![551[1]](https://img.yumpu.com/55370403/117/500x640/5511.jpg)
551[1]
116 Recent Books It is important to note that ‘spirituality’, as used here, has a much wider reference than traditional Christian usage: indeed, while some authors do attempt to provide inclusive meanings for the word itself, other authors welcome the fact that the term ‘spirituality’ has no one agreed meaning, seeing this is mirroring the varied ways in which individuals relate to the ‘spiritual’ as they understand it and encounter it in their particular lives. The book has six sections: the first two, ‘Traditions’ and ‘Concepts’, explore the ways in which different traditions of belief (ranging from Buddhism to Judaism) have related to healthcare, and the different concepts that have emerged as significant in these aspects of human concern (such as personhood, hope and suffering). This provides a very helpful way into the third section, which looks at different aspects of ‘Practice’. This section explores how different models of healthcare take account of the spiritual, as well as examining different dimensions of healthcare such as nursing, the care of children, palliative care and counselling (to name but a few), and discussing how each of these encounters the spiritual dimension of human experience and behaviour. The fourth section deals with ‘Research’, with sensitive evaluations of the impact of religion and spirituality on healthcare outcomes, and wellargued critiques of studies which are too simplistic in their reductionist approaches to, for example, the measurable consequences of being prayed for. Section five looks at ‘Policy and Education’, while section six, headed ‘Challenges’, is almost worth the price of the book by itself. Its first two chapters explore ‘Contemporary Spirituality’ and ‘The Future of Religion’, presenting the magisterial discussions one might expect from David Tacey, Grace Davie and Martyn Percy. The third and final chapter sets out its approach clearly: The discourse of spirituality and healthcare is open at the edges, orientated around core organizing principles, but containing levels of disorder, indeterminacy and tension that provide meaningful interactions and suggest creative opportunities. This chapter looks forward and suggests points for future development, rather than issues brought to closure; questions rather than conclusions. (p.487) This book is remarkable in its range and in its depth. The contributors are all leading experts in their particular fields, and anyone who masters the richness and detail of the 64 chapters will have acquired a genuinely comprehensive knowledge of the increasingly important area of intersection between spirituality and healthcare. While the book provides an all-inclusive survey of the field (as a good textbook should), it is also possible simply to take one section or one chapter, and learn from its precision and focus.
Recent Books 117 Who should read it? Certainly anyone involved in spirituality and healthcare, whether directly or (by proxy, as it were) in a retreat or spiritual-direction setting. But its relevance reaches beyond that more particular area to anyone thinking about how to articulate what spirituality has to offer in an increasingly ‘materialised’ world. As a resource for training in spiritual direction, it will be the benchmark for many years to come. Brendan Callaghan SJ Graeme Watson, The Song of Songs: A Contemplative Guide (London: SPCK, 2014). 97 8 0281 066902, pp.156, £12.99. The point must be made that it is possible to enjoy and appreciate the Song of Songs without the benefit of any introduction or commentary. Your reviewer recalls reading the Song aloud to a group of sixth-form students none of whom had heard—or indeed heard of—the text before. They were thrilled by it. The poetry of the Song set their pulses racing. And that is what this extraordinary text does to you. The Song may indeed mean much more than it meant to my enraptured teenagers—and for that ‘much more’ we need wise guides such as Graeme Watson—but no amount of instruction would have made the response of those young people to the Song more authentic. Graeme Watson—an Anglican priest—recognises that my sixthformers were not mistaken: that the Song of Songs is about erotic love and sexual desire. But the view that the poem is about sex and nothing else is relatively modern. Watson is a courteous writer. He does not point out that the assumption that we moderns know much more about sex than the ancients and so do not need to spiritualise the Song’s literal language is really very conceited. Watson believes that the Song is open to a diversity of interpretations. He holds—as Jews and Christians from antiquity have held—that the Song ‘is as much about divine love as it is about human love’ (p.7). Drawing on the work of Margaret Barker (The Gate of Heaven, 2011), he sees much of the language of love in the Song as relating to the Temple understood as a symbol of God’s love for Israel and of Israel’s love for God. This illuminating study is informed by his wide-ranging reading of mystical writers who have seen the Song as a depiction of the spiritual marriage between God and the Church, or between God and the individual soul. Watson warms to Origen, for example, welcoming his reading of the Song as an account of the interior life of the Christian.
