Exploring personal involvement in pastoral care research

Abstract

In various medical studies, professionals place enormous emphasis on achieving the most accurate and unbiased results, as the effectiveness of treatments and medications can directly impact lives. As Christians, we believe that the insights gained through our theological research help us better understand God's will and how we can experience it daily. Despite this, we give little attention to how we influence the course of these researches, with our personalities, experiences, and prejudices.  Therefore, the main theme of my study, is how our personal involvement can impact our theological research, especially in the field of pastoral care. I have divided my study into two main parts. In the first, I will present aspects that may cause difficulties in our research: the presence of various biases, and the presence of our own personal piety in our research methodology and results. In the second half, as a response to these difficulties, I present two aspects of possible solutions: the first is cognition and self-awareness as a response to the biases, and the second is the recognition and incorporation of our own story and narrative into our research. At the end of my presentation, I will articulate the summarized findings of my research and the directions in which it can be taken to develop this theme in more depth.