Spirituality in the Biomedical World: Moving between Order and “Subversion”

Guy Jobin

Published by De Gruyter 2020

Spirituality in the Biomedical World

Moving between Order and “Subversion”

Guy Jobin

Volume 5 in the series Studies in Spiritual Care

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110638950

Overview
Contents

About this book

The need to take the spiritual experience during illness into account is part of a broader trend in Western societies—a fascination with the practical uses of spirituality and its contribution to individual wellbeing, whether through a religious or a humanist tradition. This understanding of spirituality differs from traditional views embedded in religious traditions. This book takes a critical point of view at the biomedical representation of the function of spirituality in care. Medicine reorders notions such as life, death, health, sickness, and spirituality. This process is called here “sapientialization”, i.e. the spiritual experience is expressed and understood under the auspices of and in terms of wisdom. This view tends to identify spirituality and ethics. I propose an alternate understanding of spirituality, grounded on its subversive power. Inspired by the work of the theologian John D. Caputo, it is critical of some problems that are associated with the sapientialization of spirituality in biomedicine, such as the medicalization of spiritual experiences or the instrumentalization of spirituality. It provides an understanding of spirituality that honours both the medical interest in it and its capacity to resist to instrumentalization.

Author / Editor information

Guy Jobin, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
List of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Order, or the sapientialization of the spiritual experience
2. About wisdom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
3. A new biomedical order? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
4. Sapientialization of the spiritual question Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
5. Pragmatic approaches to sapientialization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
6. Challenges to sapientialization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Part II. The “subversive” nature of spirituality in healthcare
7. Questions relating to spiritual anthropology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
8. The spiritual experience as a response to an event Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
9. Spiritual life and traditions during illness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
10. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Index nominum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Index rerum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of medicine and spirituality, medical care-givers, psychologists.
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 174
Illustrations
- Tables: 8
Keywords: Spiritual Care; Critical Studies; Spirituality in Healthcare

eBook

Published: June 22, 2020
ISBN: 9783110638950

Hardcover

Published: June 22, 2020
ISBN: 9783110525267