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Is There a God in Health Care

Toward a New Spirituality of Medicine

• By Harold G. Koenig, William F. Haynes, Geffrey B. Kelly

• Price: $39.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 252
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 6th June 2006
• ISBN: 978-0-7890-2867-9

About the Book

Discover how physical, mental, and spiritual health can be enhanced by faith

A physician, well-known for praying with his patients, and an award-winning professor of theology share their insights on how religious faith can provide help in the healing processes of today’s health care ministry. Is There a God in Health Care? shares the belief that prayer can be a powerful resource in dealing with illness, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. The authors avoid rehashing analytical theories on suffering and the “miracles” of healing they may have seen, instead examining how personal faith can enhance the immune system, how a spiritual outlook can help bear the burden of suffering and grief, and how forbearance and forgiveness are crucial in maintaining a healthy attitude toward life.

Authors William F. Haynes Jr. and Geffrey B. Kelly share their experiences on the nature of faith, spirituality, and the practice of prayer as pathways to the achievement of inner peace, good health, and wholeness when struggling to overcome illness, cope with grief, or finding meaning in suffering. Is There a God in Health Care? examines how, without neglecting proper medical interventions, faith can become a helpful healing resource in times of need. This compelling book presents case studies of patients healed or cured of their illnesses through the power of prayer and stories of actual services in which a religious healer has affected both spiritual healings and physical cures.

Is There a God in Health Care? includes:

• suggestions for learning how to pray
  
• stages of faith and prayer
  
• healing a broken heart
  
• doctor-patient bonding
  
• the physician as spiritual healer
  
• the importance of listening
  
• God as caregiver
  
• accepting God’s plan
  
• the mystery of prayers that go unanswered
  
• the impact of national and international political policies in present-day health care crises
  
• and much more

Is There a God in Health Care? is brimming with compassion and insights that can help everyone involved in the healing professions and anyone who cares for the sick among us.

Table of Contents

• Foreword (Daniel P. Sulmasy)
  
• Preface
  
• Chapter 1. The Power of Prayer in the Health Care Ministries
  
• Reflections
  
• Our Journeys in Faith
  
• Further Reflections: Doctor Bill
  
• Prayer with Patients: Doctor Bill
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 2. Faith: Its Nature and Its Work Among the Sick and Needy
  
• The Nature and Role of Faith in a Life Worth Living
  
• Faith As a Person to Whom We Commit Ourselves Irrevocably
  
• Tillich and Faith As One’s Ultimate Concern
  
• Faith As That for Which We Would Risk Our Lives
  
• Faith As a Longing for God
  
• Faith That Sustains in the Midst of Suffering: Ernest Gordon
  
• Faith As “Letting Go” of Everything Standing Between Us and God: Cardinal Bernardin
  
• Faith As the Inspiration to Care for the Needy of This World: Jean Vanier
  
• Faith As the Inspiration to Care for Society’s Throwaways: Mother Teresa
  
• Theological Reflections on a Community of Believers
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 3. Learning Prayer
  
• Theologian Geff’s Journey
  
• Doctor Bill’s Journey to a Deepened Faith in Prayer
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 4. Jesus’ Healing Ministry and Sufferings Related to Personal Experiences
  
• God As the “Father”
  
• Care of the Poor and the Sick
  
• Health Care Providers
  
• The Problems of Suffering and Death
  
• Healing As Christ Does
  
• The Inevitability of the Cross: Geff’s Experience
  
• A Religious Experience
  
• Doctor Bill’s Experiences
  
• Carrying the Cross: We Are Not Alone
  
• Do Not Blame God for Our Ills
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 5. Suffering, Terminal Illness, and the Healing Ministry
  
• Suffering in the Context of the Purpose of One’s Life
  
• Doctor Bill’s Personal Reflections
  
• The Deceased Beloved and the Legacy Left Behind
  
• Time with the Family Following the Death of the Beloved
  
• Premonitions of Death: God’s Providential Care
  
• After-Death Experiences
  
• Geff’s Theological Reflection on Suffering, Death, and Grief
  
• Jesus’ Courage in the Face of Suffering
  
• Suffering As a Path to Holiness
  
• God’s Presence Amid Our Suffering
  
• Dealing with Death and Grief
  
• Varying Attitudes Toward Death: Religious Insights
  
• Death and the Afterlife
  
• Death As a “Friend”
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 6. Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the Healing Process
  
• Theologian Geff’s Wedding Gift: A Message of Forgiveness
  
• Reconciliation and Healing
  
• Compassion and Forgiveness in the Service of Healing: Doctor Bill’s Reflections
  
• Rejection and the Ministry of Reconciliation
  
• Isolation and Individualism: Barriers Against Reconciliation
  
• Communities of Support
  
• Inner Healing Through Forbearance and Forgiveness
  
• Forgiveness in Difficult Circumstances
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 7. Listening from the Heart in Health Care
  
• Listening in the Modern World
  
• Doctor Bill’s Personal Reflections
  
• Theologian Geff’s Personal Reflections
  
• Some Practical Reflections
  
• Patients Need Someone to Listen to Them: Doctor Bill’s Experience
  
• Summary Reflections
  
• Discussion Questions
  
• Chapter 8. Social Responsibility, Compassion, and Spirituality at the National and International Level
  
• Poverty, Faith, and the Mission to Alleviate Suffering
  
• A Spirituality That Respects Ecology, the Environment, and Related Health Care Issues
  
• The World’s Diminishing Water Supply: A Source of Anxiety and

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