Positioning for the journey -- On being and becoming a scholar -- Theory: metaphors, symbols, definitions -- From can't to Kant: barriers and forces toward theoretical thinking -- On the way to theoretical nursing: stages and milestones -- Nursing theory: mirror, microscope, or telescope -- Theory development: sources, resources, and paradoxes -- Strategies for concept development -- Strategies for theory development -- Developing middle range and situation-specific theories: exemplars -- A model for evaluation of theories: description, analysis, critique, testing, and support -- On nursing clients -- On interactions -- On human being-environment interactions -- On nursing therapeutics -- The discipline of nursing: a perspective, a domain, and definitions -- Our syntax: an epistemological analysis -- Development and progress: theories and challenges -- Historical writings in theory -- Historical and current theory bibliography.