Negotiating Religious Differences

The Strategies of Interfaith Chaplains in Healthcare

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2287583
AutoresW Cadge (0000-0003-1713-5449, Department of Sociology Brandeis University, autor correspondente), Emily Sigalow (Department of Sociology Brandeis University)
Ano2013
Volume52
Fascículo1
Páginas146-158
Data de publicação2013-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-8294 • E-ISSN: 1468-5906
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jssr.12008
OpenAlexW2172215529
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas44
Referências citadas39

Chaplains in healthcare increasingly work in interfaith roles with patients and families from a range of religious and spiritual backgrounds. Some move with ease between their own religious backgrounds and those of the individuals with whom they work. Others encounter tensions as their status as a person of faith comes into conflict with their status as an interfaith chaplain. We explore the two main strategies-neutralizing and code-switching-chaplains at one large academic medical center use when working with patients and families whose religious and spiritual backgrounds are different from their own. Through training in clinical pastoral education and experiences on the job, chaplains learn to neutralize (use a broad language of spirituality that emphasizes commonalities rather than differences) and to code-switch (use the languages, rituals, and practices of the people with whom they work). To the extent that the strategies evident here are present among chaplains in a broader range of institutional settings, they suggest a kind of spiritual secularism or broad approach to meaning makings that may be facilitated by interfaith chaplains in a range of settings

Faith · Health care · Meaning (existential) · Negotiation · Pastoral care · Political science · Psychotherapist · Public relations · Religious organization · Secularism · Social science · Sociology · Spiritual care · Spirituality · Theology · Work (physics) · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology