This volume offers a detailed analysis of how the current phase of capitalism is eating away at social, interpersonal, and psychological health. Drawing upon an interdisciplinary body of research, Bruce Rogers-Vaughn describes an emerging form of human distresswhat he calls 'third order suffering'that is rapidly becoming normative. Moreover, this new paradigm of affliction is increasingly entangled with already-existing genres of misery, such as sexism, racism, and class struggle, mutating their appearances and mystifying their intersections. Along the way, Rogers-Vaughn presents stimulating reflections on how widespread views regarding secularization and postmodernity may divert attention from contemporary capitalism as the material origin of these developments. Finally, he explores his own clinical practice, which yields clues for addressing the double unconsciousness of third order suffering and outlining a vision for caring for souls in these troubling times.

Responds to a lack of resources within the theological academy attending to economic analysis and neoliberalism Describes how neoliberal capitalism has reshaped human suffering and why a reorientation of the field of pastoral theology is therefore necessary Provides an in-depth examination of the suffering that hegemonic neoliberalism has caused at every level of human experiencepersonal, relational, communal, and systemic

Autorentext
Bruce Rogers-Vaughn is Associate Professor of the Practice of Pastoral Theology and Counseling at Vanderbilt Divinity School, USA. He brings 30 years of experience in clinical pastoral psychotherapy to his teaching and research. He is also President and Co-founder of the Pastoral Center for Healing, USA, where he continues his clinical practice.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Preface to a Post-Capitalist Pastoral Theology.- 2. Neoliberalism, Inequality, and the Erosion of Social Well-being.- 3. Going Viral: The Neoliberal Infiltration of the Living Human Web.- 4. Neoliberalism as a Paradigm for Human Affliction: Third Order Suffering as the New Normal.- 5. Muting and Mutating Suffering: Sexism, Racism and Class Struggle.- 6. Beyond Self-Management: Re-Membering Soul.- 7. Concluding Theological Postscripts.