The Art of Spiritual Midwifery: diaLogos and Dialectic in the Classical Tradition

What comes after reflective listening? What comes after the ministry of presence? Spiritual midwifery is a powerful framework for offering pastoral care in today’s fast-paced environment. Midwifery offers ways of thinking about those who are served, the work itself, and what it means to be a clinical caregiver within the tradition of the care of souls. Spiritual midwifery has philosophical and spiritual roots that stem from the earliest seeds of Western thought, even back to Jesus and Socrates. Readers will find an inductive approach toward a conceptual model that offers insight for richer assessments and outcome-oriented goals of care. Part One sets out the metaphors of the midwife and the dialogue. Part Two unpacks the methodology behind the mechanics. Part Three looks at creative applications of midwifery, and is followed by a Symposium patterned after Plato’s own Symposium. A rigorous theory remains at the centre of the work, but the tone is poetically balanced enough to invite the transformation of the spiritual caregiver. From the philosophy of Heraclitus to the theology of Kierkegaard and the spiritual direction of Guenther, The Art of Spiritual Midwifery brings forth a comprehensive conception of pastoral care and its delivery.

Table of Contents

"Attunement
Part I: Poetics, Aesthetics, and Ethics
1 The Midwife
2 The Baby
3 Medicine and Dialogue
Part II: Physique and Physics
4 The How and the What
5 The Pangs of Socratic Irony
6 Seduction, Surrender, and Negation
7 Inductive Logic and Being Induced
Part III: Immanence and Emanations
8 Lighting and Dark Sayings
9 The Center
10 Precepts, Forceps, and Applications
Afterward and Afterword: The Symposium
Bibliography
"