Published: 2019-07-24

Faith and crisis

Jürgen Werbick
Studia Teologiczno-Historyczne Śląska Opolskiego
Section: Articles
DOI https://doi.org/10.25167/sth.1038

On the therapeutic dimension of Christianity

Abstract

The therapeutic dimension of Christianity is leveraged in different ways. Does Christianity use human crisis – existential fear, experience of limits – to rule over? Or, does Christianity instead help shape towards a more mature and fulfilled humanity being followed? The pastoral, as found in the spirit of Jesus Christ, should in such situations display a therapeutic dimension towards the individual as in relation to social meaning. The reason being that it gathers people around the saving presence of God so that they do not need to save their identity by self-confirmation or by exclusion. The therapeutic pastoral opens spaces for gathering and for concentration in what is displaced and what can be reconciled. Then the people will wish that each other’s participation in all that gives them a full life. It is about spaces in which existential fear loses its power.

Keywords:

faith, crisis, Christianity, existential fears, therapeutic dimension of Christianity

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Citation rules

Werbick, J. (2019). Faith and crisis: On the therapeutic dimension of Christianity. Studia Teologiczno-Historyczne Śląska Opolskiego, 39(1), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.25167/sth.1038

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