This is an accessible resource for students and practitioners to become aware of the significance of self-knowledge for the provision of sensitive spiritual and pastoral care. The greatest asset which people in pastoral care offer to in a caring relationship is themselves or to be more precise the aspects of self which they have reflected upon. Offering oneself to other people in order to provide companionship along the road of life, especially when the particular stage on the journey is one of anticipated or actual loss, is an act which is both challenging and yet potentially life enhancing for a carer. The purpose of this book is to offer an aid to those who seek to understand themselves better with a view to enhancing the quality of spiritual and pastoral care they offer. Here the reference point for reflexivity is the caring relationship but as we are fundamentally the same beings in personal and professional relationships then perhaps readers may also find stimulus to reflect on what they bring to a variety of relationships including that with the Sacred and, indeed, themselves.

An accessible resource for students and pracititioners to become aware of the significance of self-knowledge for the provision of sensitive spiritual and pastoral care.

About the Author
Ewan Kelly initially studied medicine and worked as a junior doctor before completing a theology degree and becoming ordained as a Church of Scotland minister. He is now Lecturer in Pastoral Theology in the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Reviews
'It is a very long time since I have read a work of pastoral theology as rich, perceptive, and elegantly expressed as Personhood and Presence. Ewan Kelly is absolutely right on all three counts. The self is the best gift the caregiver has to offer. Acute self-awareness is needed to fully offer the gift. Such reflexivity is a moral imperative. This book has the power to inform and transform the reader's pastoral practice at the deepest level. The way in which Kelly weaves together theological, psychological, and poetic insights is nothing short of brilliant.' - Neil Pembroke, University of Queensland, Australia -- Neil Pembroke
Jesus tells us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbour as yourself." Loving God and neighbour seems obvious to many of us, but love of self? In order to know and to love ourselves and to learn what it means to love God and care for others, we need to be able to look properly at ourselves. In this important, rigorous and sometimes moving book Ewan Kelly teaches us what it might mean to know and to love ourselves in such a way that we can truly reach out with love and care towards God and others. When we encounter ourselves; our true selves as they stand before God, so we learn what it means to love with the fullness of God. This book is an important contribution to theology and practice. -- John Swinton, University of Aberdeen, UK



Book Information
ISBN 9780567283283
Author Ewan Kelly
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint T.& T.Clark Ltd
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 270g