Professor John Swinton | The School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History

Professor John Swinton

BD, PhD (Aberdeen), RMN (Registered Mental Nurse),
RNMD (Registered Nurse for People with Learning Disabilities)

Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies

Email Address: j.swinton@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number: +44 (0)1224 273224
Office Address: School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen. AB24 3UB
School/Department: School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History

External Memberships

I am a former member of the AHRC panel review committee, the British and Irish Association of Practical Theology, the International Academy of Practical Theology and the American Academy of Religion. I am also a member of the Scottish Association of Healthcare Chaplains and a registered member of the NMC. (Nursing and Midwifery Council) I sit on the National Board of Social Responsibility within the national Church of Scotland and the local boards of mission and ministry.

I am currently one of the editors of the Journal of Health and Social Care Chaplaincy. I am a former editor of Contact: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Pastoral Studies (Contact (Now re-titled Practical Theology) is the leading journal of practical theology within the United Kingdom).I was the founding editor of the Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplains. I sit on the editorial board of various other leading pastoral journals in Britain and the United States including: The Journal of Religion, Disability and Health, Contact, The Scottish Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, The Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy.

Research

Research Overview

The foundation for much of my research and teaching has emerged from my background in nursing, ministry and healthcare chaplaincy. I worked as a nurse for sixteen years initially within the field of mental health and latterly within the area of learning disabilities. I also worked for a number of years as a hospital chaplain, latterly as a community mental health chaplain. It was whilst working in these fields that I began to gain a passion for developing modes of care that are genuinely person centred and which take seriously the significance of theology, spirituality and religion within the processes of healing, healing and community building.

I am an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland with a strong commitment to supporting the work of the church. I am member of Aberdeen Presbytery and currently secretary of Christ's College, which is responsible for the welfare and education of candidates for the ministry of the Church of Scotland.

I have a particular interest in multidisciplinary education and research. At present I teach cross-college courses in the schools of nursing and medicine at the University of Aberdeen. For a number of years I have taught an interdisciplinary course on spirituality and health that involves nursing students, medical students and students from the Arts and Theology. To my knowledge there is no other course like this in the UK. I also teach on spirituality and healthcare to nurses and occupational therapists at Robert Gordon's University in Aberdeen.

I also engage in cross-college interdisciplinary research. An example of this would be our ongoing collaborative research with Professor Steve Heys who heads up the Breast Cancer Unit at Forresterhill Hospital in Aberdeen. We are working on a number of projects exploring the relationship between spirituality and women's experiences of breast cancer.

My research profile is similarly multidisciplinary in its emphasis, and I have published extensively within the area of practical theology, pastoral care, mental health studies, disability theology and nursing.

I am honorary professor of nursing in the Centre for Advanced Studies in Nursing at the University of Aberdeen ( http://www.abdn.ac.uk/nursing/) where I teach the role of the humanities and healthcare, nursing ethics and qualitative research. I supervise PhD students in nursing studies within a variety of areas. I continue to research and publish in the areas of nursing and medicine.

Disability Theology

I have a strong interest in disability issues and in particular the theology of disability. We are currently working on a variety of important projects. We have just completed an Arts and Humanities Research Council fudned project to develop an approach to accessing the spiritual lives of people with advanced dementia. This project is now completed and the materials are beign produced within The Purple Bicycle Project. This is a unique project that will fill a vital gap in our practical and theological knowledge. We are currently working on various projects within the area of disability studies exploring areas such as: dementia, theology and mental health, genetics and disability, the spirituality of people with profound and complex needs, religion and autism.

I have a new book out on dementia: Dementia: Living in the Memories of God and myself and my colleague Dr. Brian Brock have a new reader in disability which came out in 2012: Disability in the Christian Tradition: A reader (Eerdmans 2012). I've also just finished a littel book on mental health in the Parish which I wrote with Jean Vanier: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mental-Health-Inclusive-Church-Resource/dp/0232530661

Pastoral Care

I have a particular interest in the pastoral ministry of the church. This interest emerges from my position as a minister in the Church of Scotland as well as my background in nursing and hospital chaplaincy. I teach courses at postgraduate and undergraduate levels focusing on various aspects of pastoral care and counselling and have a number of publications which explore various dimensions of this area of ministry. I am particularly interested in mental health issues both as they relate to the spiritual dimensions of care offered by religious communities as well as the spiritual care offered by established "secular" mental health services. I also have an interest in the role of the church as a community in the care of marginalised people. I direct the department's MTh program in Practical Theology which provides a unique blend of pastoral, ethical and missional studies designed to enable students to develop vital insights and skills within this area.

Current Research

The School of Practical Theology in Aberdeen has developed a unique prespective which brings together practical theology and combines it creatively with moral theology in a way that is academically rigorous and practically transformative. Our discipline begins and ends with inquiries focused on practices. The ground for this focus is an understanding of faith as a lived entity. Our task is to think through faith not as "belief" but as lived. Thus the primary reference of our theologizing is the lived life in all its contemporary forms. This contrasts with biblical studies focus on texts, systematics focus on doctrines, church history's focus on the history of the community of faith, but relies on these forms of inquiry in understanding what it means for faith to be lived.

Collaborations

The Kairos Forum for people with Intellectual or Cognitive Disabilities

(KFICD) seeks to highlight and respond to the spiritual and religious needs of people with disabilities. Our aim is to facilitate the crafting and empowerment of ‘community of belonging’, both within religious and secular settings. Our expertise will provide specialist services and resources which will enable and empower people with disabilities to experience dignity, respect, care, access and authentic participation within well formed and empathic communities

European Society for Theology and Disability

The European Society for the Study of Theology and Disability seeks to stimulate and support theological reflection on the lives of people with disabilities and their families. It confesses that the Christian Church and its theology often have not used their valuable sources to support such people. It therefore seeks to include people with disabilities in its own activities. It believes that rigorous theological thinking has much to contribute positively to the understanding of social and cultural processes that currently shape their lives. It is particularly concerned with tendencies that target "disability" as a problem to be solved, and that approach it within the framework of liberal individualism and its obsession with consumer choice. The Society brings together people who are committed to support the increasing participation of people with disabilities in Christian communities and in society at large through their research and writing.

Centre for Minsitry Studies

I recently formed teh Aberdeen University Centre for Minsitry Studies. (CMS) The Centre endeavours to be a centre of excellence that seeks to facilitate world class education and training for people involved in Christian ministry at home and internationally. Through developing and nurturing creative and innovative working relationships between the academy and the church, the Centre strives to produce scholarly work and practical training initiatives designed to enable people to think and to practice well.

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

I teach courses within a variety of areas including:

Pastoral care and counselling
The theology of disability
Theology, spirituality and mental health
spirituality, health and healing
The church in a post-modern context
Healthcare ethics
Qualitative research methods.

I teach and supervise students at postgraduate and undergraduate levels within the full range of practical theology.

Publications

Update

External Memberships

Research Overview

Current Research

Collaborations

The Kairos Forum for people with Intellectual or Cognitive Disabilities

European Society for Theology and Disability

Teaching Responsibilities

‘God hasn’t given up on them’: Christian dementia carers’ narratives of experiencing and challenging ‘anticipatory grief’ and ‘social death’

Dementia’s liminality: theological, ecclesiological and research implications

Being Present and Meaningful Engagement for Aged Care Residents Living With Dementia: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Australian Care Worker's Experiences

Disability and Creation

Educating for Inclusive, Caring Communities: What kind of education do clergy and ordinands require in order to include and care for people living with dementia and their carers and supporters?

Faithfully Describing and Responding to Addiction and Pain: Christian “Homefulness” and Desire

Deliver us from evil: a call for Christians to take evil seriously

Empirical Research, Theological Limits, and Possibilities

Christians Hearing Voices: Affirming Experience and Finding Meaning

The Importance of Dialogue for Pastoral Theological Development: Some Reflections on van Holten and Walton’s Theological Method and its Problems with the ‘Timelessness of God’

Christianity and Disability

Re-imagining personhood: dementia, culture and citizenship

Finding Jesus in the Storm: The spiritual lives of people with mental health challenges

Potential Roles of Churches and Ecclesiology for Disability Inclusion

Disability, Vocation, and Prophetic Witness

A timeless God? A Rejoinder to van Holten and Walton

BASS ten years on: A personal reflection

Religious Involvement and Self-Perceived Spiritual Health: A Quantitative Study of Canadian Children with Disabilities

What comes next?: Practical theology, faithful presence, and prophetic witness

Reflections on Suffering and Bipolar Disorder: Three Forms of Suffering

Spiritual care training and the GP curriculum: where to now?

Medicating the Soul: Why Medication Needs Stories

Spiritual Care in General Practice: Rushing in or fearing to tread? An Integrative Review of Qualitative Literature

A Graceful Embrace: Theological Reflections on Adopting Children

GPs and spiritual care: signed up or souled out?: A quantitative analysis of GP trainers’ understanding and application of the concept of spirituality

The Unforeseen Relationship Between Spirituality and Psychiatric Medication: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study

What GPs mean by 'spirituality' and how they apply this concept with patients: a qualitative study

GPs - At home with science and the humanities?

Spirituality, nursing and mental health

Running for Jesus! The Virtues and the Vices of Disability and Sport

Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship

From Inclusion to Belonging: Why ‘Disabled’ Bodies are Necessary for the Faithfulness of the Church

Contextual issues: Health and healing

The Wisdom of L’Arche and the Practices of Care: Disability, Professional Wisdom and Encounterin-community

A Word From the Guest Editors

Unravelling ‘Mental Illness’: What Exactly Are We Talking About?

Theology or therapy? In what sense does depression exist?

Using Our Bodies Faithfully: Christian Friendship and the Life of Worship

Why I nominated French philosopher Jean Vanier for the world’s top religious prize

What’s in a name?: Why people with dementia might be better off without the language of personhood

Spirituality-in-Healthcare: Just Because it May Be ‘Made Up’ Does Not Mean That it is Not Real and Does Not Matter

Spirituality and Health

Mental Health: The Inclusive Church Resource

What the Body Remembers: Theological Reflections on Dementia

Enabling Communities to meet People with Learning Disabilities and respond effectively to their expressed Spiritual and Religious Needs: A Participatory Action Research Approach

Moving Beyond Time: Finding God "In The Past"

Theodicy and End-of-Life Care

Dementia: Living in the Memories of God

Disability in the Christian Tradition: A Reader

Healthcare Spirituality

"Where is your church?": Moving towards a hospitable and sanctified ethnography

Critical reflections on stanley hauerwas’ theology of disability: Disabling society, enabling theology

From Health to Shalom: why the religion and health debate needs Jesus

From Inclusion to Belonging: A Practical Theology of Community, Disability and Humanness

The wisdom of L'Arche and the practices of care: disability, professional wisdom and encounter-in-community

Moving inwards, moving outwards, moving upwards: the role of spirituality during the early stages of breast cancer

Effects of a spirituality training program on the spiritual and psychosocial well-being of hospital middle manager nurses in Korea

A History of Disability in Nineteenth-Century Scotland. By Iain Hutchison. Pp. xi + 386.

Who is the God We Worship?: Theologies of Disability; Challenges and New Possibilities

Moving beyond clarity: towards a thin, vague, and useful understanding of spirituality in nursing care

Living Well and Dying Faithfully: Christian Practices for End-Of-Life Care

Why bother with research ethics?

PATIENCE AND LAMENT: LIVING FAITHFULLY IN THE PRESENCE OF SUFFERING

Religion and Autism: Initiating an Interdisciplinary Conversation

Introduction: What is disability?

Researching the Spiritual: Outcome or Process?

Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness

Researching Spirituality and Mental Health: A perspective from the research

Theology, Disability and the New Genetics: Why science needs the church

Raging with Compassion: Pastoral responses to the problem of evil

Forgetting Whose We Are: Theological Reflections on Personhood, Faith and Dementia

Practical Theology and Qualitative Research

Identity and Resistance: Why spiritual care needs enemies