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Book Review and Notice: Crisis Experience in Modern Life

While crisis intervention theory has been an important part of the pastoral counseling movement since the Lindemann studies on bereavement in the fourties, there have been relatively few efforts to develop a theological basis for understanding crisis intervention in the context of the ministry. Most attempts have employed secular theories of the life cycle (e.g. Erik Erikson) or community mental health theory (e.g. Gerald Caplan) to give the pastor some helpful guidelines to approach this crucial aspect of ministry. Thus, this book comes as somewhat of a milestone in crisis intervention theory in its attempt to break away from the traditional psychosocial and community psychology models of crisis intervention theory, utilizing a phenomenologicalexistential framework as a basis for theological inquiry, with the parish ministry as its context. The author is an Emory University professor who argues that the ministry of crisis intervention must begin by identifying the theological conflict in individuals whose lives have become suddenly fragmented by rapid social change. Concern for the root theological problem of persons in crisis will help the pastor avoid the twin pitfalls of lapsing into an irrelevant, traditional proclamation on the one hand, or fragmenting one's sense of pastoral purpose on the other by too blithely accepting secular views of reality that may be inimical to Christian faith. The author sees the loss of hope in God's providential care for the future as the common underlying factor in crisis situations, with the individual typically clinging to finite, obsolete and otherwise dysfuntional value-systems. The common precipitating factor is the breakdown of traditional value-systems which offered empty assurances of a static, predictable world with the promise of endless fulfillment. Throughout the book, Gerkin dramatizes the polarities between our infinite aspirations, and the reality of limitation and boundaries which characterize the paradoxical nature of our human experience. It is in the clash of our aspirations and painfully felt limitations that necessitate a reorganization of our faith commitments and a reaffirmation of God's providential care for the future of humankind. Crises occur in our experience when we cannot reconcile the contradictions between our aspirations and limitations. All too often, this results in a reluctance to accept and grieve for our losses, and to make changes that reflect our faith in the Ultimate source of hope and promise. Gerkin sees the theologies of hope and the future in the writings of Jurgen Moltmann as the basis for a radical rethinking of theology, which offers a fresh "reinterpretation of ... the kingdom of God as coming toward our present existence out of the very contingency and change in the future" (p. 30). Only such a rethinking of our theological presuppositions will speak to the crises of human experience where there is an acute awareness of contradiction, finitude, and vulnerability that confronts our faith in the providence of God and the future, in the midst of contingency and change. This book offers a fresh look at this crucial aspect of pastoral care, taking into consideration such pivotal issues as loss and bereavement, suicide prevention, the generation gap, marital conflicts, identity change, and related concerns that every pastor or community mental health professional confronts daily. At times this book seems arid and a bit abstract despite the case material, and those new to the field of crisis intervention ministry would do well to begin elsewhere if you are look-