Sources of PT and Relations with Other Disciples

The sources of pastoral theology are:

1. Sacred Scripture
It is the task of every theologian to use the sacred scriptures as the foundation of his/her
theological activity. As a result, pastoral theology uses the sacred scriptures as an authoritative
source for pastoral guidance. A pastoral theologian approaches ministry from the Sacred
scriptures. He refers to the sacred scriptures to learn God’s way of caring for his people. The OT
texts demonstrate God’s care for the chosen people of Israel. Designated leaders (prophets,
priests) became models of pastoral ministry. As well, the NT offers the ministry of Jesus and
pastoral ministry of the early church as models for ministry.

2. Church Tradition
Tradition refers to the way Christian Tradition was ‘handed on’. The Second Vatican Council
says, “It was done by the Apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by
example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received…
whether from the lips of Jesus, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it
by the prompting of the Holy Spirit” (Constitution on Divine Revelation II, 7).

The Catholic Church has its own Church Tradition of ministry. Therefore, pastoral theology
necessarily draws from the Tradition of ministry established in the different Catholic Church
communities. This lead to the conclusion that the practice of ministry by pastoral theologian in a
specific community must rely on already established Tradition of ministry in that Christian
community.
For example besides Sacred Scriptures the Roman Catholic Church Tradition draws heavily on
the Church’s age old patristic and medieval Traditions as a guide to pastoral ministry. It also
draws on official Church pastoral and liturgical decrees, instructions, declarations, social
teachings, and the Code of the Canon Law.
Tradition of the Church is both Written and unwritten.

3. Use of Reason
In order to enable pastoral ministry, pastoral theologian apply reason. They think constructively
and consistently in exercising pastoral ministry. The pastoral theologian’s intellectual world view
is shaped by various theories of knowledge. Thus his or her ability for systematic reflection is

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enhanced. Since theology is faith seeking understanding, pastoral theologian application of
informed reason to understand sacred scripture and Church Tradition is significant. In this
approach the writings of scholars on different disciplines promote are employed for effective
Church ministry. The understanding here is pursuing to illuminate aspects of faith taught by
pastoral theology. Through use of reason, a pastoral theologian thinks out an appropriate pastoral
response to a certain concrete pastoral situation.

4. Contexts (Contextual Circumstance)

A pastoral theologian remains alert to ever changing cultural situations, social contexts, as well
as his lived personal experiences other’s lived experiences. It is important to observe that even
the Bible was written from Judeo-Hellenistic socio-cultural context. Therefore, particular
contexts make it possible for writers to address issues about God in relation to concrete or
particular life situations. The pastoral theologian seeks to relate the biblical and theologian
reflection to ministry in today’s diverse contexts.

Pastoral Theology and other Disciplines

As it is understood, the focus of Pastoral Theology is precisely the “living relevance” of the
Church doctrine. In the words of Yves Congar, pastoral theology is not less than doctrinal or
systematic theology, but rather, “it is doctrinal in a way that is not content to conceptualize,
define, deduce and anathematize. The pastoral approach expresses saving truth in a way which
connects with modern man, assumes his difficulties and responds to his questions, precisely in
the very expression of doctrine”.

Life in contemporary society and life in the church is increasingly involving education. The
church is always living between past interpretations and forms, and future incarnations. It is
difficult to be a Catholic today without some education and Christianity does not lend itself to
brief black and white answers: that was true in the third and fourth centuries… Whether there
were “simple Christians” or only Christians who never recognized the need or opportunity to
think about their faith, they do not exist today and cannot exist in an age of media and education.
Telecommunications bring theology into everyone’s life, and yet never before had there been
such extensive resources in books, journals, and schools, and personnel for learning about
revelation and church. Areas prominent at the intersection of faith and life clamor for attention
and do not go away; more and more people in the church are asking about them in one way or
the other (O’Meara, Theology of Ministry, 249).

The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the training of priests (Optatam totius, 19, 20 and 21),
states that the pastoral preoccupation should characterize every feature of the students’ training,
which also requires that they should be carefully instructed in all matters, which are especially
relevant to the sacred ministry. These include catechetics, homiletics, liturgy, sacramentology
and works of charity. They should also be taught to use correctly the aids provided by
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psychology and sociology. Students must learn the art of exercising the apostolate not only in
theory but in practice and should be able to act on their own initiative and in cooperation with
others.

Pope John Paul II reflected that the pastoral nature of theology enables the Church, through her
teachers, “to proclaim the Gospel message through the cultural modes of their age and to direct
pastoral action according to an authentic theological vision.” Created in God’s image and
likeness, people of all times and places are made for truth, which is why truth itself is pastoral.
Pastoral Theology is both ‘theology’ and ‘science’. The whole of theology is pastoral in the
sense that theological reflection on the Christological and Trinitarian faith is done with the view
of interpreting, understanding and proposing it in a systematic and organic manner to others.

a) Pastoral Theology and Other Theological Disciplines:

- Biblical theology seeks to discover what the biblical writers, under divine guidance, believed,
described and taught in the context of their own times. Pastoral theology seeks to experience how
those values are relevant in our own context and times.

- Moral theology focuses on life in a witnessing community and examines things as freedom,
conscience, love, responsibility, justice, peace, law and determines how human person should
live. Pastoral theology focuses on life in a serving community and on the capacity to live with
others in a relationship of healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling.

- Liturgical theology focuses on life in a professing/worshipping community that includes the

community’s cultic or ritual life and the people’s daily work in the world. Pastoral theology
examines how this worshipping community cares for the sick, the needy, the poor, the hungry,
the lonely and the captive within it.

- Spiritual theology focuses on life in a praying community, which includes the interior
experience and the exterior manifestation of God’s love. Pastoral theology focuses on the serving
and embracing of the suffering and identifying with the needy of the world.

b) Pastoral Theology and Other Human Sciences - Social and Physical Sciences

- Sociology aims at determining the laws governing human behavior in the social context.
Pastoral theology aims at exploring, describing and testing the theological ideas that are
contained with a specific social context, which is the local church.

- Psychology seeks to understand the emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual,

group or activity. Pastoral theology seeks to heal broken relationships and to guide individuals in
society.

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- Economics seeks to analyze the production, distribution and consumption of goods and
services. Pastoral theology seeks to analyze the justice involved in distribution of the same
resources.

- Medical sciences etc. the importance of health education the communities.

- Geography – climate change.

- Environmental sciences – how to live healthy in our villages and cities.

- Etc.