Dementia

Dementia
Author: John Swinton
Publisher: SCM Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0334049644

Winner of the Michael Ramsay Prize 2016 Dementia is one of the most feared diseases in Western society today. Some have even gone so far as to suggest euthanasia as a solution to the perceived indignity of memory loss and the disorientation that accompanies it. Here, John Swinton develops a practical theology of dementia for caregivers, people with dementia, ministers, hospital chaplains, and medical practitioners as he explores two primary questions: • Who am I when I’ve forgotten who I am? • What does it mean to love God and be loved by God when I have forgotten who God is? Offering compassionate and carefully considered theological and pastoral responses to dementia and forgetfulness, Swinton’s Dementia redefines dementia in light of the transformative counter story that is the gospel.

Alzheimer's & Theology

Alzheimer's & Theology
Author: Thomas Liu D.Min
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2021-06-17
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1665527315

The fact that Americans are living longer, healthier lives coupled with his own aging motivated the author to write this book. As Baby Boomers age, more than one in five Americans will be over 65 years old. This increase in the average age of Americans will have a widespread impact on every aspect of society, and is already beginning to be felt. This impact has inspired Dr. Liu to write this book in an effort to relieve the sufferings of those who have been diagnosed with this dreaded brain disease and their caregivers who suffer along with them. The author affirms that it is God’s love through Christ which encourages him to provide reason of hope in God’s remembrance: hope that is from an informed theological perspective, a sense of purpose in the face of this disease. Because of the author’s godly motive and desire to offer help for sufferers, the author provides comfort through assurances that the sufferer’s conditions are not leading to the end of their lives.

God Never Forgets

God Never Forgets
Author: Donald K. McKim
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 136
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664257040

Sensing God's presence is difficult when faced with Alzheimer's Disease among family and loved ones. This book brings faith and hope to these trying circumstances, offering the witness of the Bible and the insights of theology to show how God continues to work in people's lives even in the midst of fearful disease.

What Happens to Faith When Christians Get Dementia?

What Happens to Faith When Christians Get Dementia?
Author: 'Tricia Williams
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2021-01-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725272156

What happens to faith when Christians get dementia? Here, the unique voices of Christians who live with this illness bring insight and prompt theological reflection on the profound questions that dementia asks of faith. Within the boundaries of a biblical agenda, these questions are explored using a model of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation (reminiscent of Brueggemann's scheme), to seek deeper understanding of faith experience and practice. Arising from the research, fresh theological insights and challenges for the church call for new, creative practices to enable the faith nurture of disciples of Jesus living with this disease. Counterintuitively, the study reveals a growing, positive experience of faith in the light of dementia highlighting the significance of Christian hope. Faith does not end with diagnosis of this illness.

Forgetting Whose We are

Forgetting Whose We are
Author: David Keck
Publisher:
Total Pages: 255
Release: 1996
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780687020881

Alzheimer's disease - a degenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized especially by premature mental deterioration - is the most publicly visible and widely discussed form of a range of disorders known as senile dementia. The nature of Alzheimer's disease, especially its progressive debilitation of the memory, raises key theological issues. What does it mean to be truly human? Does our ability to remember define who we are as persons? When the mind loses its ability to remember, what happens to the life of the soul? When we forget God, does God still remember us? Forgetting Whose We Are offers a Christian understanding of and response to the difficult theological, spiritual, and pastoral problems raised by Alzheimer's disease. Filling an important gap in existing literature by directly confronting the theological challenges of Alzheimer's disease to victims, caregivers, and their communities, the book affirms the classic Christian doctrines that witness to the reality of grace and the promises of salvation even for those who can no longer remember themselves, their families, or their relationship with God.

Second Forgetting

Second Forgetting
Author: Dr. Benjamin T. Mast
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2014-09-23
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 031051388X

There is hope in Alzheimer's disease, but it isn't where most people look for it... Any form of dementia is terrifying and lonely for both the one suffering it and for those close to them. How do our relationships with those we love change with loss of memory or clarity of thought? What happens to our relationship with God? For those suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's, for their friends and family, community and church, this book will help you understand the disease itself, how to love and care for those affected by it, and how to see the hope that's greater than it: we may forget, but God always remembers. With pastoral tenderness and gospel confidence, Dr. Benjamin Mast shares his expertise on the subject and displays the power of the gospel that remains intact even when memory fades. Second Forgetting provides: Up-to-date answers to common questions about the disease and its effect on personal identity and faith. Personal stories of those affected and the loved ones who care for them and what their experiences were like—where they found hope and how they most needed support. Practical suggestions for how the church can come alongside families and those struggling or hurting. When a person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, they face great uncertainty, knowing that they can expect to live their remaining years with increasing confusion and progressively greater reliance upon other people to care for them. Dr. Mast will help you see how Alzheimer's disease cannot have the final say on God's unforgotten children.

Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia

Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia
Author: John Dunlop, MD
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2017-07-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433552124

There Is Hope . . . When a patient is diagnosed with dementia, it impacts not only the patient but also those who care for them. It can be devastating to watch loved ones lose the independence, personality, and abilities that once defined them, knowing there is no cure. How should Christians respond to a diagnosis of dementia? Experienced geriatrician Dr. John Dunlop wants to transform the way we view dementia—showing us how God can be honored through such a tragedy as we respect the inherent dignity of all humans made in the image of God. Sharing stories from decades of experience with dementia patients, Dunlop provides readers, particularly caregivers, with a biblical lens through which to understand the experience and challenge of this life-altering disease. Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia will help you see God's purposes as you love and care for those with dementia.

Entering the New Theological Space

Entering the New Theological Space
Author: John Reader
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317142748

This book presents theological reflections on the changing nature of church mission and Christian identity within a theology of 'blurred encounter' - a physical, social, political and spiritual space where once solid hierarchies and patterns are giving way to more fluid and in many ways unsettling exchanges. The issues raised and dynamics explored apply to all socially-produced space, thus tending to 'blur' that most fundamental of theological categories - namely urban vs. rural theology. Engaging in a sharper way with some of the helpful but inevitably broad-brush conclusions raised by recent church-based reports (Mission-shaped Church, Faithful Cities), the authors examine some of the practical and theological implications of this research for the issue of effective management and therefore church leadership generally. Speaking to practitioners in the field of practical theology as well as those engaged in theological and ministerial training, key voices encompass dimensions of power and conflict, and identify some of the present and future opportunities and challenges to church/faith-based engagement and leadership arising from blurred encounters. Contributors - practitioners and theorists - cover a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary professional contexts and academic/denominational interests. Contributors include: John Atherton, John Reader, Helen Cameron, Martyn Percy, Malcolm Brown, Karen Lord, Clare McBeath and Margaret Goodall.

What Happens to Faith When Christians Get Dementia?

What Happens to Faith When Christians Get Dementia?
Author: 'Tricia Williams
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2021-01-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 172527213X

What happens to faith when Christians get dementia? Here, the unique voices of Christians who live with this illness bring insight and prompt theological reflection on the profound questions that dementia asks of faith. Within the boundaries of a biblical agenda, these questions are explored using a model of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation (reminiscent of Brueggemann’s scheme), to seek deeper understanding of faith experience and practice. Arising from the research, fresh theological insights and challenges for the church call for new, creative practices to enable the faith nurture of disciples of Jesus living with this disease. Counterintuitively, the study reveals a growing, positive experience of faith in the light of dementia highlighting the significance of Christian hope. Faith does not end with diagnosis of this illness.

Ministry with the Forgotten

Ministry with the Forgotten
Author: Bishop Kenneth L. Carder
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2019-09-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 150188025X

Dementia diseases represent a crisis of faith for many family members and congregations. Magnifying this crisis is the way people with dementia tend to be objectified by both medical and religious communities. They are recipients of treatment and projects for mission. Ministry is done to and for them rather than with them. While acknowledging the devastation of dementia diseases, Ken Carder draws on his own experience as a caregiver, hospice chaplain, and pastoral practitioner to portray the gifts as well as the challenges accompanying dementia diseases. He confronts the deep personal and theological questions created by loving people with dementia diseases, demonstrating how living with dementia can be a means of growing in faith, wholeness, and ministry for the entire community of faith. He also reveals that authentic faith transcends intellectual beliefs, verbal affirmations, and prescribed practices. Carder asserts that the Judeo-Christian tradition offers a broader lens, defining personhood in relationship to God’s story and humanity’s participation in God’s mighty acts of creation and new creation; thereby contributing to hope, community, and self-worth. Pastors and congregations will be better equipped to minister with people affected by dementia, receiving their gifts and responding to their unique needs. They will learn how people with dementia contribute to the community and the church’s life and mission, discovering practical ways those contributions can be identified, nurtured, and incorporated into the church’s life and ministry.