- Page 66 and 67: 66 Loan Le Spirit bountifully given
- Page 68 and 69: 68 Loan Le but from the faithful, t
- Page 70 and 71: 70 Loan Le is called by the Spirit
- Page 72 and 73: 72 Loan Le An experience arising fr
- Page 74 and 75: 74 Loan Le … a realistic enthusia
- Page 76 and 77: 76 Loan Le This gaze ‘belongs to
- Page 78 and 79: A place of peace, prayer and beauty
- Page 80 and 81: 80 Peter Wilcox Jesus and His Sorro
- Page 82 and 83: 82 Peter Wilcox going to change and
- Page 84 and 85: 84 Peter Wilcox The Seed of God The
- Page 86 and 87: 86 Peter Wilcox So, I no longer hav
- Page 88 and 89: 88 Peter Wilcox to this approach. S
- Page 90 and 91: 90 Louis Roy St John of the Cross,
- Page 92 and 93: 92 Louis Roy The thought that God h
- Page 94 and 95: 94 Louis Roy Towards the End of the
- Page 96 and 97: 96 Louis Roy So there is a spiritua
- Page 98 and 99: 98 Louis Roy God. This leads me to
- Page 100 and 101: 100 Meredith Secomb © auntjojo @ F
- Page 102 and 103: 102 Meredith Secomb ourselves. Give
- Page 104 and 105: 104 Meredith Secomb The contemplati
- Page 106 and 107: 106 Meredith Secomb The Good Samari
- Page 108 and 109: 108 Meredith Secomb for compassiona
- Page 110 and 111: The Furrow, founded in 1950, is a p
- Page 112 and 113: 112 Recent Books both authors, with
- Page 114 and 115: 114 Recent Books (xii-xiii) Presenc
- Page 118 and 119: 118 Recent Books However he does no
- Page 120 and 121: 120 Recent Books accompanied by a s
- Page 122 and 123: 122 Recent Books need Jamesian insi
- Page 124 and 125: 124 Recent Books twenty-first centu
- Page 126 and 127: 126 Recent Books Wolfteich picks th
- Page 128: 128 Recent Books that describes mus
Recent Books 117<br />
Who should read it? Certainly anyone involved in spirituality and<br />
healthcare, whether directly or (by proxy, as it were) in a retreat or<br />
spiritual-direction setting. But its relevance reaches beyond that more<br />
particular area to anyone thinking about how to articulate what spirituality<br />
has to offer in an increasingly ‘materialised’ world. As a resource for training<br />
in spiritual direction, it will be the benchmark for many years to come.<br />
Brendan Callaghan SJ<br />
Graeme Watson, The Song of Songs: A Contemplative Guide (London:<br />
SPCK, 2014). 97 8 0281 066902, pp.156, £12.99.<br />
The point must be made that it is possible to enjoy and appreciate the<br />
Song of Songs without the benefit of any introduction or commentary. Your<br />
reviewer recalls reading the Song aloud to a group of sixth-form students<br />
none of whom had heard—or indeed heard of—the text before. They were<br />
thrilled by it. The poetry of the Song set their pulses racing. And that is<br />
what this extraordinary text does to you. The Song may indeed mean<br />
much more than it meant to my enraptured teenagers—and for that ‘much<br />
more’ we need wise guides such as Graeme Watson—but no amount of<br />
instruction would have made the response of those young people to the<br />
Song more authentic.<br />
Graeme Watson—an Anglican priest—recognises that my sixthformers<br />
were not mistaken: that the Song of Songs is about erotic love and<br />
sexual desire. But the view that the poem is about sex and nothing else is<br />
relatively modern. Watson is a courteous writer. He does not point out that<br />
the assumption that we moderns know much more about sex than the<br />
ancients and so do not need to spiritualise the Song’s literal language is<br />
really very conceited.<br />
Watson believes that the Song is open to a diversity of interpretations.<br />
He holds—as Jews and Christians from antiquity have held—that the Song<br />
‘is as much about divine love as it is about human love’ (p.7). Drawing on<br />
the work of Margaret Barker (The Gate of Heaven, 2011), he sees much of<br />
the language of love in the Song as relating to the Temple understood as a<br />
symbol of God’s love for Israel and of Israel’s love for God.<br />
This illuminating study is informed by his wide-ranging reading of<br />
mystical writers who have seen the Song as a depiction of the spiritual<br />
marriage between God and the Church, or between God and the<br />
individual soul. Watson warms to Origen, for example, welcoming his<br />
reading of the Song as an account of the interior life of the Christian.
Change language