This book wrestles with quandaries of pastoral ministry in what psychotherapist Mary Pipher calls "the age of overwhelm." Drawing especially from the wisdom of Jesus' own teaching and healing ministries as portrayed in the Gospel of Luke, it offers an intimate narrative introduction to pastoral theology for guiding bewildering tasks of pastoral care and counseling. These essays encourage seminarians and ministers to embrace their role as agents of healing by exploring their own debilitating shame and daring to speak what in childhood could not be spoken; by revealing their discoveries to a trusted confidant so as to feel less loathsome or lonely; by attending to even minute individual differences, in self and others, that fuel social isolation; and by believing in those persons who first believed in them

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