Pastoral Theology: The Minister, Visitation and the Care of Souls

1. Lectures Listen to the lectures in order. Those marked supplementary are optional.

   • Cultivating Reformed Piety: Scripture, Prayer, Meditation, and Family Worship (Christ the Center) Joel R. Beeke 58 min (mp3 duration read with ffprobe from the episode page's audio file) Open source Doctrinal Heritage Reformed Congregations (Three Forms); president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary
   • The Shape of Faithful Ministry: Doctrine and Confessional Integrity (Christ the Center) Jonathan Master (with Camden Bucey) 42 min (mp3 duration read with ffprobe from the episode page's audio file) Open source Supplementary Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (president) Affiliation could not be confirmed this session (the WebSearch budget was exhausted and the institutional pages probed did not state it). Kept only in history or supplementary roles; confirm before any doctrinal use.
   • John Knox and Pastoral Theology (Christ the Center) Sean Morris 71 min (mp3 duration read with ffprobe from the episode page's audio file) Open source History Affiliation could not be confirmed this session (the WebSearch budget was exhausted and the institutional pages probed did not state it). Kept only in history or supplementary roles; confirm before any doctrinal use.
   • The Life and Ministry of Thomas Chalmers (Christ the Center) Sandy Finlayson 71 min (mp3 duration read with ffprobe from the episode page's audio file) Open source History Author of Chief Scottish Man: The Life and Ministry of Thomas Chalmers (Evangelical Press) Affiliation could not be confirmed this session (the WebSearch budget was exhausted and the institutional pages probed did not state it). Kept only in history or supplementary roles; confirm before any doctrinal use.
   • John Calvin as Counselor: Pastoral Wisdom from His Letters (Christ the Center) Michael Mock 62 min (mp3 duration read with ffprobe from the episode page's audio file) Open source History Affiliation could not be confirmed this session (the WebSearch budget was exhausted and the institutional pages probed did not state it). Kept only in history or supplementary roles; confirm before any doctrinal use.

   Total: 5.1 hours

2. Reading Read in the order given. Public-domain and free texts are linked; purchases are optional and never required.

   • The Directory for the Publick Worship of God: Of the Visitation of the Sick Westminster Assembly with the Commissioners of the Church of Scotland 104 scanned pages for the whole Directory Open source Primary text 1645 (reprint 1880). Public domain
   • A Soliloquy on the Art of Man-Fishing (1899 edition) Thomas Boston 120 scanned pages (archive.org) Open source Primary text 1899 edition. Public domain
   • For the Work of the Ministry (Blaikie), pastoral chapters William Garden Blaikie 440 scanned pages (archive.org); assign the chapters on the call and on pastoral work Open source Doctrinal 1873. Public domain
   • Pastoral Care for the Dying, Parts I and II Gordon Cook Two parts: article ids 185 (Jan 2010) and 191 (Feb 2010) Open source Doctrinal 2010. Free online American subscribers (1788 text). None of their items in this stream touches WCF 20.4, 23 or 31. No comparison heading needed in this stream; keep the standing note on the page.
   • The Importance of Home Visitation G. I. Williamson Open source Doctrinal 2009. Free online American subscribers (1788 text). None of their items in this stream touches WCF 20.4, 23 or 31. No comparison heading needed in this stream; keep the standing note on the page.
   • The Shepherd Leader (review of Timothy Z. Witmer, The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church, P&R 2010) William Shishko Open source Supplementary 2011. Free online American subscribers (1788 text). None of their items in this stream touches WCF 20.4, 23 or 31. No comparison heading needed in this stream; keep the standing note on the page.
   • Duties of Husband and Wife (from A Plaine and Familiar Exposition of the Ten Commandements, 1603) John Dod and Robert Cleaver Open source Primary text 1603. Free online Pre-Westminster or non-Scottish Puritans used as primary texts. Keep: historic divines in the Westminster line (Perkins's method shaped the Directory; Watson was a Presbyterian of the Assembly's generation).
   • The Reformed Pastor Richard Baxter 382 scanned pages (archive.org) Open source Source studied 1835 edition (Glasgow: William Collins). Public domain Not a subscriber; his neonomian doctrine of justification was rejected by the Scottish divines. Re-roled primary-source-studied.

3. Assignment Write a research paper of 30 pages on a topic drawn from the lectures and readings of this course. Argue from Scripture, the Westminster Standards (1647 text) and the Three Forms of Unity, cite the primary sources you read, and state the points on which the sources differ.

   Open the assignment

Every lecture and reading carries its role. "Under review" means the teacher's subscription to the Westminster Standards or the Three Forms of Unity is not yet established; "Read as comparison" means the material teaches the 1788 American text of WCF 20.4, 23 or 31 or of Larger Catechism Q.109, which the school reads beside the 1647 text. Nothing has been removed.