The Letting Loose of Hope: Where Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Care Converge

Abstract

Argues that William James's pragmatic method of truth provides a bridge over which the fields of psychology of religion and pastoral care might together pass. Proposes that this method enables us to see that psychology of religion understands hope to be the core of genuine religious experience and that pastoral care is fundamentally about enabling individuals (singly or collectively) to have, and recognize that they have had, religious experiences of hope.