Pastoral Bearings

The study of lived religion is an enterprise which attempts to elucidate how 'ordinary' men and women in all times and places draw on religious behavior, media, and meanings to make sense of themselves and their world. Through the influence of liberation theology and postmodernism, pastoral theologianslike other scholars of religionhave begun more closely to examine the particularity of religious practice that is reflected through the rubric of lived religion. Pastoral Bearings offers up ten studies that exemplify the usefulness of the lived religion paradigm to the field of pastoral theology. The volume presents detailed qualitative research focused on the everyday beliefs and practices of individuals and groups and explores the implications of lived religion for interdisciplinary conversation, intercultural and gender analysis, and congregational studies. Reflecting upon the utility of this approach for pastoral theological research, education, and pastoral care, the studies collected in Pastoral Bearings demonstrate the importance of the study of lived religion.

Pastoral Bearings is a richly textured mosaic of lived religion, as practiced in local communities, denominations, and individual lives. The pictures are painful, inspiring, and joyful, providing an earthly view of religious life in diverse communities facing diverse challenges. The concern for pastoral bearings— the pastoral effects of religious beliefs and practices— is addressed in the ethnographic and interview narratives themselves, and also in the probing interpretations that evoke complex pictures of bodies, race, gender, poverty and social class, material culture, illness, dis/ability, and suffering in the religious landscape. Pastoral care-givers and practical theologians will be challenged and informed by this book.

Leonard Hummel is associate professor of Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Jane F. Maynard is currently serving as Priest in Charge at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Medina, WA. Mary Clark Moschella is professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Yale Divinity School.