Imagine working in a country where 77% of people want their physician to address their spiritual concerns, 61% say that faith is the most important influence in their lives and almost 50% want their physician to pray with them. That country is the United States of America.
Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine examines the degree to which we can and ought to involve spiritual matters in our work. It challenges us to re-connect spirituality and medicine. Although written by a Christian doctor, the author is restrained in promoting Christianity, and I did not find anything that would offend a believer in a non-Christian faith.
We may feel the silencing shadow of the GMC over us when discussing faith with patients. One chapter examined this issue but left many unanswered questions. Every chapter is brief, summarised, fully referenced and includes discussion questions.
I am grateful for the chance to read this book. We do need to talk more, research more, and publish more in the academic press in order to make headway in this area.