AIMS AND BACKGROUND This literature review investigates the potential contribution of the pastoral care provided in hospitals by hospital chaplains, as part of an integrated view of patient care, particularly in institutions dealing with severe disease. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A search was conducted in the Medline database covering the last 10 years. RESULTS Ninety-eight articles were cons...

BACKGROUND Students who fail to thrive on the Nottingham undergraduate medical course frequently suffer from anxiety, depression or other mental health problems. These difficulties may be the cause, or the result of, academic struggling. Early detection of vulnerable students might direct pastoral care and remedial support to where it is needed. We investigated the use of the short-form General...

Since it was first presented, James Fowler’s Faith Development Theory has proven influential in pastoral care/counselling, pastoral/practical theology, spiritual direction and Christian education. However, it has also been subject to substantial critical evaluation. This article reviews the major themes within psychological critiques and considers the agenda provided by these critiques for the ...

The neuroscience literature supports the idea that spiritual transformation is a powerful behavioral and cognitive change process involving fundamental alterations in the sense of self. Brain regions that are known to mediate the sense of self are activated during religious experiences that in turn underwrite spiritual transformation. Because religious experiences are fundamental to spiritual t...

Throughout the arid regions of Africa formerly mobile pastoral populations are becoming sedentary. Although pastoral sedentarization is encouraged by international development agencies and national governments as solutions to food insecurity, poor health care, and problems of governance, it has not been demonstrated that abandoning the pastoral way of life, and particularly children’s access to...

The purpose of the pilot project is to develop a methodology for: operationally specifying clergy and chaplain interventions at a level of detail that will enable replication by other clergy and chaplains; developing consensus definitions of the constructs and terminology used in describing pastoral and spiritual care interventions; establishing the infrastructure of procedures for managing the...

The purpose of the pilot project is to develop a methodology for: operationally specifying clergy and chaplain interventions at a level of detail that will enable replication by other clergy and chaplains; developing consensus definitions of the constructs and terminology used in describing pastoral and spiritual care interventions; establishing the infrastructure of procedures for managing the...