Date

3-22-2024

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Kristin Kellen

Keywords

humanism, DSM, pastoral counseling, Kraepelin

Disciplines

Adult and Continuing Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Pastoral care has existed in some form for generations, dating most precisely back to the New Testament writings of Paul, the Apostle. Religious people-helping approaches thus endured in some form until a dramatic shift occurred in the late 1700s, with the onset of the Enlightenment. This historic phenomenon resulted in an aggressive cultural adjustment to understand the self and its distresses apart from religious orientation, instead favoring a humanistic orientation. Yet, pastoral counseling has endured and adapted in an effort to remain a viable means of serving people in distress. In modernity, pastoral care and counseling now exists within a larger cultural framework for people-helping, much of which that has been influenced by the secular humanistic, materialistic infiltration of thought that has characterized the last three centuries, with secular humanistic categories being widely used throughout. This research seeks to determine if modern pastors and pastoral counselors are aware of the influence of secular humanism in their counseling approaches.

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