The Theophostic Prayer Ministry: An exploration of its practices and healing possibilities

This thesis is about the further development of Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM), within Pastoral Theology as well as in its practices. This research explored if more healing possibilities may emerge when TPM is epistemologically positioned in social constructionism and has drawn attention to healing possibilities that narrative practices may open up for TPM. The participants related how and why the practices of TPM influenced the way they narrated their lives. According to their tales the main influencing factor was an authentic encounter with God, where they experienced that He had experientially entered into a conversation with them about the way they constructed their realities. By giving His perspective on their beliefs about memories from their past, He helped them to start processes of reconstructing new preferred life stories. The main contribution of this research was probable to lift out the important role that the not-knowing' position of the facilitator plays in the helpfulness of TPM. It became clear through the narratives that when the facilitator's knowing entered the Theophostic process, the process was impeded.