In healthcare settings, pastoral care refers to the provision of emotional and spiritual support to patients, visitors, and staff. Services may include listening to life stories, conducting memorial services, providing companionship, or offering one-on-one time with patients. The specific activities vary depending on whether the care provider follows a religious tradition or operates from a secular framework.
History and approach: worldwide
Contemporary The term "pastoral care" has evolved from its historical association with Christian ministry. Modern institutional pastoral care in Europe includes multi-faith, secular, and humanist approaches. Services offered vary by institution and may include counseling, meditation, and various forms of psychological support. In some cases, clients can request their preferred type of care. Pastoral care can also be associated with palliative care, depending on the provider. Pastoral care typically involves the practitioner and client sitting together, with the client sharing personal details. The practitioner listens attentively, keeps the information confidential, and, depending on their training and approach, offers guidance and counsel. This is often closely aligned with the psychological practice of holding space. In Australia, some private schools use the term "PCG" (pastoral care group) or "pastoral period" for homeroom, with teachers referred to as "PCAs" (pastoral care advisors). In Romania, PCAs also perform counseling roles.
Christian
Definition Within Christianity, pastoral care is an approach to improve mental distress. It has been practiced since the formation of the Christian Church. This model for pastoral care is based on the Biblical stories of Jesus healing others. In the early church, the term Poimenic was used to describe this task of soul-care. In the New Testament, the interactions described with the term "pastoral care" are also described with Paraklesis (Greek: παράκλησις paráklēsis), which broadly means "accompaniment," "encouragement," "admonition," and "consolation" (e.g., Romans 12:8; Philippians 2:1; 1 Timothy 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:14). Pastoral care occurs in various contexts, including congregations, hospital chaplaincy, prison chaplaincy, psychiatry, crisis intervention, telephone helplines, counseling centers, senior care facilities, disability work, hospices, end-of-life care, grief support, and more. The term "pastoral ministry" relates to shepherds and their role of caring for their sheep. Christians were the first to adopt the term for metaphorical use, although many religions and non-religious traditions also place an emphasis on care and social responsibility. In the West, pastoral ministry has since expanded into pastoral care, embracing many different religions and non-religious beliefs. The Bible does not explicitly define the role of a pastor but associates it with teaching or "shepherding the flock".
…Shepherding involves protection, tending to needs, strengthening the weak, encouragement, feeding the flock, making provision, shielding, refreshing, restoring, leading by example to move people on in their pursuit of holiness, comforting, guiding (Ps 78:52; 23).
History In the ancient church, pastoral care primarily revolved around the Christians' struggle against sin, which jeopardized their ultimate salvation. The theologians Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius of Caesarea understood this as mainly the concern of individuals for their own souls. Increasingly, the role of pastoral caregivers was seen as assisting individual Christians in this endeavor. The first pastoral movement emerged among the Desert Fathers, who were often visited by Christians seeking advice, though this was not yet referred to as pastoral care. Similarly, the early monastic-like communities served as such pastoral care centers. The letters of Basil of Ancyra, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom contain numerous examples of pastoral counsel; the term "pastoral care" shifted towards a concern for the souls of others. At the transition to the Middle Ages, Gregory the Great composed the Liber Regulae Pastoris (The Book of the Shepherd's Rules) directed towards the pope, one of the most influential books on pastoral care (cura). During the Middle Ages, pastoral care was closely tied to the practice of the sacrament of penance, which included confession of sins, making amends, and absolution by the priest. Against the often mechanized routine, particularly from the monastic tradition, efforts were made to address this, such as by Bernard of Clairvaux. The Latin term cura animarum (care of souls) emerged as the proper responsibility of the bishop as the pastor responsible for individual Christians, which he usually delegated to a priest, typically the parish priest. In this sense, cura animarum is also used in today's canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. Among the Reformers, the emphasis shifted from focus on sin to emphasis on God's forgiveness and comfort, particularly evident in the works of Martin Luther and Heinrich Bullinger. In many cases, however, church discipline soon replaced pastoral care. In the 19th century, the Protestant theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher established practical theology. He emphasized that pastoral care should strengthen the freedom and autonomy of individual members within a congregation. As early as 1777, the field of pastoral theology was introduced into the curriculum of the University of Vienna (Austria) under Franz Stephan Rautenstrauch, and was taught in the national language rather than Latin. In Germany, it was further developed and disseminated primarily by Johann Michael Sailer and is considered a precursor to modern pastoral care. In the United States, Anton Theophilus Boisen, one of the key figures in the American pastoral care movement, developed the concept of "clinical pastoral training" in the 1920s. This concept integrated pastoral care, psychology, and education. In the mid-1960s, the pastoral care movement spread to Germany through the Netherlands, leading to the development of pastoral psychology. In the theology of the regional churches (Landeskirchen), pastoral care with a focus on pastoral psychology remains a standard practice today.
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