Religious and Professional Commitment in Pastoral Ministry

Abstract

In this contribution, we clarify the pastoral commitment of Dutch Roman-Catholic pastors by describing it as the interplay of religious and professional commitment, which we analyze both analytically and empirically. Our main research question regards an empirical and theological inquiry into the relationship of both aspects of pastoral commitment. We clarify that the incompatible humours of religious and professional commitment that we find in theological and ecclesiastical discussions, have to be nuanced when one takes the empirical topography of pastoral consciousness into account. Pastors seem to reflect more balanced views on the relationship of religious and professional commitment, which are described and discussed in this contribution. Distinctions are provided that understand pastoral spirituality on continua of religious display and professional performance. Both dispositional and ecclesiological viewpoints are drawn in to account for the varieties in tension between spiritual and professional commitment in pastoral ministry.