Search results for ""Author Susan E. Myers""

This history of Protestant pastoral counseling in America examines the role of pastoral counselors in the construction and articulation of a liberal moral sensibility. Analyzing the relationship between religion and science in the twentieth century, Susan E. Myers-Shirk locates this sensibility in the counselors' intellectual engagement with the psychological sciences. Informed by the principles of psychology and psychoanalysis, pastoral counselors sought a middle ground between science and Christianity in advising anxious parishioners who sought their help for personal problems such as troubled children, violent spouses, and alcohol and drug abuse. Myers-Shirk finds that gender relations account in part for the great divide between the liberal and conservative moral sensibilities in pastoral counseling. She demonstrates that, as some pastoral counselors began to advocate women's equality, conservative Christian counselors emerged, denouncing more liberal pastoral counselors and secular psychologists for disregarding biblical teachings. From there, the two sides diverged dramatically. Helping the Good Shepherd will appeal to scholars of American religious history, the history of psychology, gender studies, and American history. For those practicing and teaching pastoral counseling, it offers historical insights into the field.

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The authors of this collection of essays focus on understandings of Jesus in various early Christian writings. Notable are several texts that examine the presentation of Jesus in the Gospels of John and Mark, as well as in the Book of Hebrews and in the letters of Paul. Other early Christian literature is represented as well, from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas to various Apocryphal Acts of Apostles and liturgical or other prayer texts, while some essays address a range of ancient literature, Christian and non-Christian. The authors of these essays examine the ways in which ancient writers addressed the significance of Jesus, as well as the their sources, dialogue partners, and critics in a variety of perspectives and methods. Contributors:Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll, Paul F. Bradshaw, Dylan M. Burns, Joshua Ezra Burns, Stephen J. Davis, Joshua D. Garroway, Judith M. Gundry, Daniel C. Harlow, Jeremy F. Hultin, Timothy Luckritz Marquis, Candida R. Moss, Susan E. Myers, George L. Parsenios, Michael Peppard, Richard I. Pervo, Bryan D. Spinks, Gregory E. Sterling, Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., Emma Wasserman

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The most complete example of an early Christian novel about an historical figure, the third-century Acts of Thomas contains within it two prayers that are strikingly similar in style and content. Each is found in the context of Christian initiation and each is addressed to a feminine deity who is asked to "come" to be present in the ritual. The prayers address the feminine Spirit, who is called "Mother," "fellowship of the male," and "dove," among other titles. Susan E. Myers examines these prayers in their historical, literary, and liturgical contexts, and challenges some of the prevailing assumptions about Syriac-speaking Christianity in general, and the Acts of Thomas in particular.She extensively analyzes the Acts of Thomas, beginning with questions of authorship, provenance, and dating of the work. At the core of the study is a detailed analysis of the redactional character of the Acts of Thomas, especially the prayer language within it. The author argues that the liturgical scenes reveal a form of Christian initiation that apparently included an anointing with optional water baptism, and a Eucharist of bread and water only.Susan E. Myers continues by examining other prayers to deities in the ancient world, and concludes with an analysis of the theological content of the prayers themselves. They are addressed to the Spirit, who appears as a feminine revealer figure who can be invoked to be present in ritual action with her devotees.

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