Education
B.A. University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa B.Th., M.Th. Stellenbosch University Seminary School, South Africa, Ph.D. Princeton Theological Seminary
jaco.hamman@westernsem.edu

Courses
CM113 Pastor as Person Seminar
CM115 An Introduction to Counsel and Care
CM499 Family of Origin Seminar
CM528 Ministry as Grief Work
CM539 Becoming a Pastor
CM584 Compassionate Resistance

Made in the image of God, we are relational beings. One can say that we are our relationships! Pastoral ministry occurs within and is determined by specific relationships, for it depends on the relational ties that empower its effectiveness: one's relationships with one's self, with God, with others, and one's relationship with nature. Furthermore, health, wholeness, and holiness are found in these relationships. I see my call as educating and empowering seminarians and clergy to redefine their core relationships so that they can support and guide individuals, families, and congregations to redefine their ways of being in the world.

Background
Born in South Africa, Jaco Hamman left his native country in 1993 to pursue further training in hospital chaplaincy with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education. After two CPE residencies, his interest in the emotional, relational, and spiritual experiences of people became the focus of a Ph.D. dissertation at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Hamman's dissertation on the Book of Job argues that the book not only describes a major theological shift in the life of Job, but concomitant growth towards emotional and relational health.

Before coming to Western Seminary, Dr. Hamman spent three years in New York City as a pastoral psychotherapist at the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute - a training institute for the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, of which Dr. Hamman is a member. He has clinical experience as a marriage, family, as well as a group therapist and was a hospital chaplain for the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa.

Dr. Hamman has a special interest in how individuals, families, and congregations do embodiment. He has served as a pastoral-theological consultant in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He is also an ordained pastor in the Reformed Church in America.

He has written for numerous journals on various subjects relating to pastoral care and counseling. His books include, When Steeples Cry: Leading through Loss and Change (The Pilgrim Press, 2005) and Becoming a Pastor: Forming Self and Soul for Ministry (The Pilgrim Press, 2007). Dr. Hamman is currently working on a book on play. The working title is A play-full life: 24/7/365.

Please visit Dr. Hamman's Personal Website