This book explores the phenomenon of hope in the context of long-term ill-health. It brings medicine, psychology and theology in dialogue with the voices of those with first-hand experience of chronic pain. The chapters reflect on existing psychological literature on hope, the theological perspectives of three key figures - Augustine, Aquinas and Moltmann - and interview-based empirical research with persons who live with chronic pain. In a theological framework, hope is a complex and dynamic force which incorporates and yet goes beyond any understandings within the cognitive-behavioural framework of psychology. The author challenges a highly individualistic and positivistic view on hope and argues for hope as intuitive, reflective, active and communal. The book will be of particular interest to scholars working at the intersection of medicine, psychology and theology, as well as those in the medical humanities.
Preface Introduction, or When a body in pain calls for hope Part I: Existing voices on pain and hope 1. The biomedical body in pain 2. The psychological mind of hope Interim conclusion 1, or The absence of a hoping person in pain 3. The body in pain in traditional, ecumenical theologies of hope 4. The body in pain in a modern, Reformed theology of hope Interim conclusion 2, or God as the beginning and end of hope PART II: New voices on hope and pain 5. Empirical approaches to hope and pain 6. Lives marked by pain and fuelled by hope: New narratives 7. Conceptualising hope at the intersection of theology, psychology and medical narrative Closing synopsis, or When hope dwells in a body in pain Appendix Bibliography. Index
Lena Maria Lorenz is a researcher with a PhD from the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, UK.
