Spiritual Care in Our Multifaith World: A Primer on Practice and Theory - Paperback

by Daniel S. Schipani (Author)

Across the helping professions, and as a compassionate response to human suffering, spiritual care is a special process of companioning. Furthermore, all forms of spiritual care always consist in connecting diverse wisdom traditions with care receivers' spiritual resources, longings, and struggles in socio-cultural and contextually pertinent ways. This book thoroughly explicates such understanding with interdisciplinary lenses. Its main purpose is to offer a comprehensive response to the new challenges and opportunities for excellent care presented by increasing cultural and religious-spiritual pluralization. Practical guidelines and case studies are connected with models of spirituality, spiritual toxicity and injury, communication strategies for engaging difference, patterns of caregiving work, and profiles of professional competence. In addition to offering an overarching orientation to the field, the contents of this book invite further reflection, dialogue, and collaboration among clinical pastoral education and psychospiritual therapy students and supervisors; chaplains, pastors and other religious caregivers; counselors; psychotherapists; and others interested in spiritual care in our multifaith world. It thus reflects the shared hope and, indeed, the expectation that spiritual care theory and practice across traditions and disciplines will continue to be enhanced in the days ahead.

Author Biography

Daniel S. Schipani is professor of pastoral care and counseling, emeritus, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and affiliate professor of pastoral and spiritual care, McCormick Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary. His main writings include The Way of Wisdom in Pastoral Counseling (2003); Interfaith Spiritual Care: Understandings and Practices (2009); Multifaith Views in Spiritual Care (2013); Where Are We? Pastoral Environments and Care of Migrants, Intercultural and Interreligious Perspectives (2018); and Spiritual Caregivers in the Hospital: Windows to Competent Practice (2022).