The nature of the role and function of the university chaplain is as much determined by educational considerations as theological ones. While there is an almost essential marginality to chaplaincy work, it is safeguarded from any sense of irrelevancy by sharing in the university's central concern with human development. A study of the factors involved in student development reveals its holistic nature. Spiritual development has its own particular place in the developmental process. The pattern of spiritual development has many parallels with other aspects of development more obviously encountered in a university setting. Research on student development has insights to offer for the expansion of chaplaincy work. Consideration of the traditional models of chaplaincy reveals their failure to take adequate account of the educational implications. A new and adequate model of chaplaincy requires educational as well as theological foundations. Such thinking results in a threefold approach to chaplaincy work centering on ministry to the institution, to the individual and to the Christian community; an approach which is responsive yet innovative, flexible and transient, largely unstructured, but with a consequent freedom for experiment.

This thesis argues that since in our increasingly secularised culture one of the very few direct points of contact between the Church of England and the young is the ministry of school chaplains, theirs is a vital ministry for the Church and its future. The study described in the thesis researched school chaplaincy in Church of England secondary schools to establish what chaplains do, how they understand their ministry and how school students themselves respond to chaplaincy. Originating in the researcher’s professional role in support of school chaplains, the research was undertaken on a multi-method basis. Initial scoping interviews were undertaken with school chaplains and headteachers in a range of schools. A full literature review located school chaplaincy within the conceptual contexts of missiology, ministry and chaplaincy. In-depth interviews with school chaplains explored their self-understanding as ministers. A national, internet-based survey of all contactable school chaplains was undertaken to explore issues identified earlier in the study, and a series of focus-group interviews was undertaken with senior school students. The research revealed that chaplains perceive little awareness within the Church of England of the missional significance of their ministry, although individual chaplains emerged as highly-motivated spiritual professionals committed to the pastoral welfare of their communities, and with a strong sense of their mission as ‘God people’. From a wide variety of ecclesial and personal backgrounds and working in very different school contexts, chaplains have multiple, significant functions which are well understood by school students, and exercise a ‘ministry of presence’. The research evidence highlights the need for greater recognition of the ministry of school chaplains and for structures of support and development to resource this vital ministry. The thesis concludes with an outline of policy proposals for the Church in the light of the recent development of a new ‘para-chaplaincy’.

No description available.

This thesis investigates the recent growth of chaplaincy roles in community contexts. A gap in knowledge existed regarding how and why these roles were emerging at this time. The purpose of the research was to generate new insight into the significance of the growth in and practice of chaplaincy in community contexts for the mission and ministry of the church in England and thus to contribute to knowledge, policy and the development of best practice. The research adopted a case study approach. It was designed as a qualitative comparative case study of the emergence of chaplaincy roles in three contrasting geographical contexts of ministry. Data were collected by interviews, observation and documentary analysis providing rich descriptions and multiple perspectives on what was happening. A cross-case analysis identified three main themes from the data. These themes were used as the basis for proposing the significance of the phenomenon. The findings demonstrate that chaplaincy roles are emerging as a missional response to the challenge of engaging with the whole of society presented to the church by a changing culture. It also demonstrates the current lack of conceptual clarity about what chaplaincy is and the consequent lack of chaplaincy representation within the missiological and ministerial discourses of the institutional church. The study concludes that chaplaincy is of central significance to the mission and ministry of the church given that chaplains are located in the social structures of society alongside people whom the churches find it increasingly difficult to encounter. It offers the proposition for others to test, that if chaplaincy is to have a voice in church discourses and if sustainable best practice is to be developed, the identity and integrity of chaplaincy as a genre of ministry need to be described. The new knowledge generated by the research provides a basis for such a description, for the development of the researcher’s practice and for making a contribution to church policy and practice.

