Pastoral Psychology of Healing

Every person, in her or his personal relationships and professional activities, is guided by a complex, often tacit, theory of healing, comprised of judgments about illness/suffering (what's wrong'); health/well-being (what's possible' what's ideal'); the trajectory from one to the other (how do we get there'); and factors that enhance as well as inhibit movement along that trajectory (what should we do'). Examining and comparing a range of theories of healing--in psychology, medicine, Christian traditions, world religions, and non-Western cultures--equips us critically to reflect upon, amend, if not reconstruct our respective theories of healing.