Discuss about the Introduction to Academic Reading and Research.
In its simplest sense, the term pastoral practice, refers to the application of an idea, that guides an individual closer to God, and makes him feel the essence of divinity. Since the post Vatican II period, it has been believed, that pastoral practices are indeed important, as these help in bringing out the profound truths of life, engaging an individual to enter into a conversation with heart. For the acquisition of true knowledge, it is important that the learner is capable of attaining deep, rational, objective and analytical form of knowledge, and the same is possible, only with the help of critical thinking. While pastoral practice makes it possible to search for the ultimate spiritual truth, critical learning paves the way for emancipating the soul from all the barriers of knowledge, and hence, pastoral practice and critical learning are inter-connected.
Discussion:
After the introduction of the concept of pastoral practices, ethics and pastoral practices were being treated as the same. On the one hand, while ethics dealt with what is right, pastoral practices dealt with the right and the just things of the world, approved by Christ. However, gradually, in later periods, it was being the dynamic view of human nature was understood. It was realized, that much of what an individual does, may not have been done by his conscious mind, but by his unconscious forces of mind. Keeping this in mind, pastoral practices, started dealing with not just what is right and what is wrong, but it started teaching mankind to search for their own experiences and to listen to their own voices, by resolving their inner conflicts [2].
Pastoral preaching has put a strong emphasis on the importance of God, whereby the entire world and human nature are also guided and determined by Him. This unquestionable submission to God, helps one to have a much rational and wider approach to any problem, at hand. Pastoral practices teach a man, to understand the world and the people in it, with love and faith, and hence the people practicing the same, ceases to be judgmental or parochial in vision. Pastoral practices uphold the idea of self-transcendence, it helps people in linking one’s own identity, with the rest of mankind, based on the common relation of humanity. It does not believe in creating distinctions, based on religion or sex, but it upholds the importance of universal love, resulting from the communion of one with the other [3].
The concept of pastoral care has also being introduced in modern educational systems. Unlike the previous times, when this was being introduced with the sole purpose of educating the child in a way, that he may be morally fit to pass on to a better world, in recent times, the concept has greatly evolved. Pastoral care, is all about educating and upbringing a child in a way, that he is capable of achieving overall moral as well as emotional well-being as he grows up. Further, it helps him to learn everything with an open heart, and a power to challenge and interrogate anything that is not right. Pastoral practices helps the learner to learn by open heart, and with a kind of spontaneity, without any pressure to follow the traditional rules mechanically. It helps the learner in self-reflection and self-development.
In order to enable oneself to think critically is not an easy task. The process of critical thinking involves a process of self reflection and powerful meditation. A thinker in order to possess the quality of critical thinking has to pass from being an unreflective thinker, to a challenged thinker to finally a master thinker. Pastoral practices largely helps an individual in gaining skills and insightful knowledge for the same. No knowledge can be complete, if it faces obstacles of freedom of expression of opinions or thoughts or questions. Pastoral practices allow an individual to emancipate himself from all the shackles of life, and to attain knowledge and express the same, with an everlasting zeal for greater enlightenment, through knowledge and wisdom. Any form of traditional thinking, is strongly determined by every day, traditional knowledge, but it is only the pastoral practices that help an individual undertake a quest for knowledge, so that one can reflect, ponder, analyze and evaluate before jumping into the conclusion [4].
In today’s modern world, many schools adopt a pastoral approach for teaching the students, in order to help them develop, nurture and enhance their creative power and critical thinking. Instead of the traditional, formal method of teaching with the help of a book and a blackboard, many teachers have introduced the idea of informal, digital teaching, whereby a child is shown a lot of creative video and audio clips, before him and he makes his interpretation of the subject matter, on his own[5]. This self reflective and self-educating purpose of critical learning, as introduced by pastoral practices, has also being exploited by the modern education systems, though the concept of visual literacy. Visual literacy, using the very concept of pastoral practices, believes in allowing the children visualize things, engage in activity based learning, and interpret the subjects, based on one’s own discretion [6].
There are many ways by which pastoral practice can be conducted. Some of them can be discussed here:
The Catalytic Pastor: The catalytic pastor is regarded as the kind of pastor that has a lot of energy and is more focused towards the mission of the church. It is assumed that when focus is made on the mission of the church, everything goes right and it is directly influenced by Jesus. On the other hand, if in doubt, the same can result in some negative aspect and it might result in certain doubts as well.
The Cultivating Pastor: This pastor talks about harvesting and nurture in the fields. This takes place when both the persons are willing to participate in harvest. In such situations, analysis of the system and manipulating it becomes a vital factor. This gives the opportunity to understand a person’s patience and their ability to transform over time. Cultivating pastor is well suited for church transformations over a long duration of time [7].
