The nature of being: a thomistic perspective related to health and healing

This study explores the coherence between postmodern perspectives on holistic health and healing and Thomas Aquinas' theory of the nature of being. It elucidates Aquinas' account of the nature of being as encompassing the being of God as act (willing), as goodness and as love; the being of creatures as created, loved and destined for eternal life united with God; and, finally, being as relationality. This concept of the nature of being is then explicated, using quotations from contemporary sources, as providing an explanatory epistemology of postmodern healthcare professionals' rediscovery that ‘being with’ patients and clients is commonly much more conducive to their healing than ‘doing for’ them. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd.