Contemplating the spirituality of scholarship.

Contemplation has been defined as "taking a long loving look at the real." In the realm of the scholarship of nursing and midwifery, the pulls and counterpulls between disease and illness and between patient and person, for example, require that scholars and practitioners develop an understanding of the way their minds work and of the way they come to know. This dialogue takes a (short) loving look at the foundations of spirituality and spiritual development in human consciousness and invites readers to contemplate and appreciate their lives as scholars and practitioners.