Hindu College Chaplains and Faith Development Frameworks

This paper examines the relationship between Hindu college chaplains and the students they serve through the lens of three models of faith development: one arising from a study of Muslim-American students (Peek, 2005); a second based largely on research conducted with Christian students (Parks, 2019); and a third that borrows from a Hindu framework (Gosvamin, 2003) that I seek to re-interpret here. Drawing from my doctoral research on Hindu student life in higher education and my lived experience as a Hindu college chaplain, I seek to juxtapose the stories of the Hindu student /chaplain relationship with these three faith development models. I hope to shed light on an under-studied, marginalized, and minoritized religious community within our field, as well as  suggest lessons that might be applicable to our evolving understanding of chaplaincy more generally.