Contact Information:
Email: john.shea.3@bc.edu
Office Phone: 617-552-1315
Address:
Boston College
School of Theology and Ministry
140 Commonwealth Ave.
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Areas of Interest:
The interface of psychology and religion; pastoral counseling; religious growth and development; adulthood and adult religion; paradox, metaphor, and ritual in adulthood and adult religion, empathy, experiential psychotherapy, and Eugene Gendlin's method of focusing.
About:
John J. Shea, OSA, Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling and Dual Degree Liaison with the Graduate School of Social Work for the MA/MSW in Pastoral Ministry and Social Work and with the Lynch School of Education for the MA/MA in Pastoral Ministry and Counseling Psychology. He has an MA in Theology from Augustinian College, an MA in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America, an MPS in Pastoral Counselling from St. Paul University, an MSW from Fordham University, and a PhD in the Psychology of Religion from the University of Ottawa. He is a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. John's book, Finding God Again: Spirituality for Adults was published in the summer of 2005 by Rowman & Littlefield. This book asks the question: why are so many who are adult in most areas of their lives still living with a God of childhood and adolescence, a Superego God? Recently he published Adulthood-A Missing Perspective; Psychotherapy, Spirituality, and Religion, an article suggesting how psychotherapy, spirituality, and religion are related in adulthood.
Courses:
Fall 2009
TM 532- Basic Dimensions of Pastoral Care & Counseling
Spring 2010
TM 987- Role of Empathy in Pastoral Care/Counseling
TM 991- Special Issues in Pastoral Care/Counseling
Recent Publications:
Finding God Again: Spirituality for Adults
This book asks the question: Why are so many adults still living with a God of childhood and adolescence, an incomplete God, a Superego God? With theory and story it shows how a God of adulthood, a God of mutuality, a Living God can be realized.
A Pastoral Approach to the Family, 2nd ed.
This book is a revised edition of the proceedings of a conference organized in 1999 by SERFAC for the Asian bishops on pastoral care of the family.
Adulthood-A Missing Perspective: Psychotherapy, Spirituality, and Religion
With the perspective of an adult self, this article looks at how psychotherapy, spirituality, and religion can be comprehended in themselves and in relation to each other.
American Journal of Pastoral Counseling, Vol. 7, No. 1
William James, Pastoral Counselling, and Adult Religion
Drawing from the thinking of William James, especially in The Varieties of Religious Experience, this article describes pastoral counseling as a process meant to foster adult religion.
Pastoral Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 1
The Adult Self: Process and Paradox
An adult self is seen as its own responsible ongoing process in which the ways it is and is not” are able to live in creative tension.
Journal of Adult Development, Vol. 10, No. 1
The Development of Empathy: Adulthood, Morality, and Religion
A view of empathy as central to adulthood as well as to adult morality and religion.