What is it about?
This paper presents a model of pastoral care based on recognizing death not just as an event that ends life but as a presence interdependent with life. It proposes that we constantly respond to the presence of death in life by encountering it or escaping it. An encounter response teaches relationship-oriented caring. A case presentation demonstrates a way of doing pastoral care based on an encounter response to the presence of death.
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Why is it important?
This paper serves to awaken the pastoral care community to the difference between death as a single event that serves only to end life and that pastoral care revolves around helping people cope with dying. When also seen as a presence interdependent with life then death has much to teach us. It can be used as a model of care that helps people with various struggles better understand their situation, themselves and how to cope.
Perspectives
This article was heavily influenced by the work of psychiatrist Dr. Irvin Yalom; particularly his book on Existential Psychotherapy. I also recommend a later book of his "Staring at the Sun" which further explains his thinking about the meaning of death the its lessons for living life more authentically.
Dr Joseph Baroody
Baroody Pastoral Counseling
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Encountering the Presence of Death: A Model of Pastoral Care, The Caregiver Journal, January 1995, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/1077842x.1995.10781717.
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