructional modes yielded essentially positive results. It is suggested that a course in suicidology and self-destructive behavior might well be a viable and significant aspect of a clinical pastoral education quarter, a summer institute, a continuing education experience, as well as a course in a theological seminary. The strength of this kind of course rests especially in the utilization of a variety of instructional modes and a wide range of resources, personal and community.

An Experimental Course for Clergymen in Suicidodolgy and Crisis Intervention

communication. This book makes an important contribution to the growing literature in the field of thanatology. Not only does it make a theoretical contribution, but it also makes positive suggestions toward the management of the dying. The chapter on dealing with the family of the dying patient should be of interest to the pastor who has the family, as well as the patient, as one of his primary responsibilities.