Mike Stoltzfus

This edited collection of essays critically examines how diverse religions of the world represent, understand, theologize, theorize and respond to disability and/or chronic illness. Contributors employ a wide variety of methodological approaches including ethnography, historical, cultural, or textual analysis, personal narrative, and theological/philosophical investigation.https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/facbooks/1068/thumbnail.jp

A collection of chapters like this one is difficult to tie up in a neat little bundle that answers a question, recommends a solution, solves a problem, or presents a specific piece of evidence for application to practice. Many of us in the practice disciplines are left dissatisfied if we feel like we have not made some sort of positive measurable progress along a linear path of inquiry. But those of us from the less quantitative disciplines are sometimes over-satisfied with ambiguity, assuming that there is no such thing as quantifiable progress. For people who live with chronic illness in the real world, the reality usually lies somewhere in the middle. People who live with chronic illness every day have to address all of it, the objective measures of disease they face in blood glucose, c-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor, white blood cells, CT scans, and liver enzymes; the subjective experiences of pain, fatigue, loss, love, fear, and grief; and those real parts of life that...

Understandings of health, well-being, disease, and illness have changed drastically over the past century, as life expectancy has increased and as treatments for diseases once considered fatal have created an experience we call chronic illness. Prior to the twentieth century, diseases either were resolved or resulted in death, and access to medical treatment was not available to most people. In developed nations today, there has been an epidemiological shift from shorter life expectancy and high death rates from acute, infectious, parasitic diseases to longer life expectancy and ongoing, chronic illness (Lynn & Adamson, 2003). According to Lynn and Adamson (2003), most Americans live their last days in institutional settings rather than at home, and most will spend the final two years of their life coping with chronic illness or disability. Adding to that group younger people with chronic illness, the aging baby-boomer generation which has yet to develop chronic illness, and those who encounter people with chronic illness at work, school, or in social settings, makes the potential range and impact of chronic illness seem overwhelming. In addition, societal changes have occurred that have altered the way people cope with chronic illness and disability. Today’s global society and highly transient lifestyle means that many people who live with chronic illness are not in situations in which they can be cared for, assisted by, or supported by nearby family members.

In this paper we describe some of the unique personal, medical, social, and religious challenges facing people living with chronic illness and disability. Our specific focus involves the connections between suffering, healing, and disability in two religious traditions: Buddhism and Christianity. Two core questions focus our inquiry. First, why are chronic illness and disability often associated with merited suffering in Buddhism and Christianity? Second, what types of Buddhist and Christian practice can help cultivate spiritual healing in the midst of chronic conditions?

Perspectives courses at Valdosta State University are charged with expanding undergraduate students' intellectual and attitudinal horizons by exposing them to both interdisciplinary and multicultural perspectives. The Religion and Culture Perspectives course focuses on how a diversity of ...

Abstract In this paper we describe some of the unique personal, medical, social, and religious challenges facing people living with chronic illness and disability. Our specific focus involves the connections between suffering, healing, and disability in two religious ...

Abstract. This article uses the writings of Alfred Schutz as catalysts to analyze three dis-tinctive modes of transcendences operative in human experience. Particular attention is given to the role symbolic awareness plays in the formation and embodiment of moral value. I ar-gue ...

Seeking a way of dynamic balance in the midst of uncertainty and ambiguity is both a core Daoist teaching and a central experience of individuals living with chronic disability or illness. This essay incorporates core Daoist themes to map alternative ways for thinking and talking about ...