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CHAPTER I
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS
THERE is a great growing need for Christian spiritual
advisers. Increasing numbers of people are becoming aware of
the aridity of a life lived in complete dependence upon material
satisfactions, and are beginning to seek in religion the answers
to the personal bewilderments and social problems that scientific
methods and secular philosophies have failed to resolve. It is
therefore not surprising that the care of souls has become a
matter of urgent practical concern and, at the same time, a
source of deep bewilderment, not only to clergy and ministers but
to many among the Christian laity as well. Of concern, because
the dilemma of the modern world raises questions more deep
and searching than have perhaps ever before been asked and
throws upon every religious believer a responsibility more grave
than he has hitherto had to meet; of bewilderment, because the
problems of the unbeliever are to so great an extent those of the
pastor and teacher also. Many who in more spacious years
believed implicitly in their competence to guide their fellow
men and women in the way of truth today feel the very
perplexities and doubts that assail those who come to them for
help.
While members of every branch of the Christian Church
would agree that, in some sense, a responsibility for the care of
souls is laid upon them, there is the widest diversity of opinion
about the nature of that responsibility and about the measures
that should be taken to meet it. In order to understand how the
more important of these differences have arisen, and to give a
historical background to the point of view expressed in the
following chapters, it is necessary to trace briefly the
development of Christian thought on this matter from its beginnings.
As we do so, we shall notice that each new phase of Church
history has been accompanied by a different notion of what the
care of souls means. As the Church’s conception of itself, of
man, of the substance of faith and the nature of the spiritual
life have changed, so a change has occurred in its attitude
towards the care of souls and the responsibilities implied by this
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