Beyond the Culture of Care

In the epigraph to this fine book, Frances Moran makes the bold claim (her words) that our culture has souled-out to the forces of the all pervasive marketplace. It is a judgment which, to the satisfaction of this reader, she supports in an introductory chapter which analyses and appraises the defining features of our age. Having highlighted an increasing tendency to treat human beings as objects rather than subjects, she draws attention to the three most important contemporary influences (image, language and the other) in the process of the commodification of our selves. The writer clearly defines what she means by pastoral practice and distinguishes it from counselling, chaplaincy work, various forms of therapy and pastoral care as it has been popularly understood. She also considers the changing mentalities (theological, dialogical, individualistic and market) that have engendered specific pastoral responses over the past 70 years; and, with considerable insight, she sets the agenda for pastoral practitioners in the twenty-first century an agenda which pertains to the work of recognising, sustaining, encouraging and nurturing human subjectivity, the terrain of the spiritual. Frances Moran believes these practitioners, faced with the pervasive commodification processes that currently shape the culture, need an informed theoretical framework that will provide a grounded basis for their work. For this reason she develops at length a theory of pastoral practice that takes account of five key features descriptive of human subjectivity. How this theory may be applied in practice and the implications it has for the formation of pastoral practitioners are spelled out in two chapters rich in common sense and helpful ideas applied to a variety of contexts aged care, general hospital, parish, school and industry. Moran is a practising clinician in the psycho-analytic tradition and the author of three other works [including the work Searching for the Soul, co-authored with Tony Kelly CSsR and published by St Pauls (1999). Ed.] In this book, which deserves a wide readership, she addresses the question: How can the Church provide a pastoral response in the face of the market mentality? The answer she gives is couched in language not unduly technical, is conversational in tone and free of gobbledegook. Above all, it is enlightening. I highly recommend this book to those engaged in any way in pastoral practice of in related fields. --Brian Grenier CFC, The Catholic Leader