A Pastoral Theological Response to Miguel De La Torre

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article responds to Miguel De La Torre's essay, “Embracing the Hopelessness of Those Seeking Pastoral Care,” which argues that the use of hope as a core concept in pastoral theology reinforces the white supremacy and Eurocentrism of the academy. In contrast, this article acknowledges that pastoral theology has been deeply shaped by white cultural norms, but contends that the discipline's commitments to lived experience and reflective practice create the conditions for new, more liberative understandings of hope to emerge.