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PRINCIPLES AND METHODS
freedom, confidence and understanding. The spiritual
counsellor did not go as a leader or dictator. His purpose was to help
by referring the enquirer to the Word of God. A Christian
conscience should be governed by the Word. Proving the
conscience would then necessarily reveal more clearly the way
of salvation.
The central flaw or limitation in this conception of the care
of souls was its objectivity. Although it was the result of a
wholesome reaction against the excesses and distortions that the
Catholic method had encouraged, nevertheless it had the effect of
“throwing the individual back on his own resources. In the end
he was left to work out his personal problems alone.
Many of the free movements and denominations that arose
shortly after the Reformation restored some of the
pre-Reformation attitudes towards the care of souls. The Church and its
purity were strongly emphasised and salvation became almost
synonymous with spiritual allegiance to the Church. Guidance
given in conventicles and meetings for edification became the
recognised source of counsel and often replaced the individual
care of souls altogether.
Post-Reformation Developments
During the period after the Reformation there arose
movements like Pietism, Methodism and the Baptist movement in
which new methods for the care of souls gradually appeared,
all having their interest centred in the individual. The fun-
“damental importance of the spiritual adviser’s personality was
insisted upon. In contrast to the earlier mechanical view, and
an institutional system which made the care of souls a matter of
public discipline, emphasis was now given to the importance
of dealing privately and personally with the individual soul.
This new and deeper insight laid greater spiritual
responsibilities on those who undertook the care of souls. It brought
with it a new attitude towards the earlier intellectualism. The
realisation grew that the urgent needs of the human spirit are
not the results of ignorance of doctrine, but spring from a deeper
cause : human sin and the wrong attitude to life that sin produces.
Salvation comes from the heart, not the head.
During the period of the Renaissance another notable change
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