IST2012-1-FA14 - Pastoral Theology & Care

Instructor: Larry Graham

Teaching Assistant:  Paula Lee

E-mail: lgraham@iliff.edu ; plee@iliff.edu

Office Hours: By appointment through email.

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 Specific Objectives of the Course

A.        To articulate an understanding of the human person and humanity as interpreted in various religious traditions and various psychological, theological, and ethical theories

B.        To identify the ways in which your personal, religious, and cultural experiences, along with your activities in pastoral and spiritual care, shape your theology, moral orientation, and vocational formation.

C.        To use an engaged or clinical approach to spiritual care that will help you identify and work with the differences between your own religious/spiritual worlds and the spiritual/religious worlds of those receiving care.

D.        To articulate the importance of understanding ministry as an integrated whole, not a series of discrete functions.

E.         To participate in an action –reflection model to learn core skills of pastoral and spiritual care:  (a) ability helpfully to respond to crises; (b) skill in making oneself emotionally available to others; (c) ability in designing programs of nurture within the community of faith; and (d) capacity to interpret pastoral situations religiously, spiritually, theolog ically, and ethically.

F.         To learn how to establish professional contracts of care that reflect knowledge  of and accountability within the appropriate professional, ecclesiastical, and legal codes of ethical practice.  

Educational Methods

This course will be taught by a variety of means:

            Lectures                                                          Case Analysis

            Small Group Discussions                               Interpersonal Exploration

            Role Play                                                        Personal Reflection

            Online Resource

Professional Confidentiality and Mandatory Reporting

All students must agree to abide by professional confidentiality in all matters, which means that they will preserve anonymity by disguising the identity of cases when seeking consultation and case reporting.  Student disclosures to one another and to the professor will remain confidential, unless the law requires otherwise.  In all cases, students must be aware of the mandatory reporting laws of the state in which they provide professional caregiving. If they are designated spiritual caregivers within their religious tradition, they need to also be aware of what their religious organization requires.  If students have reason to suspect or have first-hand knowledge of recent, current, or ongoing child abuse or neglect perpetrated on a child currently under the age of 18 years, elder abuse, sexual and domestic violence, or threats of homicide or suicide in any of the pastoral situations they use for fulfilling the requirements of this course they need to seek immediate consultation with supervisors, denominational leaders, and the professor of this course so that proper reporting procedures can be ascertained. We will work together to establish an appropriate pastoral relationship with all parties facing these crises. 

State laws on mandatory reporting are available at State Laws on Mandatory Clergy Reporting  Colorado mandatory reporting requirements may be found at Colorado Revised Statutes 19-3-304, 1a, 2(aa, II, III); 13-90-107c.

ADA

Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.  Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303.765.1146.

Policies on Academic Integrity

The School’s policies on academic integrity, incompletes and pass/fail options are found in the Masters Student Handbook.

 Contacting Instructors

Email is the best way to contact us initially.  Face to face appointments are available, but should be scheduled directly through email, or at the beginning or end of class sessions.

Larry Graham is lgraham@iliff.edu

Paul Lee is plee@iliff.edu 

Incompletes:  If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

Pass/Fail:  Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.

Academic Integrity and Community Covenant:  All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate.  All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.

Accommodations:  Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.   Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146. 

Writing Lab:  Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments.  Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. 

Inclusive Language:  It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community. 

Iliff MDiv Curricular Goal related to Theology and Religious Practices (PR): engage in analysis of contemporary religious traditions and institutions in order to assess, design, and perform meaningful leadership practices with sensitivity to contextual realities and relationships.

Iliff MAPSC Curricular Goals Central to this Course

The course is designed to meet the needs of those preparing for the specialized vocation of pastoral and spiritual care. Students take courses in pastoral and spiritual care that implement an intercultural approach to spiritual care, integrating contextual understandings of religious truth with a social justice orientation. Experiential learning through sharing and intentional conversations about journals describing traumatic experience provide intense group learning and supervision of the practice of pastoral and spiritual care. This course will help students integrate what they are learning in the core curriculum. Each area has a thematic focus, and courses within each area cohere in directing students to think more critically about their assumptions and to develop theological perspectives necessary for becoming responsible pastoral and spiritual caregivers in a changing world.

Weekly Schedule and Assignments [Subject to Change]