Allan Hugh Cole

New Book Update: Reflections on the Spiritual Life

June 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I am pleased to share titles of the essays in my forthcoming book, A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers. It will be published in early 2011 by Westminster John Knox Press.

I. Writers

The High Note

Sheri Reynolds

Musings on the Spiritual Life

Gail Godwin

What I Do and Why I Do It, Or: The Writing Life and the Spiritual Life

Greg Garrett

The Spiritual Life as an Editorial Process

Albert Y. Hsu

The Pie Social

Lauren F. Winner

The Art of Surrender: How the Spirit Reclaims the Body and Back Again

Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher

Habits of a Whole Heart: Practicing Life in Christ

Marjorie J. Thompson

II. Ministers and Leaders

Spiritual Ill-Discipline

Michael L. Lindvall

Spiritual Integrity

J. Philip Wogaman

Table Grace

Deborah A. Block

Practicing Spirituality in the Middle

Theodore J. Wardlaw

Nursing, Eucharist, Psychosis, Metaphor

Kerry Egan

Impractical Christianity: Why Salvation in Jesus Christ is Better than a Practice

William H. Willimon

Sanctification and Proclamation: Walking with God

Brad R. Braxton

Behold the Beauty of the Lord: An Aesthetic Spirituality

Michael Jinkins

III. Scholars and Teachers

A Spiritual Person

Donald Capps

The Spiritual Life with the Help of Favorite Poets

Elizabeth Liebert

On Spirituality

Ismael Garcia

Keeping an Open Heart in Troubled Times: Self-empathy as a Christian Spiritual Practice

Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger

Fantasy Literature and the Spiritual Life

Richard R. Osmer

Theological Protest and the Spiritual Life

Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore

Spiritual Discipline

Homer U. Ashby Jr.

Reading St. Therese

Stephanie Paulsell

More Religious than Spiritual

Allan Hugh Cole Jr.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized

UPDATE: My Forthcoming Book on The Spiritual Life

May 12, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I am pleased to share the list of contributors to my forthcoming book.  Its title is A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers. It will be published by Westminster John Knox Press in 2011.

Contributors

Homer Ashby (professor of pastoral theology, emeritus, McCormick Seminary)

Deborah Block (Sr. Pastor, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Milwaukee, WI)

Brad R. Braxton (Distinguished Visiting Scholar, McCormick Seminary)

Donald Capps (professor of pastoral theology, Princeton Theological Seminary)

Kerry Egan (chaplain, author of Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago)

Ismael Garcia (professor of ethics, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary)

Greg Garrett (professor of English, Baylor University; Writer-in-Residence, Seminary of the Southwest)

Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher (non-profit leader, writer, blogger)

Gail Godwin (award-winning and bestselling author of many books, including: Evenings at Five, A Southern Family, Father Melancholy’s Daughter, Evensong, Queen of the Underworld, and Unfinished Desires)

Al Hsu (associate editor, InterVarsity Press)

Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger (professor of pastoral theology, Princeton Theological Seminary)

Michael Jinkins (academic dean, professor of pastoral theology, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary)

Elizabeth Liebert (dean, professor of spiritual life, San Francisco Theological Seminary)

Michael L. Lindvall (Sr. Pastor, Brick Presbyterian Church, NYC)

Bonnie Miller-McLemore (professor of pastoral theology and counseling, Vanderbilt Divinity School)

Richard R. Osmer (professor of Christian education, Princeton Theological Seminary)

Stephanie Paulsell (professor of the practice of ministry studies, Harvard Divinity School)

Sheri Reynolds (professor of English, Old Dominion University, award- winning and bestselling author of The Rapture of Canaan, A Gracious Plenty, The Firefly Cloak, Bitterroot Landing, The Sweet In-Between, and other novels)

Marjorie Thompson (former director, Pathways in Congregational Spirituality; Spiritual Director, Companions in Christ, Upper Room Ministries; author of Soul Feast)

Theodore J. Wardlaw (president, professor of homiletics, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary)

William H. Willimon (bishop, North Alabama Conference, UMC)

Lauren Winner (professor of Christian spirituality, Duke Divinity School)

