The current shift in cosmology and theology has personal implications for me as a coordinator of spiritual care services in a large public hospital in Silicon Valley. The ministry that used to be called pastoral care was based on the idea of a Christian pastor acting as the Good Shepherd tending a flock of poor creatures who had lost their way.
This ministry still holds value but it has been transformed and augmented into a more diverse and egalitarian approach we call spiritual care. Teilhard de Chardin, Henry Nouwen and numerous influential women were part of the shift in the underpinnings of a Catholic view of the cosmos that caused a radical rethinking of the theological stance for pastoral care.
Gestures and rituals that grew out of an outdated geocentric and male dominant world view have been set aside to outfit the current age for the journey ahead. There is a pathway out of the frozen theological tundra that leaves many without hope and without energy to thrive. A new world view that reconciles Trinitarian theology with the cosmological mystery is taking place in real time. Human consciousness is ultimately the key to redemption and salvation. That consciousness must take into consideration the scientific understanding of time and space and the way life develops in the cosmos.
Reflections from Ilia Delio retreat based on her new book A Hunger for
Wholeness: Soul, Space, and Transcendence.
