The Inevitable Conflict Between Religious and Social Work Values

Abstract

There exists considerable conflict between the current social work worldview and that espoused by traditional Christianity. While the conflict is most evident in specific definitions of general social work values, innate differences in foundational assumptions of competing philosophical perspectives make such conflict inevitable. An attempt to utilize pluralism in two forms to reconcile differences while somewhat successful is inherently incomplete. The failure of pluralistic solutions is primarily due to the issue of exclusivity. New philosophical principles need to be explored and applied to the problem of competing and exclusive worldviews if social work is to advance developing a comprehensive value base

Keywords:

• social work philosophy
• exclusivism
• social work values
• value conflict
• worldviews