Gæsteforelæsning ved professor i praktisk teologi og sjælesorg
Daniel Louw, University of Stellenbosch, Sydafrika (CV at the bottom of this Post)
Torsdag den 31. januar 2013, kl. 19.30-21.30
i Aud. 7, Det Teologiske Fakultet, Købmagergade 46, 1150 København K
From cura animarum to cura vitae and philosophical counseling
– towards a ‘new approach’ in pastoral care and counseling?
Philosophical counseling is aware of the fact that for healing to take place, the outside world and the framework for meaning, as well as the interpretation of events, need to be changed. Healing implies more than empathetic listening and talking. Healing also implies paradigmatic changes and the development of a functional philosophical disposition toward your situation. Rather than dwelling on the question: How do you feel? Philosophical counseling poses the questions: What is your framework for meaningful living?
What meaning, purpose, or value is implied? What is motivating you to decide for a very specific direction or definite goal? How do you envision a possible outcome and what are realistic options? What are the factors preventing you to act according to the eventual goal? What do you hope for? All of these questions cannot be separated from their philosophical context, which is determined by different schemata of interpretations and patterns of thinking (paradigms). Der henvises til Daniël Louws bog Cura Vitae. Illness and the Healing of Life, Cape Town: Lux Verbi 2008.
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Abstract for a one-day seminar with Professor Daniel Louw,
Monday 4th of February 2013
Cura animarum – the cure of souls – has defined much of Christian caregiving. A world suffering from poverty, health pandemics, and war may require a new paradigm.
The cure of life – cura vitae – offers a new understanding of caregiving and seeks to find meaning for all people, regardless of their religious or philosophical orientation.
In his book, Cura vitae: Illness and the cure of life, South African theologian, Daniel Louw (2008) argues for this new paradigm in pastoral caregiving.
Louw explores pastoral care that seeks meaning in suffering and empowers living in the face of death, while questioning whether traditional approaches to caregiving can speak into today’s world.
Cura vitae is primarily preparatory and preventative: it prepares persons to face illness and death even as it empowers persons not to become ill or stuck in dysfunctional systems.
Also, pastoral care as cura vitae is affirming of all lives, restorative, and transformational.
Embracing the uniqueness of personhood, cura vitae as the cure of life affirms individuality within multiple relational systems. It finds health in the presence of meaning rather than in the absence of illness.
Louw summarizes his argument as follows:
Cura vitae is about a theology of life and the healing of life… It is about hope, care, and the endeavor to give meaning to life within the reality of suffering, our human vulnerability, and the ever-present predicament of trauma, illness, and sickness… Cura vitae is a theological attempt to create a paradigm shift in care giving from a predominant focus on our “knowing and doing” functions to our “being” functions.
I propose four lectures departing from this point of view:
1. Theory formation in pastoral care: Towards a theology of pastoral care – an introduction to Cura Vitae
2. Anthropology in spiritual care and healing: Towards a systemic approach
3. Spiritual care as life care: Towards an integrative and existential approach
3. Counseling in spiritual care: Towards a four stage model within the practice of care and counseling
Karsten Thomsen, chaplain Bispebjerg Hospital 5.of November 2012
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Seminars with Daniel Louw January 2013
Wednesday 30.1.13 afternoon 13-15
Pastoral anthropology with emphasis on our contribution to healing and wellbeing – human identity and dignity in caregiving/chaplaincy within the realm of discrimination and stigmatisation.
What is meant by a ‘Pastoral Anthropology’ in care and what is the difference between a theological anthropology and the other helping and healing professions.
We experience that when the ministers are working in hospitals the question surfaces:
What is our contribution to healing and well-being?
What is meant with ‘spiritual Healing and Health’?
Dialogue with Hans Vium Mikkelsen, ph.d.
Thursday 31.1.13 afternoon 13-15
God-images and the connection between theology and theodicy
An attempt to show a variety of God-images in caregiving within the human quest for meaning (hope-giving and the spiritual framework of belief systems/philosophies of life), and how these images are connected to the notion of the power of God (God Almighty), the compassion of God and the realities of human existential suffering.
Dialogue with Hans Vium Mikkelsen, ph.d., and Jakob Wolf, dr.theol.
Open evening seminar with Daniel Louw,
Thursday evening 31.1.13
19.30-21.30
From cura animarum to cura vitae and philosophical counseling – towards a ‘new approach’ in pastoral care and counselling?
Philosophical counselling is aware of the fact that for healing to take place, the outside world and the framework for meaning, as well as the interpretation of events, need to be changed.
Healing implies more than empathetic listening and talking. Healing also implies paradigmatic changes and the development of a functional philosophical disposition toward your situation.
Rather than dwelling on the question: How do you feel? Philosophical counselling poses the questions: What is your framework for meaningful living?
What meaning, purpose, or value is implied? What is motivating you to decide for a very specific direction or definite goal? How do you envision a possible outcome and what are realistic options? What are the factors preventing you to act according to the eventual goal? What do you hope for?
All of these questions cannot be separated from their philosophical context, which is determined by different schemata of interpretations and patterns of thinking (paradigms).
Karsten Thomsen, chaplain BBH, 26.11.12
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Daniel Louw
After completion of his theological training, he furthered his studies in Philosophy at the University of Tübingen, Germany, on the principle of hope (E Bloch) and theology of hope (J Moltmann).
He has served as minister in two congregations near Cape Town and, since 1978, has been a lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch. He is responsible for Practical Theology, Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Counselling. Pastoral Care focuses on chaplaincy, terminal care, marriage and family enrichment, as well as on social issues, such as poverty and Aids.
Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care is viewed as a theological discipline. Within the framework of the traditional understanding of pastoral care as cura animarum (care of the human soul), we endeavour to develop Pastoral Theology as a healing enterprise, which focuses on care from the perspective of salvation. Pastoral Care is faith care applied as life care. The main objective is to help people towards a meaningful life with the aid of an appropriate understanding of God and his presence. The following important existential life issues should be addressed:
Our anxiety for rejection, isolation and death – hence the human quest for intimacy and acceptance.
Guilt and guilt feelings – hence the human quest for liberation and freedom.
Despair and doubt – hence the human quest for hope and a meaningful future.
Research Areas
Prof. Louw’s research focuses on the link between healing/salvation and burning life issues, such as conflict in marriage relationships, the pain of divorce, tension within families, caring for people suffering from Aids, and an outreach to poor communities. His special field of interest is the interplay between God-images and suffering. The core question in pastoral theology is the problem of theodicy and our search for guidance: the will of God in suffering.
Selected Publications
1994. Illness as crisis and challenge . Johannesburg: Orion.
1995. Love lasts : A couple’s guide to growth and enrichment. Cape Town: Lux Verbi.
1998. A pastoral hermeneutics of care and encounter . Cape Town: Lux Verbi.
1999. A mature faith : Spiritual direction and anthropology in a theology of pastoral care and counseling. Louvain theological & pastoral monographs 25. Louvain: Peeters Press (Eerdmans).
2000. Meaning in suffering : A theological reflection on the cross and the resurrection for pastoral care and counselling. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.