John Swinton

John Swinton
University of Aberdeen | ABDN · School of Divinity, History and Philosophy

PhD

About

117
Publications
38,603
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1,430
Citations

Publications

Publications (117)
Article
The Educating for Inclusive, Caring Communities report delves into the critical role that clergy and church leaders play in fostering inclusivity and support for individuals living with dementia and their carers within Christian communities. Through the Educating for Inclusive, Caring Communities project, we have explored how Theological Educatio...
Research
The Educating for Inclusive, Caring Communities report delves into the critical role that clergy and church leaders play in fostering inclusivity and support for individuals living with dementia and their carers within Christian communities. Through the Educating for Inclusive, Caring Communities project, we have explored how Theological Education...
Article
This investigation develops in three steps. First, we seek to complexify the opioid crisis in a way that helps us to see how the issues of misguided desire and misplaced attachments are fundamentally important for a theological account of opioid addiction.1 Second, acknowledging the connections between pain and opioid addiction, we explore some of...
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Background and Objectives Meaningful engagement is essential for aged care residents living with dementia . Our knowledge pertaining to caring presence for residents living with dementia is limited. This study aims to understand care workers’ experiences of providing care to residents , the challenges they face in being present with residents and s...
Chapter
The rise of interest in empirical research has prompted important questions about the nature of theological knowledge. The tension between theology as a purely intellectual discipline and theology as a practical discipline becomes particularly acute for those of us who desire to use qualitative research as an aspect of our theological method. This...
Article
In response to van Holten and Walton’s critique (van Holten & Walton, 2020, 2022) of John Swinton’s theological approach to time and disability (Swinton, 2016, 2020), John Swinton is joined by the theological ethicist Professor Brian Brock. Swinton and Brock argue that while van Holten and Walton claim to be attempting to open up a dialogue, this i...
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More people living with dementia (PLWD) are aging in place in the community. The number of PLWD aging in community is estimated to comprise 61-81% of the total number of PLWD in North America. Since most PLWD do not drive (Foley et al., 2000), many may (or may not) spend much of their time closer to home, barring occasional visits out of town. Yet,...
Chapter
This chapter is geared toward physicians and medical practitioners and offers practical insights into how Christian theodicies, scriptural interpretation, and theological ideas can inform understandings of disability, mental illness, persons with disabilities, wellness, and patient care. Assuming a Triune understanding of God as unique to the Chris...
Article
The paper explores the issue of personhood and citizenship. It looks at some of the philosophical and cultural challenges that accompany the experience of dementia and offers a way of thinking that can hold together the vital relationality that comes with certain models of philosophical personhood with the more concrete and politically engaged unde...
Article
This article describes which possible roles that (theological reflections on) the church can play in societal debates around disability and inclusion. A turn to inclusion is sketched out and a number of different ecclesiological responses are mapped out. We argue that an ecclesiology which is informed by church practices can contribute to reflectio...
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This paper builds on Frances Young’s suggestion that people with profound intellectual disability have a prophetic vocation. It explores the idea of vocation using the experience of intellectual disability as a critical hermeneutic that brings to the fore a perspective that views vocation as something that includes all of the Body of Christ and not...
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This study presents a national analysis of 24,190 young Canadians in which relationships between religious group involvement and the spiritual health of children with and without disabilities is described. Two key findings emerged: 1) Children who report religious involvement report higher self-rated importance of spiritual health compared with non...
Article
The paper is a reflection on some aspects of and developments within practical theology within the UK and Ireland. It highlights some of the possibilities for Practical Theology alongside of the potential dangers. It recognises the diversity of practical theology but argues that this is a strength for the discipline. The paper develops the image of...
Article
This article revisits the speech made by John Swinton at the inauguration of the British Association for the Study of Spirituality (BASS) in January 2010. It argues that some of the difficulties in defining spirituality can be clarified and addressed if we think of spirituality not simply in definitional terms, but in relation to how we use it in p...
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Wat draagt het christelijk geloof bij aan ons denken over zorg en zorgrelaties? Het oeuvre van de Schotse praktisch theoloog John Swinton kan gezien worden aIs een antwoord op deze vraag. In dit opstel wordt een eerste introductie geboden van zijn werk in het Nederlandse taalgebied. Het geloof biedt volgens deze auteur een counterstory in onze West...
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This article examines the place of spirituality in medical education, with special reference to primary care. It highlights evidence of current discrepancies and problems with spiritual care in general practice, demonstrating that GPs do not have a common approach or set of competencies. The authors illuminate the fact that medical education teache...
Article
This paper explores and develops a theological perspective on taking and receiving medication. It argues that the task of prescribing and administering psychopharmaceutical drugs is a thoroughly theological enterprise and should be looked at and practiced accordingly. The paper presents a theological anthropology that opens up space for rethinking...
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GPs have a wide range of attitudes to spirituality which contribute to variations in reported spiritual care. Study aims were: to assess concepts of spirituality and their application in a sample of GP trainers; explore statistically the relationship between personal spiritual affiliation, attitudes to, and reported practice of, spiritual care and;...