The Conflict-Quelling Pastor: The conflict quelling pastor is the people who have the ability or are mediators and conflict managers. They are not regarded as the catholic and they are distinct from the chaplains. They are often regarded as the major players and they are the ones who are able to build bridges between different types of people. By nature, they are quiet and reflective and when they speak, they tend to give out wisdom of knowledge [8].
The Chaplin Pastor: This is considered to be the most vital pastor for developing inner peace. The Chaplin pastor is meant for peace and harmony among the people. This type of pastor is entertained by the means of step by step seminaries. The main objective of the people is not to stir the water but to bring healing to the hurting soul. People belonging to this category are excellent listeners and focus in bringing new congregation within the soul.
The Catatonic Pastor: They are the refuge and they are responsible for the creation of things like brochures or other materials that are distributed to acknowledge the importance of divine on earth. They are the regular visitors to the hospitals and even have food with those admitted in the hospital. At times, it happens that the Catatonic Pastor remained as the senior pastor in the church for many years and is well known for their way to the grace others.
In addition to all the mentioned ways of pastors, it can be said that critical thinking is an important tool for achieving positive aspect in pastoral practice. In cannot be denied that critical thinking open up the horizon of an individual to think wider and come up with better ideas to tackle the situation. Critical thinking holds great importance in several areas of life and is often regarded as an important component for an individual to think logically before arriving at a particular conclusion [9].
When critical thinking is done, it gives the opportunity to an individual to think logically and form an argumentative approach towards the work. Attempts have been made for forming more organic vision for theological education as well [10]. Several attempts have been made to accompany the theories to practice several assumptions. Challenging a situation and then analyzing it and finally deriving at a particular conclusion can be considered to be justified [11]. For instance, certain information is derived, it should not be blindly believed but it is expected that the person would search for certain evidences to support the information. It is only after analyzing the situation that the people can arrive at a logical and effective conclusion. Failure to the same might result in something that would misguide the person and the whole situation might take a turn [12].
Conclusion:
There are several critical thinking tests as well that support the ability of a person to think logically and critically as well. One of such tool is The Watson-Glaser Thinking Appraisal. This tool is in fact used to determine the critical thinking ability of a person prior to appointing the person in company or organization. Many big organizations use this particular method to examine the ability of critical thinking of a candidate. It is only when the person successfully pass the test, he or she is selected for the particular position. This test is very important because in business or any other corporate matters, critical thinking is very important. The person lacking the ability to think critically cannot be trusted for successful business operations. All these assumptions can be regarded as important approaches that are made to understand the ability of a person to tackle the situation. Thus, it can be easily agreed on the fact that critical thinking hold good importance in the life of an individual and also to carry on with pastoral practices as well.
Reference List:
“Critical Thinking Reaches Out”. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 3, no. 1 (2013): 3-3.
“Epistemology, Critical Thinking, And Critical Thinking Pedagogy”. Argumentation 3, no. 2 (2012): 127-140.
“Introduction To Critical Thinking”. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 5, no. 1 (2014): 12-12.
“Pastoral Abstracts”. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling: Advancing theory and professional practice through scholarly and reflective publications 63, no. 1-2 (2012): 1-10.
Brown, William R. “Critical Thinking As A Thinking Style?”. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 8, no. 1 (2013): 8-9.
Calvert, Mike. “From ‘Pastoral Care’ To ‘Care’: Meanings And Practices”. Pastoral Care in Education27, no. 4 (2015): 267-277.
Hedman, Amy S. “Perceptions Of Depression, Counseling And Referral Practices, And Self-Efficacy Reported By Minnesota Clergy”. Pastoral Psychology 63, no. 3 (2013): 291-306.
Koppel, Michael S. “Playing Church: Toward Critically Creative Pastoral Practices”. Pastoral Psychology 55, no. 4 (2013): 431-440.
Kramp, Joseph M. “Ritual And Heroism: A Study In Cross Cultural Religious Practices And Religious Personalities”. Pastoral Psychology 55, no. 3 (2016): 321-338.
Kreutzmann, Hermann. Pastoral Practices In High Asia. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012.
Murnion, Philip J. New Parish Ministers. New York, NY: National Pastoral Life Center, 2014.
NoweIl, Linda. “Critical Talk”. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 12, no. 3 (2013): 39-42.
Waters, Sonia. “All Visual, All The Time: Towards A Theory Of Visual Practices For Pastoral Theological Reflection”. Pastoral Psychology (2016).
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