Reconsidering Humanist Chaplaincy for a Plural Society: The Implications for Higher Professional Education
Issue: Vol 9 No. 1 (2021) Special Issue: Religious, Spiritual, Pastoral and Secular
Journal: Health and Social Care Chaplaincy
Subject Areas: Healthcare Communication
DOI: 10.1558/hscc.40604
Abstract:
Recent developments in Dutch society and its healthcare system pose new challenges to humanist chaplaincy. Thus far, chaplaincy has been predominantly rooted in institutionalized religion, but it now has to serve a diversity of people who are increasingly secularized with personal ways of worldviewing. Moreover, chaplaincy is increasingly becoming a profession like many others, reducing the focus on its worldviewing competencies. The main question this article addresses is what this implies for the education of chaplains, more specifically for humanist chaplains who are educated on a Master’s level course at the University of Humanistic Studies. Using the concepts of interprofessional learning communities (Stoll & Seashore Louis, 2007) and dialogical professionalism (Jacobs, 2010), two visions are put forward for developing the education of humanist chaplains that might also be relevant for other chaplaincy educational programs.
Author: Gaby Jacobs, Annelieke Damen, Caroline Suransky, Laurens ten Kate
References :
Alma, H. & C. Anbeek (2013). Worldviewing Competence for Narrative Interreligious Dialogue: A Humanist Contribution to Spiritual Care. In: D.S. Schipani (ed.). Multifaith Voices in Spiritual Care. Ontario: Pandora Press. Pp. 149-169.
Bauman, S. (2000). Liquid Modernity. London: Polity Press.
Bernts, T. & J. Berghuijs (2016). God in Nederland (2005-2016) [God in the Netherlands]. Utrecht: Ten Have.
Brookfield, S. (1987). Developing Critical Thinkers. Challenging Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking and Acting. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Cadge, W., Fitchett, G., Haythorn, T., Palmer, P.K., Rambo, S., Clevenger, C. et al (2019). Training Healthcare Chaplains: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling 73 (4) pp. 211-221.
Castoriadis, C. (1997). The Imaginary Institution of Society. Cambridge NJ: MIT Press. (orig. 1987)
Cobb, M. (2007). Change and Challenge: the Dynamic of Chaplaincy. Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy 10 (1) pp 4-10.
Damen, A, Schuhmann, C., Leget, C. & G. Fitchett (2019). Can Outcome Research Respect the Integrity of Chaplaincy? A Review of Outcome Studies, Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 24, pp 1-28.
Deurzen, E. van (2012). Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Sage (3rd ed).
Droogers, A. (2010). Zingeving als spel. Over religie, macht en speelse spiritualiteit [Meaning making as Play: On Religion, Power and Playful Spirituality]. Almere: Parthenon.
Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism: The Third Logic. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Jacobs, G. (2010). Professional Values in Critical Dialogue. Tilburg: Fontys Hogescholen.
Jacobs, G. (in press). The Use of Narratives in Collaborative Research. In: M. Walton, J. Korver, R. Kruizinga & N. den Toom (eds.). Moving the Case to Practice-Based Evidence and Professionalism.
Kate, L. ten (2018). The Play of the World: Social Imaginaries as Transcending Spaces. In: H. Alma & G. Vanheeswijck (eds.). Social Imaginaries in a Globalizing World, Berlin: De Gruyter. Pp. 119-139.
Kelly, E. (2012). The Development of Health Care Chaplaincy. The Expository Times 123 (10) pp. 469-478.
Kunneman, H. (2005). Social Work as Laboratory for Normative Professionalization. Social Work & Society 3 (2) pp. 191-200.
Murdoch, I. (1970). The Sovereignty of Good. London: Routledge.
Nixon, J. (2008). Towards the Virtuous University: The Moral Bases of Academic Professionalism. New York: Routledge.
d’Orville, H. (2015) New Humanism and Sustainable Development. Cadmus 5 (2) pp. 90-100.
Van Praag, J. P. (1978). Grondslagen van Humanisme [Foundations of Humanism]. Amsterdam: Boom.
Roeland, J. (2009). Selfation: Dutch Evangelical Youth between Subjectivation and Subjection. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Rooijen, M. van & G. Jacobs (2019). A professionalisation programme towards children’s risk-taking in play in childcare contexts: moral friction on developing attitudes and collegial expectations. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 27 (6) pp. 741-756.
Schumann, C., & Damen, A. M. (2018). Representing the good: Pastoral care in a secular age.
Pastoral Psychology 67 (4) pp. 405–417.
Swift, C. (2004). How should Health Care Chaplaincy negotiate its Professional Identity? Contact 144 (1) pp. 4-13.
Swinton, J. (2003). A question of identity: what does it mean for chaplains to become healthcare
professionals? Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy 6( 2) pp. 1-15.
Taylor, Ch. (1989). Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, Ch. (2004). Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham: Duke University Press.
Taylor, Ch. (2007). A Secular Age. Boston: Harvard University Press.
UNESCO. (2014) Envisioning a New Humanism for the 21st Century. New Avenues for Reflection and Action. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000227855
VGVZ (2015). Beroepsstandaard Geestelijk Verzorger [Professional Standard Chaplaincy]. Zoetermeer: VGVZ. https://vgvz.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Beroepsstandaard-2015.pdf
Schuhmann, C. & A. Damen (2018). Representing the Good: Pastoral Care in a Secular Age. Pastoral Psychology 67 pp. 405–417.
Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its Implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30 (6) pp. 1024–1054.
Vries, R. de, Berlinger, N. & W. Cadge (2008). Lost in Translation: Sociological Observations and Reflections on the Practice of Health Care Chaplaincy. Hastings Center Report, 38 (6) pp. 23-27.
Wojtkowiak, J. (2017). Sensing the Dead. The Role of Embodiment, the Senses, and Material Objects in the Ritualization of Mourning. In: J. Gordon-Lennox (Ed.), Emerging Ritual in Secular Societies: A Transdisciplinary Conversation. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Pp. 158–171.
Wojtkowiak, J., Knibbe, R. & A. Goossensen (2018) Emerging Ritual Practices in Pluralistic Society: a Comparison of Six Non-Religious European Celebrant Training Programmes, Journal for the Study of Spirituality 8 (1) pp. 77-90.
Yalom, I. (1980). Existential Psychotherapy. London: Basic Books.
Zock, H. (2008). The Split Professional Identity of the Chaplain as a Spiritual Caregiver in Contemporary Dutch Health Care: Are there Implications for the United States? Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling 62 (1-2) pp. 137-9.