abstract: ABSTRACT Over 700 Navy Chaplains served with Marine Corps units in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972. With an average age of 37, these chaplains were often twice the age of the young men with whom they served. More than half were veterans of World War II and/or the Korean Conflict. All were volunteers. The pathways these clergymen took to Vietnam varied dramatically not only with the Marines they served, but with one another. Once in Vietnam their experiences depended largely upon when, where, and with whom they served. When the last among them returned home in 1972 the Corps they represented and the American religious landscape of which they were a part had changed. This study examines the experiences of Navy chaplains in three phases of the American conflict in Vietnam: the assisting and defending phase, 1962-1965; the intense combat phase, 1966-1968; and the post-Tet drawdown phase, 1969-1972. Through glimpses of the experiences of multiple chaplains and in-depth biographical sketches of six in particular the study elucidates their experiences, their understandings of chaplaincy, and the impact of their service in Vietnam on the rest of their lives. This work argues that the motto the Chaplains School adopted in 1943, “Cooperation without Compromise,” proved relevant for clergy in a time when Protestant-Catholic-Jew were the defining categories of American religious experience. By the early 1970s, however, many Navy chaplains could no longer cooperate with one another without compromising their theological perspective. This reality reflected America’s shifting religious landscape and changes within the Chaplains Corps. Thus, many chaplains who served in Vietnam may well have viewed that time as bringing to a close a golden age of service within the Navy’s Chaplains Corps. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2015

This dissertation considers the changes the chaplaincy underwent during the period between the Vietnam and Gulf wars. It begins with an exposition of the Protestant history in American understandings of religion, and how this legacy had informed earlier iterations of religious inclusion in the U.S. military and the work of its chaplains. With this history in mind, the dissertation focuses in on a Department of the Army publication, the Military Chaplains’ Review, a professional journal that published essays by active chaplains and civilian academics and professionals from 1972-1992. The dissertation uses the Military Chaplains’ Review to explore the ways these changes were institutionalized in the language and culture of the military chaplaincy. These changes coalesced around the Katcoff v Marsh case (1985) in which the chaplaincy was brought to court with allegations that it violated the constitutional protection of the separation of church and state. This dissertation shows how this case helped solidify the changes the chaplaincy was already undergoing, which included an emphasis on the importance of the religiosity of those in the armed forces as a form of personal spirituality. The case was also part of a larger legal shift in U.S. courts toward an emphasis on the free exercise of religion over the separation of religion from public life. This dissertation makes clear that the Katcoff case crystallizes these changes within the chaplaincy and contributes to this shift in first amendment jurisprudence. / Religion

Die Arbeit fragt zentral nach dem Lebenskundlichen Unterricht, der 1959 als freiwillige berufsethische Unterweisung in der Bundeswehr der BRD eingeführt wurde und seither 2011 verpflichtend für alle Soldatinnen und Soldaten der Bundeswehr ist. Hierzu wird die historische Entwicklung des Lebenskundlichen Unterricht der Bundeswehr dargestellt um anschließend nachzuzeichnen, welche religiösen Faktoren Grundlage und welche religiösen Akteure für dessen Konzeption involviert waren. Da mit dem Lebenskundlichen Unterricht in einem säkularen Bereich (dem Militär als staatlicher Institution) durch Vertreter einer religiösen Glaubensgemeinschaft (hier kath./evang. Militärgeistliche), eine überkonfessionelle und mittlerweile verpflichtende Ethikausbildung durchgeführt wird, beschreibt diese Arbeit ein weiteres Spannungsfeld von Staat und religiösen Akteuren im Kontext der religionswissenschaftlichen Forschung um Säkularität.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Acadia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Acadia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

American college and university chaplaincy has historically reflected the spiritual demographic of college students in each progressing generation. This project explores the history of American college chaplaincy, the current spiritual demographic of millennial emerging adults, and proposes that college chaplains embrace the arts to creatively meet the needs of the diverse religious and nonreligious students populating today’s college campuses. Grounded in research which reveals that emerging adults widely affirm participation in the arts as spiritual practice, the project proposes three aspects of emerging adult spirituality as starting points for situating the arts as central to chaplaincy.  By recognizing the spectra between process and product, the secular and sacred, and word-based and experiential learning, college chaplains will be effective in engaging the spiritual needs of millennials with meaning and purpose.