J. Philip Wogaman (former Sr. Pastor at Foundry United Methodist Church, Washington, DC; former professor of ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary; former interim president, Iliff School of Theology)

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , , ,

New Downloadable Resources for Ministry by Allan Cole

January 14, 2010 · 1 Comment

→ 1 CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , , , ,

Journal of Childhood and Religion

December 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Journal of Childhood and Religion

Allan Hugh Cole Jr., Editor
www.childhoodandreligion.com

The Journal of Childhood and Religion, a peer-reviewed on-line publication of Sopher Press, provides an interdisciplinary forum for scholars representing a wide range of research fields, interests, and perspectives that relate to children and religion.  Such fields may include but are not limited to religious studies, biblical studies, the range of human sciences, pastoral psychology, practical theology, pastoral theology, religious education, psychology of religion, sociology of religion, counseling psychology, social work, and cultural studies.  The journal welcomes original scholarship by recognized experts in their respective fields, but also seeks submissions from junior scholars.

JCR will publish a first issue in 2010.

Editorial Board

Allan Hugh Cole Jr. (Austin Seminary)

Marcia Bunge (Valparaiso University)

Robert C. Dykstra (Princeton Seminary)

Gregory C. Ellison II (Emory University)

Rowena Fong (The University of Texas at Austin)

Cynthia Franklin (The University of Texas at Austin)

David H. Jensen (Austin Seminary)

Bonnie Miller-McLemore (Vanderbilt University)

Julie Faith Parker (Yale University)

Barbara Pitkin (Stanford University)

Luther E. Smith Jr. (Emory University)

Elizabeth Walker (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary)

John Wall (Rutgers University-Camden)

Sopher Press specializes in religious scholarship, assembling the best voices and insights, promoting interdisciplinary and innovative investigation, and embracing new technologies of dissemination and empowerment.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , ,

Christian Century Reviews BE NOT ANXIOUS

December 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Be Not Anxious: Pastoral Care of Disquieted Souls
 
reviewed by Arthur Paul Boers
Be Not Anxious: Pastoral Care of Disquieted Souls
by Allan Hugh Cole Jr.
Eerdmans, 224 pp., $20.00 paperback
Cole’s book models nonanxiety as he explores his topic with a seamless blend of personal experiences, psychological and theological considerations, and reflections on various situations in which he has ministered.
click here to buy from amazon.com

As any pastor knows, anxiety permeates church life and the work of pastoral care. Sometimes it seems as if the entire job of pastoring can be boiled down to a matter of managing anxiety: that of the pastor, individual congregants, various committees, sometimes the church as a whole. Throughout history, theologians from the Desert Fathers and Mothers through Martin Luther and right up to Paul Tillich in the 20th century wrestled with the meaning of anxiety and asked whether Christians can do away with it. Yet as informed as today’s church is by psychology and family-systems thinking, it is difficult to find recent in-depth theological examination of anxiety.

Anxiety, according to Allan Hugh Cole, is neither worry nor fear. It is a soul condition involving the entire person. Closely related conditions include anguish, dread and angst. Anxious people are disquieted souls, deeply ill at ease with who they are and with their relationships with others, including their relationship with God.

Faith communities, appropriately enough, draw and attract disquieted souls, and Cole celebrates the unique offerings of pastoral care as “cure of souls.” He hopes that pastors will not defer too quickly to nonclergy professionals because pastors are uniquely positioned to recognize disquieted souls, and the church has many resources for them, such as prayer, scripture, counseling, worship and hospitality. Cole advocates blending cognitive-behavioral therapy with narrative theology, helping people root their individual stories—and their attendant anxieties—in the larger Christian story of “God’s creative, transformative, and redemptive acts throughout history.”

We can overcome anxiety and worry when we are connected and related to realities that are bigger than we are, Cole explains. We need to be part of social systems, historical traditions and transcendent realms. We are not meant to be isolated and alone; being rooted in deeper realities consoles us, reassuring us that final and ultimate realities will not let us down.

Cole is no advocate of Rogerian nondirective counseling. He believes that disordered thinking—including some theological thinking—needs to be challenged and reordered. Cognitive therapy reframes how people think and teaches them “to identify, understand, and modify their thoughts on their own.” The goal of working with those who are anxious is not merely therapeutic consolation but theological conversion, according to Cole.

