Philip Culbertson: Caring for God's People

(Fortress Press $85.95)

Review: Nicola Watkin*

Subtitled Counseling and Christian Wholeness, Caring for God's People is promoted as a textbook on pastoral counselling for a new generation of professionals in ministry. It should not be viewed as an easy read, but rather as a resource tool. As soon as I began reading, however, I realised that this book is not primarily aimed at those of us in ministry in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Aucklander Philip Culbertson's very American references to school grades and his American spelling indicate who the real audience is, even if some local examples are used.

Not surprisingly, Culbertson begins with a number of assumptions. For example, he has chosen family-systems theory, narrative-counselling theory and object-relations theory as the three most useful approaches from the field of psychotherapy for those in ministry.

Of course, most ministers do trawl from a wide range of theories, so even if you do disagree with this view and are willing to grapple with the jargon, his analysis could add to any minister's melting pot.

Another assumption Culbertson works from is his perception of ministry, which he defines as recognising God through self-knowledge and then simply being among others to point where God is already present and at work.

Good ministry, according to Culbertson, is ultimately dependent upon the pastor's people skills, people knowledge and knowing what wholeness looks like.

As significant as these issues are, ministry must be more than this. What about our understanding of who God is and the skills in ministry that enable people to discover a closer relationship with God? What is Christian ministry without a living, active God?

And yet there are practical ideas and a great deal of useful information throughout the book, with the three theories fully outlined and then applied to the areas of pre-marital, marital and divorce counselling; counselling of gays and lesbians; ministry with those who mourn, and staying safe in ministry.

I finished the book feeling it was yet another very good counselling textbook. But the application of theory to Christian ministry seemed superficial, with a lack of real theological integration. Assumptions about theology are not clarified at the outset, as others are. Instead these must be pieced together as one reads. The emphasis on comprehending the "object-God" as something we have created and the only other perception of God being labelled the "God Beyond" implies an inability to have a relationship with a real God who exists beyond our imaginings.

The emphasis on Christian maturity correlating with autonomy and independence goes against the strong argument for mature interdependence, as modelled on the nature of the Trinity.

Culbertson's introduction promotes the need to delve into the dangerous place where Christian faith, psychotherapeutic theory, ecclesiology, missiology and justice issues intersect.

It seems to me that although this is a fine counselling text, Culbertson fails to find that elusive point of intersection.

* Rev Nicola Watkin is a co-minister at the Kohimarama Presbyterian Church.