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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
with it, in particular the Thirty Years’ War and its aftermath;
but there were other reasons, inherent perhaps in Lutheran
Orthodoxy, which encouraged a one-sided intellectualism and
the use of the Word of God mechanically as an educational
code. As a result of such tendencies the place of the spiritual
adviser was taken by the theologian, and the care of souls
deteriorated into mere technical education given by the
theologian to the layman. From the pulpit during public worship, in
private conversation, in the schoolroom, and even at the
deathbed, the theologian imparted instruction. The very
diagnosis of the soul’s needs was made with the aid of a series of
test questions on points of dogma.
The failure of the early Protestant Church to sustain its
inspiration, and thus to exercise a healing ministry over the
souls of men, is attested also by the quality of its discipline.
Even Luther himself complained that the Church had lost
its Biblical character and had become an instrument of worldly
power. Discipline was rigorous almost from the beginning. The
spiritual adviser was less a minister of the Gospel than an
official superviser whose office was to exercise a vigilant
surveillance over the members, while the officials of the Church
constituted themselves a court that sat in judgment on moral
offences, almost usurping the functions of the civil judiciary.
Although the men of the Reformation were, in theory, utterly
opposed to the Roman Catholic practice of allowing the care
of souls to become a weapon wherewith the individual was
coerced into the service of the Church, or of allowing
consideration for the Church’s interests to become the motive of that
care, evangelical Christianity could not wholly avoid this
danger. The idea of the minister as a mediator or leader of souls
is apparent in Lutheranism and the reform movements.
Nevertheless the views of the Reformed Church are in two ways closely
akin to the modern attitude towards the care of souls.
First, it was taken for granted that the individual’s conscience
was for him a final court of appeal. Therefore the task of those
responsible for the care of souls was, properly conceived, to
bring the individual before God and to help him to hear and
obey the voice of conscience. Secondly, and in consequence of
the first principle, the relationship of the spiritual adviser and
the individual to whom he ministered must be based on mutual
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