Journal index

“People are not a machines, because if they were, in an emergency situation they would know which button to press or which screw to tighten in order to get their machine working again” – maintains Rolf Theolbold, minister and practical theologian, author of the book. Rolf Theolbold presents the basics and possibilities of short-term pastoral care in a plain language. How “short” is short-term pastoral care? How can it help those longing for a solution to their spiritual problems? This book was written for people who want to help others but often have little time to do so. From a rich repertoire of modern short-term therapy methods, it offers practical suggestions on how to provide useful pastoral care in a short time frame. The author encourages the reader to experience with the presented short-term methods of pastoral care and to discover the rich possibilities it offers despite the limited time available. The first six chapters of the book focus on the theoretical foundations, while the rest of the book provides the methodological underpinnings.

The present writing discusses analytically Sándor Fazakas’s book entitled We have sinned… The church in the context of historical and social sins. It is known that in the darkest decades of the last century, the Christian churches were in the focus of different totalitarian oppressing regimes. Under these conditions it seemed to be impossible and/or senseless to interpret questions of social and private sins from the viewpoint of church organisations, church leaders, or laic believers. Sándor Fazakas is breaking taboos when exposing – beyond the hard to judge victims’ destiny – the moral and theological facets of the collaboration with the oppressive regimes. Based on his vast knowledge of history, theology, philosophy, and sociology, the author offers worthy of considering aspects for the difficult task of encountering the past, avoiding at the same time the nowadays rather common ad personam accusations.