You Welcomed Me: Interfaith Spiritual Care in the Hospital, Edited by Leah Dawn Bueckert and Daniel S. Schipani
2010. 220 pp. ISBN: 978-1926599144
This book addresses the question of how to enhance the practice of Christian spiritual caregivers as they encounter the growing plurality of faith traditions and expression among care receivers and colleagues.
Part I—“Identity and vocation of the spiritual caregiver”—presents accounts and reflective observations of the dynamics of interfaith communication in spiritual care. It also includes interpretive analysis of the interfaith care dynamics.
Part 2—“Bases for a theological framework for interfaith care”—deals with biblical and theological norms. It illumines the key questions of excellence and faithfulness in interfaith spiritual care from a Christian perspective.
Part 3—“Other windows to competent ministry practice”—illustrates how spiritual caregivers work as reflective practitioners and the benefits of consultation and group case discussion, long distance collaboration, and interfaith care provided in public and faith based hospitals.
Part 4—“Attending to the socio-cultural context”—includes extended references to social and spiritual location. Special consideration is given to the faith process of the care receiver and to reflective practice, including a detailed analysis of assessment and intervention issues.
Leah Dawn Bueckert, from Canada, serves as Spiritual Care Coordinator with the North Eastman Health Association in Manitoba, Canada. She earned a M.Div. in Pastoral Care and Counseling (Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary) and completed a residency in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Lutheran Hospital of Indiana. Together with Daniel S. Schipani, Bueckert co-edited Spiritual Caregiving in the Hospital: Windows to Chaplaincy Ministry. She has a professional interest in the field of health care ethics.
Daniel S. Schipani, from Argentina, is Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, USA. He holds a Dr. Psy. (Universidad Cat lica Argentina) and a Ph.D. (Princeton Theological Seminary). Schipani serves as a pastoral counselor volunteer, lectures widely, and is the author or editor of more than twenty books. His research interests include intercultural hermeneutics and human formation and transformation processes.