One of the greatest books that the author, Donald Capps, has written is this book, Agents of Hope: A Pastoral Psychology. Agents of Hope: A Pastoral Psychology is a book that has attempted to explain the solidity of hope and its effect on us, as human beings. The book is very successful in reaching the target audience and has managed to pass the expected message. This can be highly attributed to the mere fact that the book is overly insightful and also philosophical in that it deals with the term hope and its overall influence to the future. The psychological aspect of hope and its effect has also been outlined largely in the book. Another attractive factor is mainly the use of the religious perspective to explain this context without ignoring the psychological one. The author has managed to pass his message through the use of ministers and evangelists whose main role is to give people hope. Writing this book using the pastor’s perspective illustrates the manner in which Hope influences our future.
Written by Donald Capps, the book is definitely one of the most recognized and credible sources of the religious perspective of the topic at hand, hope. This is mainly due to the reason that the author is not only professionally proficient in religion and theology but also since the author has invested a lot of his time researching and attempting to explain a number of aspects that influence hope and its outcomes. Hope is a complex behavioural trait through which we perceive the outcomes before they happen. Hope and faith are two closely related topics and the author has tried to explain hope on its solo basis.
The main context that the author has applied is the use of a pastor, who is seen as a vessel of hope. Capps has used an anthropological approach to try and explain this theoretic aspect of hope and its effect in a diverse cultural context. For an author to be a good analyst, there are a number of factors that the author should put into deep consideration. One of them is the topic at hand, which is hope, its definition, explanation and contextualization. Secondly the author should also outline the negativity that is bound in and within the main theme of the book. These could be the threats towards hope such as despair, anxiety, apathy and shame, as well as other negative effects of the same.
Expectedly, the author has covered all these perspectives cohesively. The book is not only explanatory but also in some way, an inspiring book for religious people. One of the aspects that the author has covered is hopelessness and its negativity. He has also provided a way to evade hopelessness in our future and explained the manner in which the philosophical aspects, hopelessness affects us both mentally and physically. According to the book, hope and hopelessness can be explained in several dimension of time. According to the book, for one to retain hope, it is expected that the person has to revisit the past, check on the future as well as have a broad outlook of the future ahead of them to ensure that the person understands what the future holds for him or her. Shame, anxiety and despair have been outlined by the author as some of the threats towards hope.
For us to retain hope, according to Capps, we need to view our options in all three dimensions of time. Revisiting the past will outline the past position on what we are hoping for and the changes that we have experienced presently. The past reflects where we have been and our situation back then. Secondly, the present, which is our current position defines our current position in a matter at hand, and would outline the positivity or the negativity that is bound within our situation and the hopes we had. It also outlines our achievements since the past, as Capps has put it down. Thirdly, the future is what defines our Hope. Without the future, there is nothing to hope for. Without the past, there is no need of hoping since hope is an aspect that defines our dreams, objectives and goals. The present defines our current situation and also clearly outlines our future expectations which define the term hope.
Donald Capps has used the ontological perspective to argue on the topic, hope. According to Capps, hope may be a by product for professionals, which explains the main reason as to why these people hope, but mainly work to achieve their hopes, whereas for evangelists and ministers, hope is their main goal and objective in their career. In the book, Capps has outlined all possible facets of hope, and has provided a dynamically logical explanation of the term as well as all contexts of its application. Besides the positive traits, the negativity that may result from hope is another feature that has been adequately described. For instance, the book has covered several instances where hope fails and the manner this affects the hopeful individuals.
The book has also sensibly explained the origin of human hope and the manner in which it comes to affect our human lives. The author has also outlined the development of hope and the reasons as to why hope is greatly required in our everyday lives and its influence on us. According to the author, hope is a form of security and is one of the strengthening factors in live that define our belief in supernatural or supreme power in the universe. The book is one of a kind, and apparently an extraordinarily great explanation of hope ad all its dimensions. The author has also tried to be as logical as possible. All his explanations and illustrations are applicable in the normal lives context.
The focus on the ministers is exceptional and apparently better than that of the believers’ context. This is so because the ministers are depended on by very many believers. Since they are not supernatural, all that they can do is increase the hopes of several people. Hope defines the belief in the future and expectance of better results in the future. With hope, majority of the believers are better off. Understanding hope is difficult but the author has tried his level best to ensure that the reader comprehends the topic. The shift in focus to the ministers has also been effective in explaining the manner in which other individuals influence our levels of hope.
The author has also influenced the manner in which the reader perceives the topic at hand. Hope is an abstract aspect and explaining this complex aspect is one of the most complicated processes but the author has managed to ensure that the readers get a better grasp of the topic at hand. There are several contexts in which the author has used these terms to explain the manner of hope and the ways through which it affects and influences people’s future.
The author has however messed up on a number of flaws. One of the greatest flaws that the author has made is dwelling entirely on the pastor’s and minister’s perspective. The book would have been more effective in delivering the message that the author intended for if the author would have applied the use of the both perspectives, the believer and the minister. This way, the entire audience would have been considered. The book’s audience is mostly the believers, and in some way to the ministers. The book to some point has also developed new perspectives of hope and the way through which hope has affected us.
The book has also clearly outlined the theme of hope and the influences that hope has had on us and our ways through which the aspect of hope is applied in our lives and everyday activities. The theme of hope and faith have been related together too in the book and this is one of the reasons as to why the book is not only successful but it has also been very inspirational. It motivates all the readers and thus we cannot refer to this book exclusively as an explanatory type of a book. Additionally, the book has also managed to ensure that the reader understands all concepts of hope and its effect to the future.
References
Capps, D. (2001). Agents of Hope: A Pastoral Psychology. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers.
