462 - People in Pain: Guidelines for Pastoral Care

People in Pain: Guidelines for Pastoral Care
Wayne Oates and Charles Oates
Philadelphia, Westminster, 1985. 156 pp. $8.95.

Increased knowledge about pain may influence positively the quality of pastoral care to persons experiencing pain. For this reason, well-known pastoral theologian, Wayne Oates, and his son, Charles Oates, a neurologist who practices medicine in Chicago, have collaborated to provide pastors with invaluable information about pain for pastoral care purposes. Chapters on the neurophysiology, evaluation, and treatment of pain give pastors a foundation for conversing meaningfully with medical personnel and for empathetically understanding hurting individuals to whom they minister. Even more significantly, contemporary medical knowledge about states of pain is set in the context of an individual's spiritual pilgrimage with God and neighbor. This culminates in a very helpful final chapter, "Spiritual Concerns of the Pain Patient."

The co-authors intend this work to function as a reference book, kept on hand for repeated use. Due to clear writing and to the relevant information provided, it will serve that purpose admirably.

Gene Fowler
Memphis Theological Seminary
Memphis, Tenn.