Leaving Home (Family Living in Pastoral Perspective) [Paperback]

Herbert Anderson (Author), Kenneth R. Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | Series: Family Living in Pastoral Perspective (Book 1)

In this book, Herbert Anderson and Kenneth R. Mitchell demonstrate that leaving home is a significant part of forming an individual identity and a natural aspect of maturing. It is also a lifelong process, but one that is desirable and appropriate for both the one who leaves and the ones left behind. However, understanding the process requires care. This book helps clarify what is at stake in the ordinary yet complex process of leaving home.

The Family Living in Pastoral Perspective series examines crucial times in family life in light of the family as a social unit. Each book addresses major changes that ordinarily occur in the life cycle of a family. Each volume takes into account family system theory and social and economic factors that affect the family.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Herbert Anderson is currently Research Professor of Practical Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. He is the author or coauthor of over ninety articles and thirteen books, many of which are focused on integrating theology and family systems theory.

Kenneth R. Mitchell was a Pastoral Counselor and Professor of Pastoral Care at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri prior to his death in 1991.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 1st edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664251277
• ISBN-13: 978-0664251277
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,009,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy the Whole Series, June 4, 2003

By 

Andrew Shults (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leaving Home (Family Living in Pastoral Perspective) (Paperback)

I own Anderson's entire Family Living in Pastoral Perspective series (Leaving Home, Becoming Married, Regarding Children, Promising Again, and Living Alone), and I refer to them frequently.

Each book focuses on a different transitional event and the family tasks that event brings into focus. Anderson and his co-authors deal sensitively with the pastoral issues involved.

Leaving Home focuses on persons leaving home (both physically and emotionally) as young adults. It approaches the topic not as a one-time event, but as a long-term emotional process. Both sides (young adult and parents) of the transition are covered. Ample resources are provided for ministry to these families.

All of the books are well-written and easy to read--no convoluted prose to parse here. The works have added texture from the many personal examples shared by the authors (both their own and examples others have shared with them).

Every book in the series deserves an honored place on any religious professional's shelf. Except, you may find them so valuable they rarely make it back to your shelf.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars situational, May 5, 2008

By 

jamie "jlsgaladriel" (Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Leaving Home (Family Living in Pastoral Perspective) (Paperback)

I suspect that _Leaving_Home_ is highly useful for folks in particular circumstances: people for whom "home" includes a defined physicality, a sense of belonging and safety, a family; people for whom "to be home is to be able to breathe more easily" (38).

To be fair, the authors try to address the sorts of brokenness families face: they're certainly aware that not everyone experiences home in the same way. But somehow in reading the text one can't help but feel this sort of insistent background judgement that home incorporates these things, and that without them whatever "home" one has doesn't qualify.

So if you're the parents of a teenager heading off to college, I'd recommend this to you -- you'll find gleanings and glimmers of useful ways to think about sending your child into the world. But if you're the only child of a single parent, or from a non-traditional family, or pastor to folks in these circumstances, know that you'll feel alienated from rather than embraced by the text.

5.0 out of 5 stars Leaving Home, March 14, 2007

By 

Elaine Butler (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leaving Home (Family Living in Pastoral Perspective) (Paperback)

We give this to all of our friends whose children are going off to college, as well as a few young friends who will benefit from learning how to leave home well.