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by John Cox

Pastor John is a refreshingly radical and challenging book that takes the reader on a journey through the turbulent waters of developmental and psychodynamic concepts, pastoral theology, and biblical scholarship, towards a sharing of personal and group experience.

Yet faint not! Brian Tebbutt, as an experienced Methodist minister, will convincingly guide you through these cross currents and help you meet Pastor John. His companions on this journey include the origins of Methodism, especially the class meetings and hymns of Charles Wesley, as well as the Clinical Theology of psychiatrist Frank Lake.

Other writers have trodden this path before, but few (except perhaps the Swiss doctor Paul Tournier) have so successfully navigated these swirling waters of the personal response to the text, as well as the processes of the sharing group experience—each with ethical and clinical dilemmas for the leader and the led. Here is an opportunity for personal growth.

Recent rapprochement between psychiatric practice, faith, and spirituality in multifaith societies (evidenced from mental health journals) is creating a more fertile soil where some of the seeds scattered from this book could take root.

Psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and those from psychology of religion and counseling fields who are curious about the reasons for faith in a secular world will find Pastor John a very useful guide. For those of faith and those of none, the book provides a valuable exploration of “bibliotherapy.” I hope it will be read and studied by many inside and outside the church. They will be rewarded and enlightened—and may even taste the new wine!