Voices at the Forefront of Care and Justice

The first issue in volume 32 of the Journal of Pastoral Theology includes a special issue on chaplaincy and highlights from the 2021 Society of Pastoral Theology (SPT) Annual Study Conference with the theme ‘Viral Care and Viral Justice in an Apocalyptic World.’ In the chaplaincy special issue, we are pleased to feature ‘The Changing Landscape of Spiritual Care: Implications for the Education of Chaplains,’ guest-edited by Shelly Rambo of Boston University and Cheryl Giles of Harvard Divinity School. These scholars charge pastoral theologians to focus more intently on educating students for the work of a diverse array of chaplaincy roles, including not only military, hospital, prison, and educational chaplaincy, but also chaplaincy that attends to the needs of political protestors, eco-chaplains, and chaplains responding to those devastated by pandemics and natural disasters. Rambo and Giles argue that chaplaincy is becoming the primary professional form of ministries of spiritual and pastoral care in our time. They assert that seminaries and divinity schools must adjust to this new reality, instead of merely tweaking traditional Masters of Divinity programs that privilege the role of Christian church pastors over other religious leaders and over other forms of ministry.

To this end, Rambo and Giles offer us a series of eleven short articles written by chaplaincy practitioners and educators. These authors discuss various issues arising from their work experience. Prominent among these is the need for more chaplains representing diverse religious communities and racial identities. Pointing out the many obstacles that current modes of education and training present for chaplains in minority groups and minority religious groups, these essays challenge pastoral theologians to reflect on pedagogies and practices in light of the changing conditions and situations that practitioners are encountering in this altered professional landscape.

The issues raised here are in some ways not new to us in the field. Kathleen Greider, Tom Beaudoin, and others have challenged the ubiquity of ‘Christianicity’ in models of pastoral and spiritual care.¹ Carrie Doehring has long advocated for the teaching of inter-religious competencies to students in seminaries and divinity schools.² Phillis Sheppard, Chanequa Walker-Barnes, and many other scholars in pastoral theology have been raising important critiques of racism and white supremacy in teaching, research, and pastoral practice for justice and liberation.³ Still, these current articles cry out for change, reminding us that this field that resides at the intersection of theory and practice is strengthened when scholars and teachers listen to the voices of practitioners fully engaged in living ministries of care.

Rambo and Giles point to three needed foci in teaching that are familiar to most who teach pastoral and spiritual care classes: skills in meaning-making, interpersonal competencies, and navigating organizations. If pastoral theologians have been teaching these skills already, what are we missing? Perhaps it is a deeper engagement with practitioners who are in the forefront of chaplaincy work, those who can tell academics how theory and practice play out where the rubber the hits the road. We hope this special issue helps to spark increased dialogue between academics and chaplains in their many particular contexts. These authors remind us, also, of the human toll on chaplains who themselves experience intersectional forms of discrimination, especially when they do not receive ongoing care for themselves in the difficult yet urgent work they take on. While many teach about the importance of self-care, these authors point out, unjust systems can turn even self-care into another burden for practitioners to bear, rather than a source of spiritual sustenance for the weary. The individualist model of self-care does not interrupt the unjust systems that wear people down.

The 2021 SPT conference proceedings section of this first issue in volume 32 includes highlights from our plenary session and two additional research articles. The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, was the plenary speaker. Dr. Theoharis’ lecture addressed the confluence of systemic racism, ecological devastation, systemic poverty, militarism, and Christian nationalism. She challenges pastoral scholars and caregivers to respond with a praxis inspired by ‘a vision of justice and social transformation that comes from listening to the needs and priorities of the 140 million poor and low-income Americans of all races, ages, genders, faith traditions, and geographies.’ Dr. Ryan LaMothe was a respondent to Dr. Theoharis’ plenary address. He observes the problem of human sovereignty over another person and the idea of a sovereign God in the Hebrew scriptures that seems to sanction human atrocities carried out by the Israelites, as consistent problematic themes running through many of the hegemonic practices identified by Dr. Theoharis. Dr. Lamothe suggests a moral revolution that emphasizes a non-sovereign God and a non-sovereign humanity as the governing framework for imagining pastoral praxis in the Anthropocene Age. Dr. Mary Elizabeth Toler offers us clinical and theological reflections on the nature of race, racism, and anti-racism work by analyzing a series of clinical vignettes. She invites us to a renewed posture of curiosity and investigation in the ongoing work of raising white consciousness on matters of culture, ethnicity, and race. Finally, Dr. Armin J. Kummer invites us to reflect on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacted on gender roles and identities. As the global pandemic has undermined how we understand home and work life, and public and private life, Dr. Kummer considers how gender identities based on toxic masculinity can be reconstructed through gender-sensitive pastoral care for more life-giving gender roles and human flourishing.

We are grateful to our guest editors and for each author who took the time to work with us and contribute their important insights, experiences, and ideas through this special issue of the Journal of Pastoral Theology. We look forward to the discussion that will surely ensue.

Notes

1 Greider, “Religious Pluralism and Christian-centrism,” 452–62; Beaudoin, “Why Does Practice Matter Theologically?” 8–32.

2 Doehring, The Practice of Pastoral Care.

3 Sheppard, Journal of Pastoral Theology, 181–94; and Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People.