Spirituality and healthcare: renewing old ties, forging a new partnership

Richard C McCaughey

Etd

Spirituality and healthcare: renewing old ties, forging a new partnership

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MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Richard C McCaughey. Spirituality and Healthcare: Renewing Old Ties, Forging a New Partnership. Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/ec9092de-d6a3-458d-99cd-7440e124fa8b.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

R. C. Mccaughey. Spirituality and healthcare: renewing old ties, forging a new partnership. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/ec9092de-d6a3-458d-99cd-7440e124fa8b

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Richard C McCaughey. Spirituality and Healthcare: Renewing Old Ties, Forging a New Partnership. Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/ec9092de-d6a3-458d-99cd-7440e124fa8b.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Richard C McCaughey

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Abstract

This thesis demonstrates that spiritual health and physical health are an integrated whole and, therefore, should not be treated separately in our community healthcare settings. Further, this thesis posits that spiritual care professionals (e.g. chaplains) need to move from strictly ancillary support toward the practice of integrative medicine. The thesis begins with an historical perspective which outlines the gradual bifurcation between spirituality and healthcare in the Western world. This split was occasioned principally by the European Church's growing emphasis on the salvation of souls, and by science's growing dominion over the physical and natural worlds. This section ends with evidence of an emerging reintegration of spirituality and healthcare. With the understanding that such a reintegration requires an inclusive definition of spirituality, the thesis posits a definition of spirituality unrelated directly to religion and religious practices. A discussion follows utilizing the development of Old Testament spirituality to understand the relationship between medical crisis and spiritual crisis. This is followed by an extensive presentation of the efforts of scientific researchers to demonstrate the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and physical health. The last substantive chapter of this thesis is devoted to the writer's efforts as a professional healthcare chaplain to help make spiritual care an integral part of healthcare. The results of his practice of integrative medicine are outlined in the appendices.

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