Attached Paper Annual Meeting 2024

That Professional Spiritual Care May Be Just: Comparative Religious Ethics and Chaplain Formation

Papers Session: Ethics and Advocacy
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

Convinced of the value of Comparative Religious Ethics as a framework both for conveying foundational concepts and for nurturing multireligious fluency, an ethicist with deep experience in chaplaincy education presents an approach to ethics instruction for professional spiritual caregivers that is informed by interreligious studies, comparative theology, and post-colonial methods and concerns. It is a model through which chaplains-to-be learn best practices of comparison-making as they broaden and deepen their understanding of worldviews and ethical theories beyond their own. At least as importantly, it is a model that facilitates the understanding of the interconnectedness of individual and systemic issues that impede equity; hence it develops competencies that enable spiritual care to be provided justly. Among its goals is to ensure that, when confronted with calls to serve as advocates, chaplains be well equipped to know whether, when, and how to respond.