Pastors should probe, diagnose and challenge in several areas: attention to the holy, belief about providence, depth of faith, perception of grace, gratefulness, ability to repent, capacity for communion and sense of vocation. Such probing is done mostly through gentle questioning, with the hope that anxious people might see the implications of their beliefs and practices: “What keeps you going?” “Where do you find peace and hope?” “How can this get better?” “Where is God in all of this for you?”

Ultimately, we are called to locate our personal narratives within the Christian metanarrative. By telling and listening to individual stories in the wider church context, we come to better understand our place in the world and before God. “Pastoral care of disquieted souls,” Cole writes, “requires assisting anxious persons with exchanging one world, the anxious one, for a world that offers more peace.”

Cole also calls for improving self-awareness, modifying and replacing negative imagery, paying attention to emotions while anxious and “restructuring assumptions about three major life concerns: acceptance, competence, and control.” He notes that many anxious people have an automatic series of thoughts and reactions. A man hears a siren and quickly assumes that his own house must be on fire. A woman drives past a church and within seconds recognizes her fear that God wants to punish her. The caregiver can help people to recognize their deepest, underlying fears. Questions are key: “What’s the evidence for your anxiety?” “What’s a different way of looking at the situation?” “So what if that happens?” People can also be encouraged to name and then interrupt automatic thinking processes. Finally, the caregiver can nudge them to know the Christian story, to examine their experiences in that light, and to claim the reassurance that the Christian story offers.

Just as important as one-on-one work is engaging people in a matrix of Christian practices. Such practices connect people more deeply to God, others and self, reimmerse them in the Christian story, and help them to embody the Christian narrative in the rituals and habits of their lives. Christian practices alter perception and imagination regarding matters that cause anxiety. Cole commends church membership, service to others, and regular worship, prayer, scripture reading and confession.

A mark of nonanxiousness is willingness to enter calmly into neglected or overlooked matters or into contested areas of conversation—think of Barack Obama’s March 2008 discourse on race. Cole’s book models nonanxiety as he explores his topic with a seamless blend of personal experiences, psychological and theological considerations, and reflections on various situations in which he has ministered; he warmly and invitingly portrays how we can exchange anxious views of life and the world for the grand narrative of Christian faith.

Arthur Paul Boers teaches pastoral theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , ,

The Christian Century Commends GOOD MOURNING: GETTING THROUGH YOUR GRIEF

October 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The new issue of The Christian Century, it’s “Fall Books” issue, lists Allan’s book, Good Mourning, as one of ten best books in practical theology.   The Century says of the book:  “A solid and compassionate guide to grief and mourning, this is the kind of book that ministers will both benefit from themselves and feel comfortable giving to those who are in a season of mourning.”

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

New Review of BE NOT ANXIOUS

September 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Monday, August 10, 2009

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are very anxious, and those who are a little anxious. To put it another way: those who are talented at anxiety; and those who aren’t. I’m in the first group. I’m an anxious person.

I’ve just read a book entitled, Be Not Anxious: Pastoral Care of Disquieted Souls by Allan Hugh Cole Jr. (Eerdmans 2008)

Unlike many books about worry that end up being over-simplifications, spouting platitudes and ending up saying, “Stop worrying–just trust God,” this one is well-rounded and wholistic.

Cole gives actual testimonies from anxious people, describing how they feel and what they are up against. He then surveys some Scripture passages about the subject. He follows this with ten (count ‘em–ten) theological viewpoints on anxiety–from thinkers such as Martin Luther, Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, etc.

The next chapter presents three psychological views of anxiety: those of Freud, Harry Stack Sullivan, and Aaron Beck/Gary Emery. The third view is that of ‘cognitive restructuring.’ It is this theory and practice that the author comes back to as a major way of dealing with anxiety. I first encountered this approach through Albert Ellis who called it Rational Emotive Therapy. I spent a considerable amount of time reading and learning from this method of transforming negative emotions into positive ones. It has helped me through the years.

Cole goes on to talk about how our perceived relationship to God weighs in on how we experience anxiety. He uses Paul Pruyser’s seven diagnostic concepts to show how to listen to a person’s story and how they deal with anxiety.

