The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Any pastor who needs and wants to get back to basics will do well to absorb this book. Eugene Peterson, well known as "a pastor's pastor," here speaks words of wisdom and refreshment for pastors caught in the busyness of preaching, teaching, and "running the church."
In The Contemplative Pastor Peterson highlights the often-overlooked essentials of ministry, first by redefining the meaning of pastor through three strengthening adjectives: unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. The main part of the book focuses on pastoral ministry and spiritual direction "between Sundays": these chapters begin with poetic reflections on the Beatitudes and then discuss such themes as curing souls, praying with eyes open, the language of prayer, the ministry of small talk, and sabbatical--all with engaging, illustrative anecdotes from Peterson's own experience.
The book ends with several meaning-full poems that pivot on the incarnation, the doctrine closest to pastoral work. Entitled "The Word Made Fresh," this concluding section is a felicitous finale to Peterson's discerning, down-to-earth reflections on the art of pastoring.
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- Offers words of wisdom and refreshment for pastors caught in the busyness of preaching, teaching, and "running the church"
- Focuses on pastoral ministry and spiritual direction "between Sundays"
- Includes several meaning-full poems that pivot on the incarnation, the doctrine closest to pastoral work
REDEFINITIONS
- The Naked Noun
- The Unbusy Pastor
- The Subversive Pastor
- The Apocalyptic Pastor
BETWEEN SUNDAYS
- Ministry amid the Traffic
- Curing Souls: The Forgotten Art
- Praying with Eyes Open
- First Language
- Is Growth a Decision?
- The Ministry of Small Talk
- Unwell in a New Way
- Lashed to the Mast
- Desert and Harvest: A Sabbatical Story
THE WORD MADE FRESH
- Poets and Pastors
- Poems
- The Septuagint and Qumran – Gideon R. Kotzé
- The Septuagint and the Major Recensions – Ville Mäkipelto
- The Septuagint and the Secondary Versions – Claude Cox
- The Septuagint and Origen's Hexapla – Peter J. Gentry
- The Septuagint and the Biblical Canon – John Meade
This excellent treatise on the rediscovery of the authentic purpose of true pastoral care deserves attention, dialogue and action.
St. Anthony Messenger
- Title: The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction
- Author: Eugene H. Peterson
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 1993
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Pages: 171
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Spiritual direction; Pastoral theology; Clergy › Office; Peterson, Eugene H., 1932-
- ISBNs: 9780802801142, 0802801145
- Resource ID: LLS:CONTEMPASTOR
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:58:16Z
Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) was a pastor, scholar, author, and poet. He wrote more than thirty books, including his widely acclaimed paraphrase of the Bible, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, his memoir, The Pastor, and numerous works of biblical spiritual formation, including Run with the Horses, also available in a commemorative edition. Peterson was founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, where he served for twenty-nine years before retiring in 1991. With degrees from Seattle Pacific, New York Theological Seminary, and Johns Hopkins University, he served as professor of spiritual theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, until retiring in Lakeside, Montana, in 2006.