Kirk A. Bingaman – författare

Studies in neuroscience demonstrate that a focus on mindfulness meditation and contemplative spiritual practice has the capacity to increase our non-anxious awareness and significantly lower our stress. Not only is this finding of immediate importance for pastoral counselors and psychotherapists, it will even necessitate a paradigm shift in the way that pastoral and spiritual practitioners approach the general care of souls. The starting point for such a paradigm shift is an acknowledgement of the built-in negativity bias of the brain, and how certain beliefs and theological views may inadvertently reinforce the bias to the detriment of individuals and faith communities. Once necessary for human survival, the ingrained bias can often be excessive for today’s world, resulting in negatively disproportionate assessments of life events and human relationships. To balance the neural predisposition toward negativity and anxious awareness, it is necessary for pastoral and spiritual caregivers, and those in their care, to cultivate a regular contemplative-meditational practice.The Power of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral and Spiritual Care focuses on the groundbreaking finding of contemporary neuroscience—that the brain is built for change across the entire lifespan. It is designed to make the research accessible to and relevant for those engaged in the work of pastoral and spiritual care in order to help clients and congregants effect lasting and transformative changes in the mind and brain. Through the regular practice of contemplative prayer and meditation, we can literally calm the stress region of the brain in order to live less anxiously and experience more fully the peace and joy of the present moment. The introduction of mindfulness- and acceptance-based counseling approaches will provide pastoral and spiritual practitioners with an important therapeutic framework to situate their work, from which they can make more informed and effective interventions geared toward using the mind to change the brain.

A new form of anxiety has emerged, stemming in part from our post-9/11 reality, but even more stemming from the influence of supermodernity. Whereas postmodernism theorizes an anxiety that results from the collapse or loss of meaning, through the lens of supermodernity it appears that the new anxiety is evoked more by an excess of meaning generated by the rapid acceleration of human life and the media's daily bombardment with serious global, national, and local concerns. This book explores the nature of the anxiety our supermodern condition provokes, and proposes that with the void left by the diminishment of religious involvement and practice the therapy session becomes the definitive place for meaning-making. Building on a cognitive therapy approach that emphasizes the client's belief system, Bingaman demonstrates that to treat this new anxiety most effectively, practitioners must help clients identify and explore their core theological beliefs and spiritual values.

A new form of anxiety has emerged, stemming in part from our post-9/11 reality, but even more stemming from the influence of supermodernity. Whereas postmodernism theorizes an anxiety that results from the collapse or loss of meaning, through the lens of supermodernity it appears that the new anxiety is evoked more by an excess of meaning generated by the rapid acceleration of human life and the media's daily bombardment with serious global, national, and local concerns. This book explores the nature of the anxiety our supermodern condition provokes, and proposes that with the void left by the diminishment of religious involvement and practice the therapy session becomes the definitive place for meaning-making. Building on a cognitive therapy approach that emphasizes the client's belief system, Bingaman demonstrates that to treat this new anxiety most effectively, practitioners must help clients identify and explore their core theological beliefs and spiritual values.

Explores how religious believers can—and why they should—engage the work of Sigmund Freud, despite his well-known dismissal of faith.Whether Sigmund Freud's theory precludes serious engagement with psychoanalytic theory for those professing faith in the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition has been controversial for years. Coming to terms with Freud's theory has proved difficult for religious believers because of his stance that religious faith is little more than psychological projection. Building on the work of philosopher and theologian Paul Ricoeur, psychoanalyst Ana-Maria Rizzuto, and feminist theorist Judith Van Herik, author Kirk A. Bingaman demonstrates that it is possible and even advantageous for believers to hold their religious faith in dialectical tension with psychoanalysis. Bingaman shows how Freud's critique of religion can enrich and strengthen, rather than destroy, the faith of the believer. What emerges from the author's argument is a creative method for living within the emotional and spiritual tension that develops whenever our belief system is challenged or disrupted.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing what it means to be human. Given our increasing merger with machines, we have therefore entered uncharted territory and an era of unprecedented change. For pastoral and spiritual care providers, religious faith communities, clinical practitioners, and educators, immediate theological reflection is needed, focusing on the potential existential threat and opportunity, and what will constitute human personhood in an age of technological enhancement. Preserving our humanity in a digital age will require intentional focus on strengthening the neural circuitry associated with focused attention, mindful and compassionate awareness, and social and relational intelligence, even as we put to good use the emerging digital technologies.