Press Kit
Architectures of Grace in Pastoral Care: Virtue as the Craft of Theology Beyond Strategic and Authoritative Biblicism
by Douglas B. Olds, MPP, MDiv, DMin
Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2023.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-6667-6697-1
Hardcover 978-1-6667-6698-1
Ebook: 978-1-6667-6699-8
Reimagining Pastoral Care through Virtue Ethics and Christological Grace
In a moment when spiritual care is being reshaped by political conflict, mental health crises, and epistemic distrust, theologian and chaplain Douglas B. Olds offers a compelling alternative: Architectures of Grace in Pastoral Care, a groundbreaking work that reframes ministry through virtue ethics, Christological technê, and a deeply embodied theology of grace.
In contrast to models of Biblical Counseling and transactional religiosity as authorities, Olds introduces a chaplaincy-centered framework of companionable virtue—pastoral care as a mutual and gentle dance of presence. Drawing from Scripture, philosophy, and clinical chaplaincy, he rejects paradigms of spiritual control and replaces them with practices of shalom-building, conative grace, and empathic transformation.
“Olds proposes that Pastoral care and theology do not involve doctrinal monologues but embody a chivalrous companionship—an embodied practice of gentling virtue and discursive consent. The Pastoral moment is not the strategic administration of theological truth but the art of gentling souls into their God-given aliveness.”
The book critiques the rise of technocratic epistemologies and instead proposes a Christian humanism rooted in Trinitarian metaphysics, justice, and care of souls. This work critiques prevailing models of Biblical Counseling and reasserts pastoral ministry as a kinesthetic, covenantal, and theological vocation aimed at healing the soul rather than linking it to an authority. Christ is embodied through virtue, and the Church midwifes shalom, is the emergence of theological immanence for the next stage of human advancement
Aimed at ministers, chaplains, theologians, and seekers disenchanted with coercive systems, Architectures of Grace is both a theoretical intervention and a practical manual. With detailed theological appendices, assiduous exegesis, and pastoral wisdom, Olds crafts a vision of pastoral ministry that is both prophetic and deeply rooted in virtue's lived, relational faith.
ACADEMIC ABSTRACT
Architectures of Grace in Pastoral Care: Virtue as the Craft of Theology Beyond Strategic and Authoritative Biblicism
Douglas B. Olds, MPP, MDiv, DMin
This book develops a chaplaincy-centered theology of pastoral care grounded in virtue ethics and technê (craft knowledge), as opposed to epistemic, doctrinal strategies prevalent in contemporary Biblical Counseling. Arguing that grace is not static doctrine but a Trinitarian conative flow manifesting in time through virtuous companionship, Olds challenges performative and authoritarian models of Christian counseling.
Olds reclaims chivalry as a theological metaphor—an eschatologically charged model of Christian ministry based in gentling presence, mutuality, and practical excellence. Situating his approach within a critique of modernity’s metaphysical dualisms, he proposes a Christian humanism sensitive to trauma, justice, and cultural pluralism, while maintaining fidelity to a thick reading of Scripture.
Structured around the metaphor of architecture, the book builds its argument through chapters on household formation, trauma care, political theology, and eschatological ethics. Rich theological appendices unpack core doctrines—atonement, gender, biblical authority, and millennialism—through the lens of grace hermeneutics.
This book advances a virtue-theological framework of pastoral care, emphasizing Christ as the model and source of virtuous technê—the embodied and skilled practice of healing and witness. Contrasting this with the controlling epistemologies of contemporary Biblical Counseling, the work critiques:
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Authoritative Biblicism and doctrinal monologuing
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Strategic-reductive approaches to trauma and sin
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Theologically evacuated or abusive models of sanctification
In their place, Olds constructs a pastoral architecture formed by:
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A hermeneutics of grace grounded in relational Trinitarian theology
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A Christological anthropology that centers agency, reciprocity, and human becoming
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Practices of ethical witness and reparation within covenantal accompaniment
The work culminates in a set of eschatological and pneumatological commitments that invite pastoral caregivers to embody the poiesis of grace, shaping ministry as lived justice, peacemaking, and mutual uplift.
KEY FINDINGS
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Biblical Counseling is an epistemically egoistic and appropriative theology: It aligns with neoliberal and authoritarian models of ministry that misrepresent Scripture and damage personhood.
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Grace is not a static doctrine but a dynamic, conative movement: It operates through time, community, and mutual recognition as technê (craft).
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Christian virtue is inherently relational, poetic, and embodied: Sanctification is not primarily moralistic, but kinesthetic—learned in presence, not prescription.
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Pastoral care must be disarmed of authoritarian strategicity and rearmed with vulnerability, listening, and reparative practices.
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Theology must recover its anthropological vocation: to foster healing through poetic, ethical engagement rather than doctrinal coercion.
INNOVATIONS
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Reclaims chivalry as a Christian virtue—not martial valor, but covenantal gentling in service of the vulnerable.
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Establishes a technê of grace as a theological counterweight to manipulative or strategic ministry.
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Deploys aesthetic theology as a methodological corrective: virtue is shaped through poetic responsiveness to the other, not abstract reasoning.
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Introduces a grace-centered hermeneutics of trauma: positioning pastoral care as witness, not warden.
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Advocates for a liturgical ethics of accompaniment: integrating body, place, time, and Spirit.
Proposes Christian ethics are never consequentialist, with a strategic goal, but deontological virtue ethics derived from the Golden Rule, where the other is the object and goal--intending the others' needs for shalom by the cultivation of gentling habits in society.
APPLICATIONS
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Pastoral Theology & Seminary Education: A framework for training pastors and chaplains in virtue-centered, trauma-informed ministry.
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Clinical Chaplaincy: Tools and language to support compassionate, justice-aware spiritual care in hospitals and institutions.
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Christian Ethics & Theology: A resource for scholars developing non-authoritarian theological paradigms of care and justice.
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Ecclesial Renewal: Offers congregations a model for moving beyond coercive and manipulating structures toward communities of grace and presence.
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Public Theology & Policy: Implications for resisting technocratic epistemologies in civic and institutional life through lived faith practices.
ENDORSEMENTS:
"While Rev. Olds's outstanding book updates virtue ethics for pastors and those who come to them for spiritual care, it also addresses the heart as it proposes new practices for the ministries of grace--how to soothe contention and strife, staples of today's confusing times. This important work is broad and deep, and its applications compelling and spiritually obliging. Rev. Olds's book provides guideposts for my own Christian fellowship as well as for those theologically inclined from the church pulpit."
--Mark Shaw, author of Beneath the Mask of Holiness
"I thoroughly enjoyed this book's breadth and insight. Douglas Olds's poetic approach, highlighting companionship as a dance, balances his deep intellectual journey. Olds provides an elevated view of pastoral care brings in social issues and political concerns--very appropriate from my point of view."
--John Anderson, Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, honorably retired
"Douglas Olds's project is to challenge a model of pastoral care identified as Biblicist Counseling, which claims the counselor is a representative of God and so has hierarchical authority. Instead, Olds images pastoral care as companionship, in which the caregiver habituates the virtues of Christ's excellences, embodying grace, spreading shalom. His challenge to Biblicist Counseling is serious and worth savoring by caregivers as well as care seekers."
--Carol S. Robb, professor emerita of Christian social ethics, San Francisco Theological Seminary
"An extraordinary work that relates--with a breadth of integration I have never encountered--theology and scholarship for a better approach to pastoral care. To say this in another way: On each enjoyably read page the author inspired my curiosity to pursue further something he wrote! Well done!"
--Daniel Christian, pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church