Spesialprest i livssynsåpent samfunn

Abstract

Society’s openness to a variety of life stances has had an impact on the fundamental conditions of chaplaincy services within public institutions such as the healthcare system, correctional facilities, the military, and higher education. Both chaplaincy itself and chaplains' self-regard are affected by the gap between two ‘employers’: the Church on the one hand, and the social institutions in which chaplains serve, on the other – benefiting, for example, hospital patients, prison inmates, university students, employees, and their relatives.

How do chaplains work within these institutions? How can theology be a resource for chaplaincy and the institutions that employ chaplains’ services in a new and pluralistic cultural context? What is the relationship between chaplaincy and life stance and caring-giving service? These questions were the starting point for this book. The Chaplain in Society Today offers new insight into a professional field keeping pace with rapid development in the field, and provides historical, theoretical and experience-based contributions to understanding.