Spirituality, Chronic Illness, and Healing: Concluding Remarks and Ongoing Inquiry

Abstract

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 include both … bank account balances, insurance coverage, parenthood, marriage, and employment. Those of us who dwell on scholarly, academic, and practical disciplines owe it to those people and to ourselves to not only meet in the middle ground but also move more freely in general among worlds, or rather, within the greater world where we dwell together. It is perhaps this idea of meeting in the middle, or dwelling together in the world or blending, that is the greatest overarching theme of this collection, the theme that we feel is most important.