Pastoral Care And The Means Of Grace

In Underwood’s resulting spirituality, the soul of pastoral care is prayer. The substance is Scripture, studied in both liturgical and personal settings. The evangelical principle is reconciliation. Baptism lays the foundation for pastoral care by providing the paradigm for all transformations. Eucharist constitutes the eschatological horizon for pastoral care as ministry in the human encounter of God’s presence. This book stands at the forefront of a broad movement among scholars and clergy in nonliturgical traditions that aim at retrieving explicitly religious resources, the means of grace. The result is a rare, truly ecumenical contribution to pastoral care, which deepens practice by providing a vision and a spirituality.