Reframing: A New Method in Pastoral Care

by Donald Capps

I have read Professor Capp's Reframing with great interest. Since my colleagues and I have long thought of our concepts and practices as broad and general--as potentially applicable beyond our clinical sphere of psychotherapy--it is very satisfying to see this solid and skillful extension of our work into the very wide and important field of pastoral care.
-- John H. Weakland, Brief Therapy Center Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

Donald Eric Capps was born in Omaha, NE, USA on January 30, 1939. After studying at Lewis & Clark College (B.A. 1960) and Yale Divinity School (B.D. 1963, S.T.M. 1965) and University of Chicago (M.A. 1966), he earned his Ph.D. also at the University of Chicago in 1970. His dissertation explored a psycho-historical analysis of the personality of the English theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman, and particularly his vocational struggles.
His academic career started as Instructor at the Department of Religious Studies at the Oregon State University during the Spring/Summer of 1969. He then became Instructor and Assistant Professor at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago between 1969 and 1974. Later, he was appointed Associate Professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he lectured between 1974 and 1976. Between 1976 and 1981 he was Associate Professor and then Professor at the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University.
In 1981 he joined the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was appointed the William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology. In May 2009 he retired with the status of Professor emeritus[2] but remains lecturing as adjunct.[3] In 1989, the Uppsala University, Sweden awarded him a degree of Doctor honoris causa in Theology for his contributions to the Psychology of Religion.[4]
Other honors include the William F. Bier Award for contribution to Psychology of Religion, granted in 1995 by the Division 36 of the American Psychological Association; the Helen Flanders Dunbar Centennial Award, granted in 2002 by the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York; and the Joseph A. Sittler Award for Theological Leadership, granted in 2003 by Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
He was the book review editor for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion between 1980 and 1983 and editor for the same journal between 1983 and 1988. Furthermore, between 1990 and 1992 he was the president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
He is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since 1972. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_E...)

Reviews

[Sam Stephens · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book solidified my contention that pastoral care books might be the most difficult to write well—a task Capp failed to do. It seems that so often, in order for pastoral care books to be considered “sufficiently Christian,” pastoral care theologians retreat to dubious pre-textual uses of biblical stories as evidence slapped on top of 20th and 21st century psychotherapy practices. Capp utilized these misguided efforts throughout his book, using Job and other biblical texts as a sort of authoritative witness to clinical reframing techniques which I found to be almost entirely unconvincing. Reframing as a tool for clinical/congregational care is incredibly beneficial and I highly recommend learning more about the subject. In terms of recommending Capp’s book, not so much. If you are interested in learning about reframing as a soul care tool for Christian ministry, you are better served just reading one of the primary texts Capp interacts with—John Weakland and Richard Fisch’s book “Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution” and focusing on other spiritual formation practices and books.

[Rick Lee Lee James · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

This is a book I need to read and reread again. A powerful tool for prisoners of hope in a world of cynicism.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, what a good book for those interested in doing ministry or using reframing in their own life. This is not to say however that I didn't have a few objections with Capps' suggestions on how to get one's power back.