Three quotations summarize, in essence, the message of a new and very helpful book, The Psychology of Pastoral Care, reviewed more briefly on page 32 of this issue. The author, Paul E. Johnson, states his objectives clearly at the outset and develops them in a direct and single-minded style.
"It is too easy," he says, "to go through the motions of the pastoral office with decorum while the actual needs of persons may not be met or even understood. . . . It is the aim of my study to view the pastor and his working relationships from the standpoint of dynamic, interpersonal psychology. This theory of interpersonal relations is set forth in the opening chapters as a hypothesis to be tried out through the following chapters in the actual situations to which the pastor will relate himself."—Page 7.
"To be a good pastor was never so difficult, for new conditions demand new knowledge and skill. He must learn better the arts of pastoral ministry, prepare more thoroughly for this vocation, and practice it more competently. Even as physicians today must know far more and practice more expertly to meet health needs, so will physicians of the soul need all the arts of science and religion that bear upon spiritual health."—Page 24.
"Pastoral psychology is interested in the potential needs and values of persons in social relations, the creative possibilities of religious experience, and the methods by which pastoral services can be effective in working for these enlarging values. It seeks to understand personality and enrich interpersonal relations by investigating the dynamics of human motivation and the resources of religious growth. The pastor will be a thorough student of personality, knowing the characteristic emotional conflicts and anxieties, aware of nervous symptoms and cause, able to employ techniques of counseling and group leadership with scientific accuracy and practical effectiveness."—Pages 26, 27.
In describing the counseling process he advocates what he calls the "responsive" method in preference to the directive or nondirective. As partial support for his argument he makes the point that the latter method is actually somewhat directive in practice. He feels that it is not a case of neither-nor, but that the best typeresponsive—contains the desirable elements of both.
This is one of the most important sections of the book. In the past, in an attempt to avoid being too directive in counseling, as most ministers (speaking of Protestants generally) are tempted to be, many have swung over to the other extreme of accepting Rogers' nondirective method almost exclusively. This has weakened the pastor's role in proclaiming revelation, in announcing judgment, and in exercising authority. Johnson's responsive type of counseling probably comes nearest to what Seventh-day Adventists would consider a balanced and wholesome method.
The section on confession may be somewhat disturbing to some readers. Although the author evidently shares the general Protestant view of confession, his terminology in a few places may seem to have a Roman Catholic flavor. The reader will want to suspend judgment at several points until he reads the last two paragraphs of the chapter. Here we will be better able to decide whether Johnson and we speak the same language.
In this connection a reading of the counsel in the writings of the Spirit of prophecy makes it evident that a promiscuous type of confession to fellow human beings is not considered proper or wise. However, it does not seem reasonable that we should assume that no person under any circumstances should be permitted to open his heart to a minister, a man who represents for him the reconciling love of God. Physicians, themselves only men of like passions, who deal largely with the body, often hear "confessions" in their medical ministry. Should not the doctor of souls —the minister—sometimes expect to hear stories hidden from others, which help him to understand and to act intelligently and tactfully as God's agent in bringing healing to diseased minds and sick hearts? This surely is implied in the moving description of the pastor's work found on page 184 of Gospel Workers:
"There is need of shepherds who, under the direction of the Chief Shepherd, will seek for the lost and straying. This means the bearing of physical discomfort and the sacrifice of ease. It means a tender solicitude for the erring, a divine compassion and forbearance. It means an ear that can listen with sympathy to heartbreaking 'recitals of wrong, of degradation, of despair and misery." (Italics supplied.)
One should keep in mind, also, when reading in this field, that some terms in the vocabulary of pastoral psychology have different meaning from those in common use. In this category are such words as confession, anxiety, guilt, acceptance, and rejection. One can judge an author fairly only if one knows what he is actually saying in the context of the particular vocabulary of his field.
