Studies in Spiritual Care – serie

The interdisciplinary book series Studies in Spiritual Care (SCC) publishes international research ranging from studies on specific aspects of Spiritual Care to programmatic contributions to the self-understanding of this new practice and research area. The series is of interest to professionals working in the field as well as to students, researchers, and scholars from the fields of medicine, pastoral care, psychotherapy, and social work.

The interdisciplinary book series Studies in Spiritual Care (SCC) publishes international research ranging from studies on specific aspects of Spiritual Care to programmatic contributions to the self-understanding of this new practice and research area. The series is of interest to professionals working in the field as well as to students, researchers, and scholars from the fields of medicine, pastoral care, psychotherapy, and social work.

The need to take the spiritual experience during illness into account is part of a broader trend in Western societies—a fascination with the practical uses of spirituality and its contribution to individual wellbeing, whether through a religious or a humanist tradition. This understanding of spirituality differs from traditional views embedded in religious traditions. This book takes a critical point of view at the biomedical representation of the function of spirituality in care. Medicine reorders notions such as life, death, health, sickness, and spirituality. This process is called here “sapientialization”, i.e. the spiritual experience is expressed and understood under the auspices of and in terms of wisdom. This view tends to identify spirituality and ethics. I propose an alternate understanding of spirituality, grounded on its subversive power. Inspired by the work of the theologian John D. Caputo, it is critical of some problems that are associated with the sapientialization of spirituality in biomedicine, such as the medicalization of spiritual experiences or the instrumentalization of spirituality. It provides an understanding of spirituality that honours both the medical interest in it and its capacity to resist to instrumentalization.

The interdisciplinary book series Studies in Spiritual Care (SCC) publishes international research ranging from studies on specific aspects of Spiritual Care to programmatic contributions to the self-understanding of this new practice and research area. The series is of interest to professionals working in the field as well as to students, researchers, and scholars from the fields of medicine, pastoral care, psychotherapy, and social work.

The interdisciplinary book series Studies in Spiritual Care (SCC) publishes international research ranging from studies on specific aspects of Spiritual Care to programmatic contributions to the self-understanding of this new practice and research area. The series is of interest to professionals working in the field as well as to students, researchers, and scholars from the fields of medicine, pastoral care, psychotherapy, and social work.

Many people are looking for authentic and truthful spiritual experiences. In doing so, they might cross confessional and religious boundaries in order to come to the personal, existential interior of religion. In an interdisciplinary exchange between spiritual care and philosophy, this work examines the spiritual turn and explores the spiritual search and its relevance for everyday life. This work examines this spiritual turn in an interdisciplinary exchange between spiritual care and philosophy. The focus is on describing spiritual experiences from philosophical perspectives and the presence and relevance of spirituality in everyday life. These reflections on spirituality address the connections between self-knowledge and self-transcendence. Together with spirituality, they touch on ethics, the recognition of boundaries, the willingness to cross borders, and spirituality as an element of the physical experience of health and disease. This discourse opens up a therapeutic horizon - especially when the question of meaning arises in life crises. It can provide stimuli for developing spiritual care in science, in practice, and in the context of health services.

This book brings together studies on how congregations have resources which can promote health with a focus on accompanying people with depression as well as how congregations can be sensitized to mental health and the needs of persons living with mental disorders. In this collaboration, a close connection between research-studies was combined with a congregation-based implementation. In addition, a selection of surveys provide deep insights into the interaction between pastoral care, medical health care projects and spiritual care as a new discipline.

This volume contributes to an emerging field that could be referred to as "plural spiritual care and chaplaincy". It's innovative approach brings together contributions from a broad range of contexts and religious traditions and includes empirical work and conceptual explorations. It helps to fill the gap between practices and developments related to plural spiritual care and chaplaincy in the scholarly discourse.

The interdisciplinary book series Studies in Spiritual Care (SCC) publishes international research ranging from studies on specific aspects of Spiritual Care to programmatic contributions to the self-understanding of this new practice and research area. The series is of interest to professionals working in the field as well as to students, researchers, and scholars from the fields of medicine, pastoral care, psychotherapy, and social work.

Christian healthcare chaplains are specialized professionals with a double belonging. They are part of the Christian faith community, and — at the same time – of an inter- and trans-religious professional group in the healthcare sector. This book responds to the tension that arises from this dual belonging and argues that it should be consciously and creatively embraced in a time of change. The increasing complexity and specialization of healthcare, the shift towards outpatient care, mounting economic pressures, the demographic and epidemiological transitions towards chronic and elderly care, and global health crises are profoundly transforming and challenging healthcare chaplaincy. In this volume, leading scholars and practitioners engage with this rapid change as a moment of opportunity. They address the role of Christian healthcare chaplains, and clarify their theological basis, their professional competencies, and the future of their education and training. Together, they articulate a shared vision for the future of Christian healthcare chaplaincy which contributes to a better healthcare by expanding, deepening, and completing medical practice.