Doctor, will you pray for me? : medicine, chaplains, and healing the whole person / Robert L. Klitzman, M.D.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Klitzman, Robert, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pastoral medicine.

Pastoral care.

Medicine--Religious aspects.

Medicine.

Spirituality.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

The modern world faces religious, spiritual and existential quandaries, as new technologies redefine the beginnings and ends of life. Excruciating choices arise about when to turn off the machines - whether and when we should 'play God.' The COVID-19 pandemic made these dilemmas ever more acute. Increasingly, however, public discourse on religion and spirituality is polarized, with evangelicals on one side and vehement atheists on the other. Psychiatrist and bioethicist Robert Klitzman explores how patients and families struggle to make sense of serious disease and threats of death and other medical crises, seeking hope, purpose and larger connections beyond themselves.

Contents:

Cover

Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

PART I: IN THE FOXHOLE: PATIENTS FACING CRISES

1. "Disappearing into clouds of smoke": Confronting threats to life

2. Asking "why me?" and second-​guessing God

3. "Doctor, do you believe in God?": Physicians facing spiritual and religious questions

4. Amazing graces: How chaplains enter the room

PART II: "COMING IN WITH THE RELIGION THEY HAVE": AIDING PATIENTS WITH PARTICULAR BELIEFS

5. "Why has God let me down?": Helping religious patients

6. "I just look at sunsets and stars": Aiding patients who are spiritual but not religious

7. "The thousand kinds of atheism": Assisting atheist, agnostic, and uncertain patients

PART III: "MEETING PATIENTS WHEREVER THEY ARE": HELPING PATIENTS REGARDLESS OF THEIR BELIEFS

8. "The most important moment in our lives": Resetting priorities and appreciating the present

9. "I pray to the God I don't believe in": Creating prayers

10. "The voice of the voiceless": Aiding vulnerable patients

PART IV: APPROACHING THE END

11. "We sang my son into Heaven": Re-​envisioning "Heaven" and grief

12. "When should we pull the plug?": Aiding end-​of-​life decisions

13. "Mommy, when I die . . .": Helping parents and children

14. How close or distant to be: Balancing and ending relationships with patients

PART V: CONFRONTING TENSIONS WITH STAFF

15. Seeing patients with fresh eyes

16. "Which ditch do you want to die in?": Chaplains versus doctors

17. When doctors cry: Assisting staff with stress

PART VI: GOD 2.0: MOVING INTO THE FUTURE

18. "Doctor, will you pray for me?": Improving doctors

19. "More than just smiling and saying Jesus": Improving chaplains

20. Finding meaning and hope in a rapidly changing world.

Appendix A: List of frequently ​appearing chaplains

Appendix B: Methods

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on June 10, 2024).

ISBN:

9780197750872

0197750877

9780197750865

0197750869

9780197750858

0197750850

OCLC:

1416963452