Chapter
This chapter (Chapter 11) within the book "Spiritual Care for Allied Health Practice: A Person Centred Approach", considers the profession of chaplaincy and the role that chaplains have in providing spiritual care within clinical and community settings with an emphasis upon their collaboration with other allied health clinicians. Although chaplainc...
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Guidance for medical staff reminds employees of the responsibility to deliver spiritual care in its broadest sense, respecting the dignity, humanity, individuality and diversity of the people whose cultures, faiths and beliefs coexist in society. This is no small or simple task, and although GPs (family practitioners) have been encouraged to delive...
Article
Background Very few studies address how GPs react to situations where patients express doubt or perplexity about the meaning of their existence. Aim To assess the range of responses which GPs make to a theoretical scenario, where a patient says ‘Doc, I’m not sure there is any point to all this?’. To discuss the significance of these responses with...
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Abstract Background: Little is known about how the concept of spirituality is understood and applied by GPs. Aim: To provide a detailed description of how GPs understand the concept of spirituality and apply this with patients. Design & setting: Nineteen Scottish GPs were interviewed about their perceptions of the concept of spirituality and how th...
Article
The author explores some of the virtues and the vices of sport for Christians. Although sport is clearly a popular and potentially fruitful enterprise for human beings, it has its glories and its temptations. On the one hand, sport can be a magnificent exhibition of the beauty, diversity, power, and God-given potential of the human body. On the oth...
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In the last 30 years there has been a simultaneous rise in psychiatric medication use and in the numbers of people seeking to address spiritual issues in mental health treatment. To date, there is little research into perceptions of how these two factors interact. This study explores the interrelationship between spirituality and psychiatric medica...
Chapter
The issue of the rich and complex relationships between migration and mental health is both fascinating and enlightening as the various chapters in this book highlight most effectively. Culture, context, trauma, social dissonance and dislocation all have important corollaries within the lives of those who, for whatever reason, find themselves trans...
Book
This is a book about time. It is not, however, about any old time. It is about God's time and what it means to live one's life faithfully within the time that has been gifted to us. There is no getting away from the fact that time is a fundamental aspect of the ways in which we understand, construct, and try to make sense of the world. As Iain McGi...
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The paper explores the significance of our bodies for an understanding of what it means to be a member of the body of Christ and ultimately for what it means to be human. Within the body of Christ, our bodies cease to be our own. We discover that who we are is who we are “in Christ.” As we come to recognise that the essence of the body of Christ is...
Article
depression, social construction, theology, spirituality I am grateful to Anastasia Scrutton for opening up a very important area for thought, reflection, and practice. Her paper presents a fascinating argument for an understanding of depression that is framed as a potentially spiritually transformative experience with positive therapeutic implicati...
Article
The paper explores the issue of personhood within the context of the lives of people with advanced dementia. It frames the issue of personhood theologically as an aspect of naming, emphasising the power of naming for the ways in which we respond to things in the world. If we choose to name dementia in terms of personhood and non-personhood with the...
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This paper explores the current and extraordinarily diverse concept of spirituality, particularly as it relates to healthcare practices. It suggests that there is no such ‘thing’ (singular) as spirituality. Rather it is a ‘made up’ concept that helps us to understand certain things about human beings and human living. It is in this sense that there...
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The article explores the experience of spirituality and advanced dementia from the perspective of Christian theology. It examines the significance of Christian education and spiritual practices for understanding the significance of spirituality for people living with advanced dementia. The article explores the nature of memory and the importance of...
Article
Caring that is genuinely person-centred and truly compassionate can be difficult in a forensic mental health context. Whilst our professional roles indicate that we need to be kind to offenders no matter what they may have done or how they behave, the question of whether and how we should be compassionate is more complex. Kindness is a personal qua...
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This article responds to the reflections on Disability in the Christian Tradition that are collected in this journal issue, especially to those by Thomas E. Reynolds, Sarah Melcher, Willie James Jennings, Emily Stetler, and M. J. Iozzio. Moreover, this response explores the nature of time and lays out a rationale for taking seriously theological pe...
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This article examines theodicy-the vindication of God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We focus on the thought processes that chaplains, social workers, and other professionals may use in their care interventions to address issues of theodicy for patients. Theodic...
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What does it mean to be a healthcare chaplain? The recent introduc- tion of the chaplaincy guidelines has taken chaplains into the heart of the health- care system and ensured that the National Health Service in Scotland has to think about and perhaps re-think the role of chaplaincy and its place within the system of healthcare delivery within Scot...
Article
This article reports aspects of a study conducted in 2005 which explored the role of the church as a voluntary organisation, in deaths by Suicide in Highland. The study was explorative and consisted of interviewing ministers from the Christian Churches of different denominations in Highland about their own experiences as ministers of the Church, of...
