This work presents a study of pastoral care as the central pastoral ministry of the church, relating it to other functions of Christian ministry. The theological importance of pastoral care is explored, and other pastoral activities, which have parallels in secular therapies, redefined within this context. This book is central within the "New Library of Pastoral Care", striving as it does to balance the practical and the theological.

Author Biography

David Lyall is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh. He co-authored (with John Foskett) Helping the Helpers: Supervision and Pastoral Care (SPCK 1988), another key title in the NLPC series. He also wrote Counselling in the Pastoral and Spiritual Context (Open University Press 1995).