This book explores the practice of counselling not only in the context of traditional ministries of pastoral care within the Christian Church but also in the context of other world religions and among counsellors with a concern for the spiritual dimension of life. A detailed account is given of the development of pastoral counselling in Britain; parallel movements in other major world religions are examined. An attempt is made to engage sympathetically with the theory and practice of a wide range of approaches to counselling in a context which embraces both the rapidly growing Christian counselling movement and more humanistic understandings of spirituality.

The author draws out the implications of metaphors which have shaped our understanding of pastoral care and counselling, finding in a narrative understanding of religious faith and in the spiritual journey of Thomas Merton, a model which respects the contribution of the secular therapies and affirms the integrating potential of faith.

This book will be of interest to clergy and lay people in churches and other faiths who seek an understanding of counselling in pastoral and spiritual contexts. It will also have more general appeal to practitioners who wish to explore the relationship of counselling in this context to forms of counselling elsewhere.