Doing Soul Care from a Region in My Mind: A Baldwinian Interpretation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article documents one of the plenary speeches given at the annual conference of the Society of Pastoral Theology in June 2022 in Montgomery, Alabama. The theme of the conference, Looking Back and Moving Forward, centered on an immersion experience at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. In this plenary address, the speaker invites the community of scholars and practitioners to imagine soul care through the work and person of twentieth-century literary artist James Baldwin. Four themes from the work of Baldwin are discussed as a way to enhance the work of pastoral scholars and spiritual caregivers: (1) locating soul-care on the correct arc of history, (2) identifying who you are writing for, (3) cultivating generativity as a practice of self-care and for the continuity of the struggle for freedom and, (4) practicing love as the next step beyond empathy.