Book excerpt: A Critique of Pastoral Care is firmly established as a classic text in the field of pastoral theology. The book is now reissued in a third edition which contains a significant new concluding chapter articulating the author's vision for the field: pastoral theology should be a lively, ecstatic theology, transforming individuals and communities alike. Such a theology will also be subtle and allusive, including doubt, darkness and shadow as well as assertion and light. Finally, it should be an imaginative, creative activity which enters the public consciousness and changes lives and practices well beyond the confines of the church. Stephen Pattison is a pastoral theologian passionately concerned for the place and future of theology in the world, and in this, one of his finest books, he advances a powerful case for a re-energized, committed public theology, alongside a politicized and compassionate form of pastoral care.