He finally comes around to discussing “cognitive restructuring and learning to think differently about God.” Showing the connection between psychology and theology, Cole gives a helpful framework for changing one’s anxious behavior.

The final section is on using ‘faith practices’ to strengthen one’s emotional life.

***

This is a good and thorough look at anxiety as it relates to faith. I am both an anxious person and a person of faith. I used to think that my anxiety was a sign that I didn’t have enough faith. But as I have learned about the naturalness of anxiety for us all, and specifically about those of us who are ‘talented’ at being anxious, I have come to realize that anxiety is no big deal. It’s part of my temperament; it’s how I’m wired. I have simply learned to manage anxious feelings–and to somewhat lower their intensity.

Cole writes: “Giving up the notion of control over anxiety, paradoxically, sets the stage for learning how better to control anxiety by living with it in a different way. In a sense, this approach resembles ‘turning the other cheek’ to anxiety and thereby diminishing its coercive power.” (p. 116)

After so many years of worrying about my anxiety, I got tired of worrying about it. So, I have given up (for the most part) being anxious about being anxious.

Anxiety can actually be seen as a gift from God to call us to keep seeking alert to our needs and God’s mercy. Kierkegaard said that anxiety quickens us to faith and is useful for the Christian life. He calls anxiety ‘an adventure.’

One of my spiritual directors once told me that my anxiety was my friend–a friend who kept reminding me that I am not in control of life.

from: amazinggrays.blogspot.com

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , ,

YouthWorker Journal Review of Losers, Loners, and Rebels: The Spiritual Struggles of Boys

August 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Losers, Loners, and Rebels: The Spiritual Struggles of Boys by Robert C. Dykstra, Allan Hugh Cole Jr. and Donald Capps, Westminster John Knox Press, 2007, 204 pp. $19.95 www.ppcbooks.com

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Written by three seminary professors, Losers, Loners, and Rebels is well researched, with a wonderful bibliography on the psychological and spiritual development of boys. The premise of the book is that the spirituality of early adolescent boys is more likely to issue from experiences the boy considers negative than from experiences he considers positive. The book is divided into three sections, each written by one of the authors. The first section deals with self-awareness (the loser issue), the second focuses on self-transcendence (the loner issue), and the third investigates self-sufficiency (the rebel issue). Rather than an empirical study, each author draws from his own life experiences and the vicarious experiences of others to identify the positive spiritual development that grows out of the negative. Out of losing comes self-awareness. Loners can find solitude. Rebels develop personal conviction. If you desire a deeper understanding of the spiritual development of early adolescent boys (11—14 years), I would have difficulty finding a better resource for you. From investigating the “boy code” to the role of humor in rebellion, this book is worth the price—cover to cover. Losers, Loners, and Rebels is a great addition to your library.

Larry Lindquist

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized

Academy of Parish Clergy Review of Good Mourning: Getting through Your Grief

August 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Good Mourning:  Getting Through Your Grief, by Allan Hugh Cole, Jr.  Louisville:  Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.  102 pp.

In prose form, the author has written a comprehensive handbook on grief and mourning.  He makes a helpful distinction between the two, advancing the understanding that Granger Westberg initiated in his best-selling book Good Grief (republished in 1997).  Despite the book’s title, “Grief describes how we respond to loss, including how we feel, think and behave.  Mourning refers to the process whereby we loosen the emotonal attachment (bond) to a loss, relocate the loss in our emotional life, and create emotional space for investing anew in relationships and other aspects of living. There is a lot of overlap between grief and mourning.”  The book is written directly to the person who is suffering any kind of loss, not just through death.  This is one of its strengths.  The book may be seen as a self-guided tour or journey for those who grieve and mourn.  A thorough book on the subject.

Paul Binder, Academy of Parish Clergy, United Church of Christ, Sarasota, FL.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized

Radio Interview–Monday, August 24th

August 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Monday afternoon, Allan will be a guest on “Afternoon Talk with John Hall and Kathy Emmons” on WORD-FM in Pittsburgh, PA, at 4:40 p.m. EDT.  He will talk about his book, The Life of Prayer.  You may tune in at www.wordfm.com.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Uncategorized