readings
-
Notes on the book by Amanda Porterfield “Healing in the History of Christianity”
In this book Amanda Porterfield describes the course of the history of the healing traditions within Christian religion. In other words, she studies the history of Christianity through the prism of healing within it, and it works just right due to the fact that, as we find out, healing has always been central to the Christian faith. We are taken through the history of Christian thought and approaches starting from Jesus and ending with modern Christianity, and we see how the ideas of healing had changed within it, as, for example, the move inspired by Calvin from firm belief in the miracles of healing related to saints to the idea…
-
Freemasonry – a brief overview
While Freemasonry is probably the largest and most influential brotherhood in the world, it is the least understood among the public, which in turn serves as a perfect soil to grow numerous misconceptions and myths about it. In reality Freemasonry is a society of men concerned with moral and spiritual values, which are promoted by assignments and meetings, and taught by a series of rituals that are often allegorical to the initial stonemasons’ customs. In its classic form, Freemasonry is a male society, but there are women’s lodges now too. The term “freemason” once described a member of a building guild in the Middle Ages who was free to travel…
-
Notes on the book by M.C.Brannigan “Cultural Faultlines in Healthcare: Reflections on Cultural Competency”
This book is meant to draw the readers’ attention to the problems of providing the sensitive care to the patients within American health care system. Brannigan describes the problems caused by the diversity of worldview and values among the patients and doctors that meet through the health care system. The differences in approaches and understandings are causing what he calls cultural faultlines, the divisive issues that cause misunderstandings and create obstacles for better care. This outstanding problem is further fuelled by the fact that the American society in general has grown a profound distrust of the healthcare. Having described the essential problem, the author proposes a solution. He believes that…
-
Notes on the book “Modern and Global Ayurveda : Pluralism and Paradigms”
Modern and Global Ayurveda is a collection of papers presented at a 2004 conference convened by the Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research at the University of Cambridge edited by Dagmar Wujastyk, an independent scholar in Indology at the University of Bonn and Frederick M. Smith, Professor of Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions at the University of Iowa. This book briefly touches the history of Ayurveda and then explores in detail its development in the modern times, its coexistence with classical western medicine, the ideological differences between the “ancient” and modern ways of teaching and practice, its growth in the West and it’s new appearance back in India. In other…
-
Notes on the article by Joseph A. Adepoju “A Study of Health Beliefs and Practices of the Yoruba”
The study presented in the article describes in full the dualistic approach to treating illness. We see how the spiritual and physical treatments become complementary to each other within the Yoruba community. This approach is common not only for the immigrant community but also to the Yoruba living in Nigeria – there are always two sides seen in an illness – a physical and a spiritual, and both must be treated with equal importance. The holistic approach to healing in the Yoruba community is described in the quote below: “The practice of magic and medicine is comprehensive and holistic in nature and encompasses the healing of the body, mind and…
-
Notes on the article by David R. Hodge “Working with Hindu Clients in a Spiritually Sensitive Manner”
The article was written first of all for social workers who may encounter Hindu consumers. In order to facilitate a minimum cultural sensitivity Hodge makes an attempt to summarise Hindu cosmology. He explains such central to Hindu religion concepts as dharma, karma, moksha, and the non-self-centred view on life of the Hindu population. He then demonstrates how some traditional Hindu ways of life may be different from the western mentality and, thus, would be often met with prejudice and judgement. For example, the sacred dharma that prescribes different roles for women and men is referred to an “ideology” that serves to “camouflage injustice” while deceiving women into desiring a position…
-
Notes on the article by Jaswinder Singh Sandhu “The Sikh Model of the Person, Suffering, and Healing: Implications for Counselors”
The article is aimed at educating western counsellors about the belief system of Sikh population. The author describes the problem of neglect of the culture-specific belief systems in general as potentially overlooking the important healing resources for that particular population. He stands for developing a more flexible approach in counseling that would view “foreign” religious beliefs as equally valid. The quote below proposes a good example of the core difference in the Eastern and Western views of the person and the world. “The Western model of psychiatric illness and mental health is premised on a mindbody dichotomy, rigid adherence to a classification system, and definite distinctions between psychology, religion, medicine,…
-
Notes on article by N. E. Conner and L. S. Eller “Spiritual perspectives, needs and nursing interventions of Christian African–Americans”
The article concludes that “the potential for spiritual care to influence both the psychological and physiological health of patients either directly or indirectly speaks to the urgency of providing patients with appropriate spiritual assessment and interventions” (631). I found this to be the most important part of the article, because while the authors had chosen to explore one subgroup as an example of the spiritual needs of the patients, this conclusion refers to all patients. “Respondents also wrote in their need for nurses to pray with and share personal beliefs with them. We found that 41% of desired spiritual nursing interventions were related to nurses’ direct participation in spiritual activities,…
-
Notes on the case study by T. Borneman, O. Klein, J. Thomas, B. Ferrel “Spiritual Care for Jewish Patients Facing a Life Threatening Illness”
The article is a case study of a 65 year old lady diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer, who is Jewish by birth but who does not share the Jewish religious beliefs. We are shown some of the challenges that chaplains and physicians would need to face in working with Jewish patients. The quote below summarized the main idea of the article (case study): “[This case] illustrates the great differences in belief among jews and demonstrates that clinicians and chaplains cannot make assumptions based on a patient’s self-identification as Jewish”(p.61). We see that there is no one right way to deal with Jewish patients, just as there is not one particular…
-
Notes on the case study by E. Li and C. Wen “Should the Confucian Family-Determination Model Be Rejected?”
This article describes a case that happened in a hospital in China, when a young lady on the 9th month of pregnancy came in and was diagnosed with severe pneumonia, followed by a sharp drop in cardiopulmonary function and general edema, and soon after arriving at the hospital went into coma. The doctors considered cesarian section as the optimal solution to save the lives of the mother and the baby, but the father of the child did not give his permission for the surgery, and the other relatives of the woman were hard to reach. Because the surgery had been postponed until the hospital could have consent from the family…