It was the title that drew my attention to this book. It was in the shelf of books on counseling in the Christian section of a large bookstore. The author is lecturer in pastoral care at the School of Theology, Flinders University of South Australia, and the Adelaide College of Divinity. His thesis is that the art of listening lies at the heart of pastoral ministry, it establishes a genuine relationship between persons in which supportive, healing and counsel can be given and received. Personal receptivity on the part of the counselor towards the counselee and linked with that, the necessary struggle involved in seeing the counselee come to a sound mental, spiritual and moral state in the Lord are examined. The book is a very slow unfolding of various insights using writings of two writer philosophers Gabriel Marcel and Martin Buber. These insights he examines in the light of common and accepted pastoral categories and sets all against a Biblical framework. The aim of the book is to help form an understanding of pastoral counsel and care that is liberated from the simply professional approach and established rather upon the Biblical basis of compassion. The style of writing in this book is almost painstakingly slow but in this deliberate approach there is much to be gained. The second half of the book is an exploration of the issue of shame and its debilitating effect when we are not truly ‘present’ to those we are seeking to help. When reading this book and re reading certain sections I received the distinct sense that the whole was a kind of exploration, a thoughtful examination of matters relating to personal counsel that ought to be the bread and butter of pastoral ministers and care givers but are neglected if we are not careful. There is no attempt to support, encourage or vilify the various methods of psychotherapeutic counseling being practiced today, even by Christian counselors, rather, the author is searching deeper into way that compassionate love is able form a basis of trust in which the grace of the Lord Jesus and His wisdom, coupled with insights from the various psychiatric schools of practice will accomplish much in helping those in need. This is a book for the thoughtful pastor or leader desiring, from a different source, to receive confirmation of God’s ways in dealing with precious souls.
