An indispensable guidebook for family members and friends, hospice workers, religious leaders, counselors, and medical providers.

Description

A 2005 Best of the Best from University Presses selection by a panel of public and academic librarians for the Association of American University Presses.

For end-of-life companions, Parting offers the collective wisdom of people from many cultures and faith traditions as a "travel guide" for helping a terminally ill relative or friend toward a peaceful transition from this life. Sections of the book discuss how to cross the bridge from ordinary conversation to spiritual reflection; how to provide comforts for the body, mind, and soul; and how to care for yourself while concentrating on the needs of another. Transcending any specific religion or culture, this handbook addresses universal spiritual needs that can be met through meaningful human relationships as well as individual faith.

Praise for Parting

"Why are we here? How can we understand and find meaning in suffering? What is death, and what happens after death?...[This volume] serves as a practical guide to how people who are dying tend to approach these questions and how their friends and family may act as companions to accompany them on this final journey."
—Larry R. Churchill, from the Introduction

"This is an excellent book. Clinical Pastoral Education supervisors and pastoral care teachers will want to use it as a resource for teaching about how to spiritually companion persons who are facing end of life decisions and a terminal illness. It is both very compassionate and clearly written. The clinical vignettes serve to strengthen the theory in very touching ways."
—Wayne Robinson, Associate Director for Clinical Pastoral Education, UNC Hospitals

Extended Copyright Information

Copyright 2004 by the University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved.

Previously published by the University of North Carolina Press.

Published in association with the Foundation for End-of-Life Care and the P.L. Dodge Foundation.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher.

About the Author

Jennifer Sutton Holder is geriatrics chaplain at Baylor University Medical Center and serves as clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

Why are we here?
How can we understand and find meaning in suffering?
What is death, and what happens after death?
To ask and seek answers to these questions is to engage in spiritual work. This volume is a handbook on spiritual care of the dying, yet its purpose is not to address these big ...

Copyright

Copyright 2004 by The University of North Carolina Press.

All Rights Reserved.