What Is Spiritual Care? Perspectives from Different Professions and Religious Traditions
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
What is spiritual care? Much has been assumed as an answer to this question within particular professional and religious silos. The contributors to this volume offer fresh answers from perspectives of different caregiving professions (medicine, nursing, public health, psychology, pastoral care, and pastoral theology), different religious traditions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism), and different cultural contexts. Certain red threads become apparent: the importance of deep listening, openness to difference, willingness to recognize the importance of spiritual care as practiced in different professions and religions, respect for the inherent dignity of every person, and support for each individual’s unique spiritual journey. At the same time, the diversity of voices makes clear--both by juxtaposition and argumentation--that the hegemony of a mid-twentieth-century white American Protestant “tradition” of “pastoral care” is being reevaluated, contested, expanded, and even decolonized, as voices formerly from the margins are being brought to the center, and the spiritual needs of persons from many different traditions and locations are increasingly being met on their own terms. The cumulative impact of this work emphasizes that spiritual care is finally inseparable from larger efforts toward justice and peacemaking. This is an invaluable resource for healthcare providers, chaplains, and pastoral professionals.
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- Explores spiritual care from diverse professional, religious, and cultural viewpoints
- Identifies shared principles like deep listening and respecting individual spiritual journeys
- Reimagines spiritual care to be inclusive and linked with justice and peacemaking
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- PART 1 | PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS
- 1 Spiritual Care and Medicine
- 2 Spiritual Care from the Perspective of the Medical Profession
- 3 Spiritual Care within Nursing and Midwifery
- 4 Acknowledging the Tragic: Spiritual Care from the Perspective of Public Health
- 5 Spiritual Care from Evolving Psychological Perspectives
- 6 Towards Wholeness: Caring for the Whole Person Through Listening, Reflecting, and Connecting
- 7 Spiritual Care from the Perspective of Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplaincy
- 8 Spiritual Care from the Perspective of Pastoral Theology: Shifting Paradigms
- 9 Spiritual Care from the Perspective of Pastoral Theology: Postcolonial Views
- PART 2 | PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS
- 10 What Is Spiritual Care? An Islamic Perspective
- 11 The Muslim Counseling Helpline (MuTeS): An Example of Spiritual Care from an Islamic Perspective
- 12 Spiritual Care in Light of COVID-19: A Jewish Perspective
- 13 What Is Spiritual Care in Light of Crisis from the Perspective of Orthodox Judaism?
- 14 Understanding Spiritual Care: A Christian View
- 15 Spiritual Care in Light of COVID-19 from an African Christian Perspective
- 16 What Is Spiritual Care from a Christian Perspective? Pastoral Care for Rage and Joy
- 17 Beyond the “Art of Doing Nothing”: Reflections on Indigenizing Clinical Pastoral Education to the Buddhadharma
- Epilogue: Spirituality: Oh, What Is This We Call Spirituality?
This book is a profound and important contribution to the field of spiritual care. With deep insight and sensitivity, it offers multi-disciplinary paths for healing and succor in times of trauma and crisis. With a combination of practical tips, theoretical analysis, and case studies, it is an invaluable read for those working in the pastoral field.
——Sarah Bernstein, Executive Director, Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue
This timely collection of essays on the nature, practice, and promise of spiritual care invites readers into a lively conversation among leading and emerging scholars in an expanding, energized field. Contributors bring fresh perspectives, research, and insights from a variety of professions, disciplines, cultures, and religious traditions. Serious yet accessible scholarship opens new vistas for understanding the human spirit, attending to human suffering, enacting human solidarity, and imagining human possibility. A must-read for seasoned practitioners, students, and anyone who cares about our common humanity.
——Cynthia G. Lindner, Director of Ministry Studies, The Divinity School, University of Chicago
If you are looking for a reading that brings together an authentic understanding of spiritual care in different religious traditions, while illustrating its therapeutic underpinnings, relevance, and power across various professions, then What Is Spiritual Care? is definitely the book for you. The authors persuasively and vividly contextualize meanings and applications of spiritual care across different religions and professions.
——Aid Smajić, Professor of Islamic Spiritual Care, Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Title: What Is Spiritual Care? Perspectives from Different Professions and Religious Traditions
- Authors: Pamela Cooper-White, Claudia Kohli Reichenbach, Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Ivone Gebara
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2025
- Logos Release Date: 2026
- Pages: 208
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Pastoral care; Pastoral theology; Pastoral counseling; Psychology and religion
- ISBNs: 9781666774993, 9781666774979, 1666774979, 9781666774986, 1666774987, 1666774995
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666774993
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2026-01-19T11:52:15Z