“They Had to Beg Us to Pray”: Reflections on the Undesirability of Clinical Pastoral Education

Abstract

Critiques certain assumptions and procedures of Clinical Pastoral Education and offers an alternative view designed to provide the pastoral caregiver with assessment and conceptual stances which would lead to an understanding of a client's situation. Claims that such an alternate understanding would allow power to religious texts and traditions as interventions leading to psychological stability and growth, whether or not such interventions match the client's manifest material or expectations.