Character of Protestant pastors: A focus group study
-
Ronelle Sonnenberg
,
Rens de Ronde
Abstract
This study explores, at the interface between practical theology and ethics, the character of pastors in relation to their professional practices. The Dutch focus groups included youth pastors, chaplains and congregational ministers in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. Spiritual connectedness and social connectedness were singled out as the “goods” of pastoral practices and played an important role in the ongoing formation of pastors’ character. The results of this study touch upon a debate in character theories. We conclude that pastors’ character is formed and transformed by their readiness to work according to specific pastoral virtues and attitudes that are called upon in their practices.
Zusammenfassung
Die Studie, die auf einer Erhebung in der Protestantischen Kirche in den Niederlanden basiert, analysiert das Verhältnis von Pfarrpersonen zu ihrer Berufspraxis. Zur Verhältnisbestimmung wird auf psychologische Charaktertheorien zurückgegriffen, die mit einem interaktionistischen Ansatz verbunden werden. In Fokusgruppen mit Pfarrpersonen aus Jugendpfarrämtern, Krankenhausseelsorge und Gemeindepfarramt der Protestantischen Kirche in den Niederlanden wurden Einstellungen und Verhaltensmuster erhoben. Spirituelle Verbundenheit und soziale Verbundenheit konnten als ‚Güter‘ der pastoralen Praxis verstanden werden, die eine wichtige Rolle bei der fortlaufenden Charakterbildung von Pastoren spielen. Ein zentrales Ergebnis ist, dass der Charakter von Pastoren durch ihre Bereitschaft geformt und verändert wird, in Orientierung an bestimmten pastoralen Tugenden und Einstellungen zu arbeiten, die in ihrer jeweiligen Praxis zum Tragen kommen.
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- International Report
- Pakikibaka at Pagsamba: Country Report on the State of Practical Theology in the Philippines
- Research Report
- Comprehensive Schools as the Frontier of Religious Education: Current Developments and Emerging Principles in Germany
- Research Articles
- Hope, Meaning, and the Goodness of Life on the Whole: A Trauma-Informed Eschatological Practical Theology
- Waiting, Witnessing, Embodying: A Trauma-informed Approach for Theological Qualitative Research
- Character of Protestant pastors: A focus group study
- “What else could we have done?”
- Comparing Qualitative and Quantitative Research Findings on Scrupulosity Among Hong Kong Catholics and Protestants
- Faith in Flux: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Explore Religious Doubt in Adult Christians
- Pain as a Profound Mystery: Proposing Hopeful Anthropocene Pastoral Care and Counseling through Eschatological Self
- Book Reviews
- Manual Stetter, Die Konstitution der Toten. Eine Religionsethnografie der Bestattungspraxis, Leipzig (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt) 2024, 323 pp., ISBN 978-3-374-07569-0, 98 €.
- Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds: Interiority, Black Women, and Religious Experience, Lanham (Lexington Books) 2024, 153 pp., ISBN 978-1-7936-3864-9, $39.99 USD.
- Philipp Öhlmann, Ignatius Swart, Birgit Weyel, Simangaliso Kumalo, Marie-Luise Frost (Eds.), Lived Religion and Lived Development in Contemporary Society. Essays in Honour of Wilhelm Gräb. Research in Contemporary Religion (RCR), Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2024, 511 pp., ISBN 978-3-525-50071-2, 99 €.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- International Report
- Pakikibaka at Pagsamba: Country Report on the State of Practical Theology in the Philippines
- Research Report
- Comprehensive Schools as the Frontier of Religious Education: Current Developments and Emerging Principles in Germany
- Research Articles
- Hope, Meaning, and the Goodness of Life on the Whole: A Trauma-Informed Eschatological Practical Theology
- Waiting, Witnessing, Embodying: A Trauma-informed Approach for Theological Qualitative Research
- Character of Protestant pastors: A focus group study
- “What else could we have done?”
- Comparing Qualitative and Quantitative Research Findings on Scrupulosity Among Hong Kong Catholics and Protestants
- Faith in Flux: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Explore Religious Doubt in Adult Christians
- Pain as a Profound Mystery: Proposing Hopeful Anthropocene Pastoral Care and Counseling through Eschatological Self
- Book Reviews
- Manual Stetter, Die Konstitution der Toten. Eine Religionsethnografie der Bestattungspraxis, Leipzig (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt) 2024, 323 pp., ISBN 978-3-374-07569-0, 98 €.
- Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds: Interiority, Black Women, and Religious Experience, Lanham (Lexington Books) 2024, 153 pp., ISBN 978-1-7936-3864-9, $39.99 USD.
- Philipp Öhlmann, Ignatius Swart, Birgit Weyel, Simangaliso Kumalo, Marie-Luise Frost (Eds.), Lived Religion and Lived Development in Contemporary Society. Essays in Honour of Wilhelm Gräb. Research in Contemporary Religion (RCR), Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2024, 511 pp., ISBN 978-3-525-50071-2, 99 €.
