Människa, var är du? Prästens roll som själavårdare i det postmoderna samhället

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out how clergymen in the Church of Sweden understand their role as pastoral caregivers, in a context of a society that has changed quite a lot during the past decades. The study is based on interviews with four clergymen, two men and two women in the ages of 40-65 with experiences from congregations of different social and geographical kind. The interviews are analyzed in themes. When analyzing the interviews identity and role theory is used as a tool, but also the idea of a postmodern society and metaphors for the different kind of roles a pastoral caregiver can take during counseling. The clergymen meet a broad range of people in counseling, both those who regularly attend church activities and those who are complete strangers. They are all focusing on the needs of the confident. The confidents also bring very different issues like life crises, worries connected to unemployment or the process of seeking asylum but also confession of sins. This demands flexibility and openness from the clergyman. The roles used by the clergymen seem mainly to be that of a wounded healer, pilgrim or simply being someone to talk with. The clergymen interviewed try to avoid the role of an adviser. They don’t seem to experience a conflict in roles between giving pastoral care and the different other tasks a clergyman have in a congregation. Most literature on pastoral care is filtered through the experience of the pastoral caregiver. In the future it would be interesting to study the experiences of the confidents.