Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office

“one of the best things I’ve ever read on the nuts and bolts 

– and the privilege and the joy – of pastoral ministry.” 

~ Kevin DeYoung

Whether newly ordained or nearly retired, every pastor will benefit from the wise counsel of this book. Based in part on his experience as a pastor for over twenty-five years, and in part from his notes from Archibald Alexander’s Princeton Seminary class on pastoral ministry, Thomas Murphy sets forth the duties of the pastor in expansive and practical detail. Though written twelve years after the end of the US Civil War, this work remains relevant. The chapters on the pastor in his closet and the pastor in his study are alone worth the price of the book.

564 pages.

View excerpt here.

“I love this book and am thrilled to see it being reprinted after languishing in obscurity for more than a century. As the pastor of Frankford Presbyterian Church (one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia) for forty-six years, Thomas Murphy was a leading churchman in the nineteenth century. Murphy’s book is to pastoral theology what Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ famous lectures are for preaching: inspiring, challenging, comprehensive, opinionated, practical, and spiritual in the deepest sense of the word. I can’t imagine a current or future pastor who wouldn’t be helped immensely by reading this book. It is one of the best things I’ve ever read on the nuts and bolts – and the privilege and the joy – of pastoral ministry.” – Dr. Kevin DeYoung