Initiative to Integrate Practical Theology and End-of-Life Care
Creating New Knowledge about End-of-Life Care

The Challenge

Medicine has made huge advances within the field of end-of-life care in such areas as pain control and various curative and palliative activities. These advances are laudable and offer comfort and hope to people who are dying and their loved ones. Yet, despite such advances, death for many of us has become more threatening and mysterious. In a modern world  that implicitly and explicitly denies death, it is easy to ignore how death and terminal illness may have meaning beyond our understandable, but ultimately unrealistic, desire to avoid an end to life. Needed is an exploration of death and dying as a deeply meaningful and spiritual human experience in a search for God, forgiveness, hope and salvation. Along with high-quality medicine, theological dimensions of death and dying are important to end-of-life care. The question is: How can medicine and theology come together to enhance the well-being of those who are dying?

“This first-of-its kind initiative recognizes, explores and describes how theology and medicine can learn from one another to improve the well-being of people who are dying and their loved ones.”
— Rev. John Swinton, B.D., Ph.D., R.N.

ICEOL’S Response

The Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life (ICEOL) advances research and scholarship that establishes medical, theological and methodological foundations for integrating theology and medicine into end-of-life care. These efforts are novel and of interest to a variety of audiences including congregational clergy and chaplains, health and social-service professionals, and students and teachers of ethics, theology and end-of-life care. As a first step in this work, ICEOL brought together theologians and clinicians from around the world in August 2006 for a symposium that explored the role and application of the Christian principles of faith, hope and love for end-of-life care. Participants’ papers served as the foundation for a two-day discussion that is leading to the first-of-its-kind book, Living Well, Dying Faithfully: The Role of Christian Practices in End-of-Life Care, to be published by Eerdmans. For the project, ICEOL is collaborating with Rev. John Swinton, B.D., Ph.D., R.N., professor in practical theology and pastoral care, School of Divinity, History and Philosophy in Kings College at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.  By publishing this book, ICEOL will provide a foundational document in the emerging field of practical theology at life’s end. With a focus on the essential aspects of caring (faith, hope and love), the book offers a framework for further exploration.

The Future

  • ICEOL will continue to contribute to the field by convening  symposia every other year where clinicians and theologians can explore the intersection of spirituality and medicine, focusing on issues such as pain, pediatric illness and the needs of vulnerable populations.
  • Each symposium will be followed by a book, as ICEOL develops a growing library on spiritual perspectives of dying.