Dini Danışma ve Rehberliğin Temel Kavramları ve Tarihi Arka Planı Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme
An Evaluation of Basic Concepts and Historical Background of Pastoral Care and Counseling

Summary/Abstract: Until the 19th century in which psychology emerged as a scientific discipline, problems that are related to humans always were interpreted with philosophical considerations. In time, philosophical movements such as positivism and materialism have led psychology as a scientific branch to have its own concepts and methods. Religion has been excluded from scientific research for a long period under the influence of the paradigms that dominate the science in this process. Despite the negative attitudes of scholars to religion, Christian clergy closely followed scientific developments in the fields such as philosophy and psychology. Pastoral care and counseling concepts and methods based on today's religious counseling and guidance have emerged, as traditionally maintained "pastoral care" activities within the framework of church services have been influenced by developments in psychology and psychotherapy. After the 1960s, pastoral care and counseling, which has a tendency to be widespread throughout the world, has become a focus of interest in religious institutions and academic community in Turkey in recent years. This article focuses on basic concepts and historical background of pastoral care and counseling in order to contribute to the study of the subject's realization in Islamic culture.The modern way of life has not only accelerated social change, but has also changed individual needs. Rapid change and differentiated needs brought with it a number of psychological problems. Accordingly, psychological processes affecting the human being and causing illness have begun to be examined. On the other hand, the values and belief systems of life have also been affected by change, and important changes and developments have taken place in institutional religious structures and religious services. For this reason, the necessity of learning the perspective and attitude of religion in the face of new events and situations emerging from one side, the need for psychological help and spiritual support in the face of suffering and crises experienced from the other side is increasing. In short, religion has become an area where people need guidance because they are forced to move on their own.Since the pioneering work in the area of pastoral care and counseling has emerged entirely as a Christian activity, the first concepts of this field are closely related to Christian culture. "Pastoral care", which is the basic concept of pastoral care and counselling, usually refers to religious counseling and guidance services performed by priests, especially outside the church. The foundations of today's pastoral care and counseling services are pastoral care activities, which are spiritual support, advice and consultation given by Christian religious men. There are also the origins of Christian theology, such as the doctrine of Christ and the Trinity, the teachings of salvation through grace, infallibility of the Church, the understanding of priesthood, the institution of confession and the status of the Church.Pastoral care and pastoral counseling are forms of help that can be distinguished from each other to some extent. The difference lies in the related psychological dynamics rather than moral stance when priests are working with people. For this reason, the largest and most extensive pastoral activity between the two is strictly pastoral care. These activities are more or less structured general relationships with formal and informal conversations, dialogues and other communication interactions and with young people, couples, adults and various other groups. The aid associations, referred to as pastoral counseling, include aid activities that are structured within the framework of a specific place and a certain period of time, differently from the general and everywhere feasibility of pastoral care activities, in which case there is a need for care and time for the pastor. The distinctive point here is that the individual has more psychological condition and problems.The emergence of religious counseling and guidance as an institutional service area is directly related to the reform movements and the transformation of the industrial revolution over the social organization of Western European countries and the establishment of religious institutions. As a matter of fact, Catholics, and especially Orthodox people, were more cautious in their newly developing psychological counseling activities, while Protestants tended to embrace new psychological theories and techniques in religious support and assistance services. The process that has taken place since the 15th century, with the differentiation of humanity, God, and astronomy, brought with it a radical change called "enlightenment" in the 18th century. The period of enlightenment is characterized by the reduction of religious tolerance and the exchange of supernatural with nature, the religion with science, the divine command with natural law, and the religionists with philosophers. In this period, the subject of religion and spirituality has been seen as a private, unscientific, unknown peculiar space that is believed to have to be excluded from psychological research and clinical trials.Although the psychologist was not able to establish a healthy relationship with religion by the influence of the paradigm, which was a dominant factor in scientific field at the time when psychology emerged as a scientific discipline the clergy who carried out "pastoral care" activities within the framework of church services, especially in the United States and Europe, have benefited from the accumulation of modern psychiatry and psychotherapy. By influencing the activities of the church in the field of psychology, the priests helped them to gain a distinctive dimension, both in the church and outside the church. The "pastoral counseling" field has begun to develop with the use of methods and rules of counseling psychology and clinical psychology in the cultivation of priests.Until the investigation of Abraham Maslow's "Towards a psychology of being" (1962), religion and spirituality, which were not deemed worthy of attention, were recognized as a final need and an important motivation to meet. Recent research in the field reveals that there is a significant relationship between mental and physical health with religion. Counselors do not include the clients' religious beliefs in the consultation process. It is considered synonymous with ignoring an important part of the client's identity. As a result of these developments, many medical faculties and psychology departments in the United States and other developed countries are now lecturing on religious counselling.Pastoral care and counseling activities, which have been practiced in the Christian world since the beginning of the 20th century, have become the focus of academic circles and related institutions in Turkey in recent years, depending on the global influences of social change and the differentiated needs of the increasingly modern life. Although pastoral care and counseling are considered as a foreign concept and an un-institutionalized service area in our culture, the most important part of the religious services that have been carried out since the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) constitutes the activities of “irshad” (to guide or to show someone the right path), which is the spiritual guidance. Today, however, there is a need for new “irshad” models that support the principles and approaches of modern psychological aid disciplines. With goals, principles, methods and approaches, Pastoral care and counseling will provide important contributions to the society in order to meet new needs and expectations.

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