In an age in which medical personnel and patients alike unavoidably focus their attention on issues of cost and competition, a sophisticated book on the spiritual dimension of health care is a welcome diversion.Hospital Ministry: The Role of the Chaplain Today, edited by Lawrence E. Holst, is such a book. Holst and his cocontributors, members of the Division of Pastoral Care of Chicago's Lutheran General Hospital, have created a volume that admirably captures both the experiential and conceptual dimensions of the work of the hospital chaplain. As such, this book serves equally well as an introduction to pastoral care for medical personnel, patients, and clergy and as an important addition to the professional literature of the pastoral care field. The ideological centerpiece of the book is Holst's definition of "human ecology" as "the understanding and care of human beings as whole persons in light of their relationship to God,
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Rabbi Amy Eilberg (1986) studied this question.