RT Article
T1 The Meaning of Life
JF Pastoral psychology
VO 65
IS 5
SP 611
OP 630
A1 Carlin, Nathan
LA English
YR 2016
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1565821602
AB This essay answers the question of the meaning of life. It does so from the perspective of pastoral theology by turning to a children's story: William Joyce's award-winning The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. After the introduction, this essay has two basic parts. The first part describes the context of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, summarizes its narrative, and explores its reception. The second part articulates three ways in which The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is suggestive for pastoral theology with regard to questions of meaning-existentially, psychologically, and morally. In doing so, the essay builds on Donald Capps's insights in The Poet' s Gift, assumes the perspective of Victor Frankl as articulated in Man' s Search for Meaning, and suggests that the reframing technique of dereflection is especially useful with regard to the preservation of meaning. This essay also includes a considerable amount of primary source material from an interview with William Joyce conducted by the author.
K1 Children's books
K1 Dereflection
K1 Donald Capps
K1 FANTASTIC Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, The (Book)
K1 JOYCE, William
K1 Life
K1 Meaning
K1 Pastoral Theology
K1 Poetry
K1 Reframing
K1 Resilience
K1 RESILIENCE (Personality trait)
K1 The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
K1 William Joyce
DO 10.1007/s11089-016-0704-6