The Perils of Being a Pastor
Then and Now
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2145197 |
|---|---|
| Authors | D W Haines (0000-0002-9207-6349, George Mason University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 297-313 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropological Forum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00664677.2023.2256482 |
| OpenAlex | W4388136185 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 22 |
As early Christian writings emphasise, pastors are crucial to maintaining Christian communities and in serious practical and spiritual jeopardy if they fail to do so. They are held to unachievable standards of personal morality and religious practice. So why would anyone choose such a vocation and how could they survive it? The answers to those questions provide a useful way to investigate the widely acknowledged gap in anthropology's study of Christianity. Being so central to Christianity as examples of Christian life and as core custodians for others' Christian lives, the lived experience of pastors helps anchor the understanding of Christianity in what anthropologists understand best: actual individual human lives. This article takes as a case example the well-documented life of an ordinary US mainline Protestant pastor who lived through most of the twentieth century. At the intersection of dogma and pastoral practice, his life illuminates the pivotal pastoral role of maintaining congregations in their personal and spiritual lives, and in the connection between the two. The specific examples from this particular pastor's life include the struggle against polio, a young man trying to escape gang life, unexpected death in war, and the inevitability of death for everybody. The examples underline the importance of the pastor's assessment of congregants as both people in the mundane world and souls in the spiritual one
Christianity · Custodians · Environmental ethics · Forgiveness · Morality · Political science · Protestantism · Sociology · Spirituality · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania
Habitus in the Roman Catholic Tradition
Theologically Engaged Anthropology
Pastors and Public Life
Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life
Outline of a Theory of Practice
The Limits of Meaning
Clergy Burnout
The Effects of Work-Related and Boundary-Related Stress on the Emotional and Physical Health Status of Ordained Clergy
The will to be known
Health Programming for Clergy
Relationships between Sabbath Observance and Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Health in Clergy
Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics
What is a Christian? Notes toward an anthropology of Christianity
Redeeming Anthropology
The Anthropology of Christianity
The Anthropology of Christianity
Beyond the Human Horizon
The Anthropology of Christianity per se
Anthropology and the Making of Billy Graham
The Anthropology of Christianity
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |