Abstract
This paper describes the way in which a hospital stay functions as a period of liminality. The opportunities for transformation inherent in such an experience are examined, with special attention given to the role of the hospital chaplain as the “ritual leader” who can help facilitate the movement through liminality and into wholeness.
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References
van Gennep, A.,The Rites of Passage. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1960, p. vii.
Turner, V. W.,The Ritual Process, Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago, Aldine Publishing Company, 1969, p. 94.
Ibid., pp. 95–103.
Moore, R. L., ed.,Anthropology and the Study of Religion. Chicago, Center for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1984, p. 136.
Ibid., p. 139.
Ibid., pp. 139–140.
Droogers, A., “Symbols of Marginality in the Biographies of Religious and Secular Innovators,”Numen, 1980, xxvii, 119. Robert Moore, cited above, adds that dominant symbols for such transitions include chiefly natural objects and the colors red, white, and black.
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Ann Hallstein the M. Div. from Union Theological Seminary in May 1992 and expects to be ordained in the United Church of Christ.
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Hallstein, A.L. Spiritual opportunities in the liminal rites of hospitalization. J Relig Health 31, 247–254 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986276
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986276