After the section on confession is a good chapter on marriage counseling. Though it is, of necessity, only a sort of general introduction, it provides an excellent point of departure into a wider study of this area of pastoral care.
Because of the limits of a volume of this kind, only one chapter is given to the pastoral care of the family. In this setting the author contrasts a "nourishing" religion with a "punitive" or "magical" kind. Seventh-day Adventists will differ with him in the application he makes of the adjective "punitive." Dr. Johnson would doubtless consider some elements of Seventh-day Adventist doctrines and beliefs as emotionally unhealthy. Definite criticism of Dr. Johnson's treatment has already been made by Dr. Wayne Oates, professor of psychology of religion and pastoral care of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Religious Factors in Mental Illness (New York: Association, 1955, pp. 69-71).
The chapter on the pastoral care of the family also includes a short section on pastoral care for "those who walk alone"—those who have not married and those who have lost mates by death or divorce. Ministry to these persons has been rather neglected, and much more needs to be understood and put into practice. This is true also of the problems of the aging in the church population—a rapidly increasing group that is receiving more and more study by civic officials, sociologists, doctors, and ministers. In the last part of the chapter on the family Dr. Johnson urges attention to our "senior citizens."
Seventh-day Adventists will particularly appreciate the title chosen for chapter seven: "The Ministry of Healing." Here the author deals with the crisis of illness, with bedside ministry, with the care of nervous and disturbed persons, with the psychosomatic approach, and with the Christian resources for healing. This is followed by an excellent chapter on the pastoral care of the dying and of the bereaved.
Even though the reader may not agree entirely with the author, some of the most challenging and provocative writing in the book is Dr. Johnson's discussion of "the pastor himself" and the "ultimate concerns" with which he is dealing. Enlarging on comments made in earlier chapters, he recommends therapy for the pastor's own personality, intensive work in the psychology of personality, and clinical pastoral training. Although neither inclination nor time would permit Seventh-day Adventists to accept all of his suggestions, there is nonetheless much in them that should ultimately be made available to the ministers in the field.
Since the final pages of the book will turn the reader's attention definitely to the subject of clinical pastoral training, perhaps a few comments on that subject may be in order. Since about three thousand ministers in the country at large have now had such training, its value can easily be checked from their reports. The vast majority are highly pleased with the experience obtained. The amount of benefit gained, however, depends in great degree on the instructor's personality and character and on his conception of the role of the pastor.
In the past, Seventh-day Adventists have been encouraged not to go to secular institutions for advanced study without maturity of experience and a strong grounding in the message. If this was good advice then—even though it has not always been followed—it is doubly so in connection with clinical pastoral training. All seminarians and ministers find disturbing factors in the training program, but these do not arise out of major differences in theology or science. The Seventh-day Adventist, however, with his belief in creation, his fundamental attitude toward Scripture, his acceptance of the guidance of an active Spirit of prophecy in modern times, finds it more difficult to adjust to the supervisor, to the program, and to his fellow trainees. It is the opinion of this reviewer that only some Seventh-day Adventists, chosen with care at both ends of the line, should enter clinical training outside a denominational institution. These can act as a bridge over which the benefits of the program may be carried to our people without exposing seminarians or ministers in the field to the pitfalls and hazards likely to confront the uninitiated.
Finally, an incidental but important value in reading this book will be the better understanding gained of what is being taught today in many seminaries in the field of pastoral psychology and care. The counsel to work with and for the ministers of other denominations (Evangelism, pp. 143, 562) can be carried out more effectively if one knows how these men interpret the ministerial call and how they seek to respond to it.
This is a book that no minister or teacher in our ranks can well afford to pass by.
[Our readers will be interested to know that the Theological Seminary is now offering courses in pastoral care and counseling, including opportunities for clinical pastoral training. For pastors unable to take advantage of this, help can be obtained by way of orientation in such meetings as the Pastoral Counseling Institute, described in the February issue of THE MINISTRY, pages 17 and 18.]