Chapter
In this chapter, I will look at how and why it is that healthcare practices have a tendency to focus on buckets, rather than waterfalls, and why it is that spirituality is required both to bridge and to fill the gap between the two, that is, to offer something new and to affirm the necessity of both. The way that I will approach this task is by beg...
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This article develops a perspective on a practical theology of belonging. It argues that the political rhetoric of inclusion, while possibly necessary, is deeply inadequate to help us understand what disability is and what it really means to be with people who have received this label. We need to shift our thinking from inclusion to belonging and t...
Article
This article reflects on the question of what a Christian theology of love looks like when we take seriously the experiences of people on the autistic spectrum. The essay offers a practical exegesis of the nature of Christian love which takes seriously the broad range of possibilities that rotate around the practice of love. The article explores in...
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SWINTON J., BAIN V., INGRAM S. & HEYS S.D. (2011) European Journal of Cancer Care20, 640–652 Moving inwards, moving outwards, moving upwards: the role of spirituality during the early stages of breast cancer The paper reflects on a study which explored the role of spirituality in the lives of women during the first year after being diagnosed with b...
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This study examined the effect of a spirituality training program on the spiritual well-being, spiritual integrity, leadership practice, job satisfaction, and burnout of hospital middle manager nurses in Korea. In an experimental study with a two-group (experimental vs. control) design, participants were enrolled for 5 weeks, with 24 nurses in the...
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The British Association for the Study of Spirituality (BASS) was formally launched on 29 January 2010 at Charterhouse in London. This is a summary of the opening address given by the then Acting Chair of BASS, Professor John Swinton.
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This research report is less a survey of the literature than a reflection on the emergence, aims and predominant themes to emerge from theological engagements with issues of disability. It advances a rather bold claim: the theology of disability is central to our understanding of what it means to know who God is and to know what it means to be a hu...
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This article reflects theologically on the spiritual lives of people with profound intellectual disabilities. It offers a fresh way of exploring the theological contribution that such life experiences have for an understanding of God, human being, and what it means to be a church. By meditating on the storied nature of human beings, this discussion...
Article
Spirituality is a highly contested concept. Within the nursing literature, there are a huge range and diversity of definitions, some of which appear coherent whereas others seem quite disparate and unconnected. This vagueness within the nursing literature has led some to suggest that spirituality is so diverse as to be meaningless. Are the critics...
Article
In this paper I want to draw attention to the significance of ethics for the practice of research. The paper will lay out a perspective on research and research ethics that will enable nurses to begin to see the relevance of ethics for their own research and to incorporate ethical reflection as an ongoing and vital aspect of their work. We will beg...
Chapter
IntroductionWhy Do the Study?The Objectives of the StudyThe Research QuestionA Note About the Rising Interest in Spirituality and Health CareReligion and Health: What Do We Know?The Picture in ScotlandChanges for Hospital ChaplaincyThe Study DesignThe Story of the Research ProcessConcluding RemarksClosing RemarksReferences
Article
Because our culture so values rationality and productivity, observers easily characterize the life of the person with dementia in the bleakest terms because it lacks sociocultural worth. The experience of the person with irreversible and progressive dementia is clearly tragic, but it need not be interpreted as half empty rather than half full.
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This paper explores certain key critiques of spirituality-in-nursing as they have been offered by people outside of the discipline. It argues that nurses have not taken seriously enough the recent criticism of the nature and role of spirituality in nursing. Not to listen to the 'enemies' of spirituality-in-nursing is to risk stagnation and a drift...
Article
This article describes a unique empirical study where critical incidents were obtained from learning disability nurses to understand how they attempt to meet the spiritual needs of the people for whom they care. Following analysis, the nurses' approaches to meeting spiritual needs were categorized as 'personal' and 'procedural', and each of these i...
Article
The Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability was established to help healthcare practitioners and others meet the spiritual needs of patients--and explore their own needs The centre was set up in 2004 in Aberdeen. It brings together people from the disciplines of nursing, medicine and divinity. It combines education, research and practice in...
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Over the past year it has been my pleasure to manage a major research project within the United Kingdom that has sought to explore the spiritual lives of people with developmental disabilities and those who offer care and support to them. The project will last for two years and is funded by the Foundation for People with Developmental Disabilities,...
Article
The spirituality of people with learning disabilities is under-researched and frequently misunderstood. Despite evidence to suggest that a focus on the spiritual aspect of the lives of people with learning disabilities can be health-bringing and life-enhancing, this dimension of people's lives is often overlooked or considered irrelevant. This pape...
Article
A growing body of research suggests that religion and spirituality can have a positive effect on mental and physical health. Like any other powerful belief system, they also have potential for harm. Further research is needed if they are to be understood and therapeutically incorporated into healthcare.

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