For pastors looking for a solid, but less known treasure on the work of the pastor, I recommend you consider Thomas Murphy’s 1877 work, Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office. My dear friend, Jeremy Walker writes a very helpful summary of this important work:
“This 19th century Presbyterian divine opens with a most helpful definition of pastoral theology, and then goes on to develop it with regard to a pastor’s private person, his preparation and study, his pulpit labours, his personal parochial work, his wider responsibilities in the church, the progress of the church, the Sunday School, the benevolent work, the session and higher courts of the church (of course, depending on his ecclesiology), and his interdenominational relations. Few other volumes have the scope and depth of this one, as lots of sound, Scriptural sense is brought to bear on the various topics.”
The best place to purchase this volume is here.
I too have been blessed by this book, and would recommend it to anyone considering, or already in the ministry.
I appreciate your post on this Brian. I highly recommend this work as well. The first 100 pages or so dealing with the personal piety of the pastor is invaluable. It is ashamed that it now costs nearly $45. The old paths edition used to be under $20.
Yes, thank you for sharing that, Brian. As you piqued my interest, and I too was surprised by the high price of the book at the Amazon link offered, I did a little digging.
To Curt’s comment above, speaking of the Old Paths edition, it is indeed still available in paperback for under $20:
http://www.graceandtruthbooks.com/product/pastoral-theology-the-pastor-in-the-various-duties-of-his-office
And it seems to be the complete book, unabridged (509 pages).
And for those who may prefer to read online or on devices, it’s also available at Google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=StkUAAAAYAAJ
And also at archive.org:
http://archive.org/details/pastoraltheology00murp
Hope that’s helpful to someone.
Looks like a great book. Since its original is beyond the 75 year mark, it is now in public domain and can be freely downloaded as a pdf or e-pub so you can read it on your i-pad, kindle, laptop, nook, or whatever other device you like, for free. Here’s one possible site from kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Pastoral-theology-The-pastor-various/book-VnZxn67QPUSPf7TVKzbPXA/page1.html
Actually, an even better place to get it, at a fine price, is here: http://www.graceandtruthbooks.com/product/pastoral-theology-the-pastor-in-the-various-duties-of-his-office
This is a different edition than the one shown, but is still complete and unabridged. Only from a different publisher than Kessinger – this is from Old Paths Publications. It’s the one Charlie Arehart refers to above, but it is a hardcover and we only have 4 copies left.