Abstract:
The object of this thesis is to present the virtual world as a
new pleace for the Pastoral Counseling and a way of updating
the links among the Church and the society, also to reveal the
Gospel in the virtual language and relationships. Initially,
it is discussed subjects related to Internet communication and
the interpretation according to the time in which global and
local culture and society take place. There will also be
presented ideas that came up with the development of the
comunication through out computers, such as the virtual one
and its modality, the virtual communities and the body
virtualization. On the second chapter, it is presented an
analisis of the theoretical, methodological and technical
basis of the Pastoral Counseling done through the Internet,
surching to trace its potentials as well as the limits of this
helping tool. The third part is consisted of a study of two
cases, the Telefonseelsorge in the Internet (Germany) and
Maranataonline (Brazil), where the method of Netnography and
interviewing are used in order to discuss chances and limits
of Pastoral Counseling done on the Internet mainly through
site resources and eletronic mails. On the last part,
conclusions are taken confirming that the Internet is a new
way of communication that provides a lot of potentials such as
an instantaneous intergration, the boundaries dilution, the
anonymity,the movable immobility, which represents the chances
of the Pastoral Counseling to meet all sorts of people, in
different situations, there where they are, and this, at
Internet age means a global and virtual space.
