Nolan, a palliative care chaplain who teaches in chaplaincy studies at St. Michael's College, Llandaff, at Cardiff U., UK, explains how chaplains can provide spiritual care to people at the end
of life by guiding them on the path between hope and despair. He suggests that spiritual care can be rethought in terms of presence and identifies a critical point in the development of hope,
the point where a person may either slip into despair or find their hope transformed into hopefulness, and describes four "moments" in his theory of the chaplain as a "hopeful presence": as an
evocative presence, which includes accepting transference, and an accompanying, comforting, and hopeful presence. He considers what it means to be present as a person who knows he or she is
dying, and what it can mean for healthcare staff to face anxieties raised by working with them. Annotation 穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
