The Pastoral Care Case

The case study method is popular and effective in the pastoral care of individuals. This book outlines a method for using the case study approach on a congregational level offering guidelines for analyzing and refining such aspects of ministry as worship preaching and Christian education. Don Capps and Gene Fowler till theological ground for the local congregation and the academy with their pastoral care case. They argue that neither the verbatim nor other forms of case study created for use in clinical or other noncongregational settings fits the congregational context. The case model in their book has its roots in the convergence of the healing stories of the villager Jesus and the congregational struggles of the urbanite Paul. The pastor seen by Capps and Fowler as local religious author and even more as poet will delight in this fecund foundation for rethinking and rewriting ministry. -- Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner University of Dubuque Theological Seminary Donald Capps (1939-2015) was William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology (Emeritus) and Adjunct Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Striking Out (Cascade Books 2011) At Home in the World (Cascade Books 2013) Still Growing (Cascade Books 2014) and The Resourceful Self (Cascade Books 2014). He is coauthor with Nathan Carlin of Living in Limbo (Cascade Books 2010) and The Gift of Sublimation (Cascade Books 2015). Gene Fowler is pastor of Mayfair Presbyterian Church in Chicago Illinoise. He has a Ph.D. in pastoral theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.