How we know: new chapter available
So it's a delight to plug a book by friends that includes a chapter on the topic (especially since I wrote the chapter!): The Handbook of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Clinical Applications, edited by Thorana S. Nelson and Frank N. Thomas.
Aimed at mental-health professionals of all types, the book is a significant, "second-generation" contribution to the literature of solution-focused therapy. It includes a chapter on SFT in faith communities for those who have a specific interest in pastoral applications.
My own chapter traces the epistemological foundations of SFT, drawing on an Islamic theory of spiritual knowledge to propose one (ontological and metaphysical) way of understanding the tremendous shifts that can occur during conversations informed by solution-focused theory.
It's something I would like to write more about in the future from a particularly pastoral and theological perspective, as Western philosophy has been largely silent about the spiritual dimension of human knowing.
(Of course, Mark McIntosh's Discernment and Truth: The Spirituality and Theology of Knowledge is a recent and valuable exception to this vast generalization. Heartily recommended!)
I blushed when I read one early comment about my chapter:
WOW--this is an amazing piece. . . . And this chapter is going into the required reading list for my students (and me). One of the best and most accessible explications I've read.(It probably helps that there aren't actually all that many explications of the epistemology of SFT!)
Several times during the American Academy of Religion meeting last fall, I heard panelists and members talking about the need to explore "alternative epistemologies" in the study of religion and spirituality.
Pastoral theology has done a good job exploring the limits of knowledge, particularly from a philosophical perspective. We've been less concerned, however, about the metaphysical and ontological dimensions/implications of how we know through and during our practices of care.
That's probably something we'll have to address if spirituality is going to become a source, norm, criterion and resource for pastoral care and counseling.
Labels: epistemology, pastoral theology, solution-focused therapy
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, May 10, 2007
Who are we?
At the AAPC conference last weekend, I made a throwaway remark about "forming good clinicians."Immediately, Lee Butler of Chicago Theological Seminary said something like: "We're not about forming 'good clinicians.' We're about forming pastoral theologians who have good clinical skills."
I appreciate Lee's comment (made to the Association's working group of faculty in graduate programs), not only because I agree but because he has succinctly named a primary issue faced by pastoral counselors today:
- Are we primarily clinicians who also know how to reflect theologically and spiritually on the people and situations we encounter?
OR
- Are we primarily pastoral theologians who also have good clinical skills?
It's not an either/or issue, of course. But it's at the heart of the formation of pastoral counselors today, of my work as a theological educator, and of the crisis of identity faced by AAPC.
The tension between these two approaches was evident--but unnamed--in the comments at a two-part session on theological reflection (during which Lee responded to a case presented by another pastoral counselor) and during much informal conversation at the conference.
(By the way: Don't bother with Wikipedia's entry on pastoral theology--it's hopelessly out of date with the ways the discipline has evolved into the 21st century.)
Labels: AAPC, pastoral counseling, pastoral theology
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, May 01, 2007