Spirituality, Healing and Medicine: Return to the Silence

by David Aldridge, PhD

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Philadelphia/London: Jessica Kingsley 2000 224 pp Refs 15pp $24.95

This is an outstanding, erudite discussion of spirituality in medical practice, focused on research. Aldridge suggests subcategories of spirituality and religion as relevant to clinical practice and research.

A spectrum of definitions of spirituality is suggested, including: Spirituality as meaning and unity, as transcendental, as power or force, as breath and its activities, and as postmodern.

Similarly, he suggests a range of areas of focus with religious studies: belief operationalized as practices, as meaning, and as relationship between humans and a supernatural power or force.

A light review of healing research is presented. Aldridge suggests that in “so-called spiritual healing” research, it might be relevant to study the effects of prayer on those who pray, not just those who are the recipients of others’ prayers. Aldridge does not believe distant healing is effective in treating others, and suggests that prayer should be for personal healing.

Aldridge is able to hold a balance between the research and the clinical, pointing out:

In those moments when we begin to question, through doubt or pain, then the argument about which truth is not so important as how we come to acquaint ourselves with truth: not what we believe, but how we believe. This is what unites practitioner and patient in search for healing. (p.52)

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