Description: What if we are more multiple as persons than traditional
psychology has taught us to believe? And what if our multiplicity is a
part of how we are made in the very image of a loving, relational,
multiple God? How have modern, Western notions of Oneness caused
harm--to both individuals and society? And how can an appreciation of
our multiplicity help liberate the voices of those who live at the
margins, both of society and within our own complex selves? Braided
Selves explores these questions from the perspectives of postmodern
pastoral psychology and Trinitarian theology, with implications for the
practice of spiritual care, counseling, and psychotherapy. This volume
gathers ten years of essays on this theme by preeminent pastoral
theologian Pamela Cooper-White, whose writings bring into dialogue
postmodern, feminist, and psychoanalytic theory and constructive
theology. Endorsements: ""The polyvalent beauty of the titular metaphor
weaves right through this powerful new contribution to relational
theology--in its most currently postmodern theory and practice. Managing
to remain breathtakingly readable, this text offers its manifold gifts
to the whole range of theological disciplines. Braid this book into your
lives, your ministries, your studies, your selves!"" --Catherine Keller
Professor of Constructive Theology Drew Theological School ""Braided
Selves is a remarkable collection of richly nuanced, provocative,
debatable, generative, and above all, truly important essays at the
intersection of psychoanalytic theory, theological anthropology,
constructive theology, and pastoral theology by one who may now be the
most profound and searching pastoral theologian of our time. Pamela
Cooper-White writes in a fluid, interesting, and highly readable style,
while probing the depths of some of the most important issues in
contemporary, postmodern theological anthropology and clinical and
pastoral practice. This book cannot be too highly recommended.""
--Rodney J. Hunter Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology Candler
School of Theology, Emory University ""Braided Selves is what authentic
theology could be in the twenty-first century: theoretically rich
without fleeing into metaphysical and rhetorical abstractions; rooted in
human experience without degenerating into sentimentality and cliché.
Anyone who cares about religious reflection in this troubled time should
read this book. It will be a loss if Dr. Cooper-White's text is in any
way restricted only to those who have 'pastoral' in their job
description."" --James W. Jones Professor of Psychology of Religion
Rutgers University About the Contributor(s): Pamela Cooper-White is the
Ben G. and Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care,
and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, and
Director of the Atlanta Theological Association's ThD program in
Pastoral Counseling. In 2005 she received the American Association of
Pastoral Counselors' national award for Distinguished Achievement in
Research and Writing. Cooper-White holds PhDs from Harvard University
and from the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago. She is the
author of Many Voices: Pastoral Psychotherapy and Theology in Relational
Perspective (2007), Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and
Counseling (2004), and The Cry of Tamar: Violence against Women and the
Church's Response (1995).
