ABSTRACT
The assumptions and attitudes of relationship-centered pastoral counseling are based on Hebraic-Christian thought and rooted deeply in American democratic philosophy and cultural traditions. The blending of the eighteenth-century emphasis on universal human rights with the nineteenth-century values of uniqueness and individuality has created a rich background for this counseling philosophy. Dayton G. Van Deusen syrnmarizes a basic assumption for this philosophy of counseling by stating:
Most of life is constituted of relationship. Gravity is a relationship of bodies, matter a relationship of particles, fne a relationship of substances, logic a relationship of ideas, truth a relationship of realities, love a relationship of spirits, religion a relationship of being.
