Tilting at windmills? Pastorally inhabiting the hopelessness of prison life as a researching practitioner
This article invites the reader to explore aspects of a world largely unknown to most people – prison life. Judging from the tone and content of many media reports, despite there being over 79,000 people in custody within 117 prisons across England and Wales public knowledge about the world behind b...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2021
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| In: |
Practical theology
Year: 2021, Volume: 14, Issue: 5, Pages: 402-415 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBF British Isles RG Pastoral care |
| Further subjects: | B
Prison
B Pastoral Care B Presence B Humanity B Compassion B Hope |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article invites the reader to explore aspects of a world largely unknown to most people – prison life. Judging from the tone and content of many media reports, despite there being over 79,000 people in custody within 117 prisons across England and Wales public knowledge about the world behind bars is ill-informed. This paper is a pastoral exploration of the lived experience of a particular group of men serving an especially cruel sentence. They are held indeterminately, not knowing if or when they will ever be released. Even if released they will be under a supervision licence for 99 years (life), with recall to prison hanging over them for the slightest infringement of their release conditions. Such indeterminacy is known to corrode hope, diminish humanity and often leads to tragic outcomes. In the face of a level of despair that might render pastoral practice impossibly challenging, a hope-fostering humane regard is formulated out of a reflective dialogue between qualitatively acquired and analysed life-histories and a theological understanding of God’s loving intent. |
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| ISSN: | 1756-0748 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Practical theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1756073X.2021.1881298 |