Revisiting the Living Human Web: Theological Education and the Role of Clinical Pastoral Education

Abstract

This article addresses repercussions for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and theological education of the move in pastoral theology from the metaphor of the “living human document” to the “living web” to describe its subject of study, a question pastoral theologians have not explicitly considered. It focuses primarily on the descriptive task of understanding problems in theological education, CPE's turn to the document, and the evolution of the web as a new metaphor. Least controversially, it argues that the image of the web has both problems and undeveloped potential. More radically, it suggests that CPE's gift to theological education may still be its understanding of the document and its development of methods by which to attend to personhood. Ultimately, the “living document within the web” may be the best way to frame the subject matter of both CPE and pastoral theology.