Meaning and Natural Life
How Spiritual Care is Redefined in the Secular Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/hscc.38581Keywords:
spirituality, secular, non-religious, nature, careAbstract
Employing the praxis method of theological reflection, this article draws on a spiritual care encounter with a person holding a worldview derived from an empirical approach to the natural world, in order to reflect on the nature of non-religious spirituality and its implications for the spiritual care sector. Non-religious spirituality is examined as a genuine form of spirituality. The hypothesis that the genuine nature of non-religious spirituality necessarily suggests that non-religious people can both receive and provide spiritual care is presented. Healthy secularity is examined as the underlying sociocultural condition for non-religious spiritual care to be recognized in a sector currently dominated by religious assumptions. The study concludes with a call to spiritual care educators and accrediting bodies in the Australian context to begin working toward a secular perspective that is inclusive of non-religious spirituality and spiritual care. The conclusions of the article will have significance for the global spiritual care community, particularly in countries recording increases in populations identifying as non-religious.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics: Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by Subject/2071.0~2016~Main Features~Religion Data Summary~70. Retrieved: 5-11-2018.
Berry, Thomas (1988). The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Bouma, Gary (2006). Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty First Century. New York, Cambridge.
de Chardin, Teilhard (1965) Hymn of the Universe. London: William Collins & Sons.
Carey, Lindsay & Davoren, Ronald & Cohen, Jeffrey (2009). ‘The Sacralization of Identity: An Interfaith Spiritual Care Paradigm for Chaplaincy in a Multi-Faith Context’. College of Health Care Chaplains Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy. February. 15-24.
Damasio, Antonio (2000). The Feeling of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the Making of Consciousness. London: Vintage Books.
Damasio, Antonio (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain. New York: Harvest.
Doehring, Carrie (2015). The Practice of Pastoral Care: A Postmodern Approach. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
Gaita, Raimond (1999). A Common Humanity: Thinking about love & truth & justice. Melbourne: Text Publishing.
Gardner, Fiona (2011). Critical Spirituality: A Holistic Approach to Contemporary Practice. Farnham: Ashgate.
Goldstein, Rebecca Newsberger (2006). Betraying Spinoza: The renegade Jew who gave us modernity. New York: Nextbook.
Hitchens, Christopher (2007). god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. New York: Hachett.
Lucretius, Titus (2014). Of the Nature of Things. William Ellery Leonard (trans.). Available at: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lucretius/l94o/. Viewed: 17-03-2019.
Mannheim, Karl (1936). Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Harvest.
Morowitz, Harold J. (2002). The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nietzsche, F. (1959). ‘Nietzsche Contra Wagner.’ The Portable Nietzsche. Walter Kaufmann (trans.), New York: Penguin: 661–83. Originally published in 1895.
Nussbaum, Martha (1994). The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Puchalski, C et. al. (2014). ‘Improving the Spiritual Dimension of Whole Person Care: Reaching National and International onsensus.’ Journal of Palliative Medicine 17 (6): 642-56.
Rahner, Karl (1974). Theological Investigations Vol IV. London: arton, Longman & Todd.
Russell, Bertrand (1946) History of Western Philosophy. London: George, Allen & Unwin.
Tacey, David (2017) Public Lecture. Available at: https://anchor.fm/stirling-theological-college/episodes/David-Tacey-Encountering-God-in-Aust- Today-e3anc5/a-ab07k9. Accessed: 20-03-2019.
Taylor, Charles (2007). A Secular Age. London: Harvard University Press.
Tillich, Paul (1951). Systematic Theology Vol I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tillich, Paul (1957). The Dynamics of Faith. London: George, Allen and Unwin.
Tillich, Paul (1954). Love, Power, And Justice: Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications. London: Oxford University Press.
Secular Spiritual Care Network (2019). Found at: https://vichumanist.org.au/projects/secular-spiritual-care- network/. Viewed: 24-03-2019.
Schuhmann, Carmen & Damen, Annelieke (2018). ‘Representing the Good: Pastoral Care in a Secular Age.’ Pastoral Psychology. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089- 018-0826-0. Viewed: 24-03-2019.
Schweitzer, Albert (1936). ‘The Ethics of Reverence for Life.’ Christendom (1): 225-39.
Sehee, Joe (2019). Public Lecture: Secular Spiritual Care. (Audio) Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soul- search/joe-sehee,-secular-spiritual-care- network/10883664. Viewed: 17-03-2019.
Spinoza, Baruch (1955). Works of Spinoza Vol II (R.H.M. Elwes [trans.]). New York: Dover Publications. Originally published by George Bell & Sons in 1883.
Spiritual Care Australia (2013). Standards of Practice. Available at: https://www.spiritualcareaustralia.org.au/. Viewed: 22-03- 2019.
