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Journal of Religion and Health
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health 2/2018

01-04-2018 | Original Paper

From “The Depleted Self” to “The Will to Believe”: Excavating the Hermeneutics of Donald Capps

Author: Yolanda Dreyer

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 2/2018

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Abstract

The concept of “reframing” lies at the heart of the pastoral psychology of Donald Capps. In previous articles I have argued that the process of reframing follows a circular hermeneutics. An excavation of Capps’ hermeneutics reveals foundations in the fields of philosophy and psychology. This article focuses on the legacy of Johann Gottfried von Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher, William James and Paul Ricoeur. It explores the differences and commonalities between William James and Friedrich Schleiermacher’s understanding of religious experience as well as Paul Ricoeur’s understanding of narrativity and traces these strains to Capps’ pastoral psychology. As illustration of his pastoral approach to healing and wholeness the problem of “the depleted self,” so prevalent in “our narcissistic age,” encounters the healing narrative of Jesus that appeals to “the will to believe.”
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Metadata
Title
From “The Depleted Self” to “The Will to Believe”: Excavating the Hermeneutics of Donald Capps
Author
Yolanda Dreyer
Publication date
01-04-2018
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 2/2018
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0491-0

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Editor’s Note: Special Issue on the Life and Work of Donald Capps (1939–2015)