Braided Selves

by Pamela Cooper-White

Overview

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).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606086681
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	06/10/2011
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Pamela Cooper-White is a scholar, teacher, and Episcopal priest whose work integrates pastoral theology with relational psychoanalysis. She teaches as the Ben G. and Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, and is also Co-Director of the Atlanta Theological Association's ThD program in Pastoral Counseling. She was awarded a Fulbright fellowship as the 2013-14 Fulbright-Freud Visiting Scholar of Psychoanalysis in Vienna, Austria, where she conducted research on early psychoanalysis and religion at the Sigmund Freud Museum, and taught a seminar on Freud, Psychoanalysis and Religion at the University of Vienna. She holds two PhDs: from Harvard University (in historical musicology), and from the Institute for Clinical Social Work, Chicago (a psychoanalytic clinical and research degree). Cooper-White is the author of Braided Selves: Collected Essays on Multiplicity, God, and Persons (Cascade Books, 2011), Many Voices: Pastoral Psychotherapy and Theology in Relational Perspective (2007), Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling (2004), The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response (1995; 2nd revised edition 2012), and Schoenberg and the God Idea: The Opera 'Moses und Aron' (1985). She has published numerous articles and anthology chapters, and has lectured frequently across the U.S., as well as in Vienna, Budapest, Bern, and Prague. Cooper-White is a clinical Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Illinois, and a Board Certified Counselor, National Board for Certified Counselors. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Psychology, Culture, and Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pastoral Theology.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"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 cliche. 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

Editorial Reviews

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 cliche. 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

From the Publisher