A Handbook of Chaplaincy Studies: Understanding Spiritual Care in Public Places

A Handbook of Chaplaincy Studies explores fundamental issues and critical questions in chaplaincy, spanning key areas of health care, the prison service, education and military chaplaincy. Leading authors and practitioners in the field present critical insight into the challenges and opportunities facing those providing professional spiritual care. From young men and women in the military and in custody, to the bedside of those experiencing life's greatest traumas, this critical examination of the role played by the chaplain offers a fresh and informed understanding about faith and diversity in an increasingly secular society. An invaluable compendium of case-studies, academic reflection and critical enquiry, this handbook offers a fresh understanding of traditional, contemporary and innovative forms of spiritual practice as they are witnessed in the public sphere. Providing a wide-ranging appraisal of chaplaincy in an era of religious complexity and emergent spiritualities, this pioneering book is a major contribution to a relatively underdeveloped field and sets out how the phenomenon of chaplaincy can be better understood and its practice more robust and informed.

Chris Swift has been involved in chaplaincy practice, research and publication for over 20 years. In addition to experience of prison chaplaincy and delivering education to armed forces chaplains, he was President of the College of Health Care Chaplains (2004-7) and currently chairs the reference group for the Department of Health’s chaplaincy professional advisers. From a PhD examining the place of health care chaplaincy in the NHS he wrote ’Hospital Chaplaincy in the Twenty-first Century’ (Ashgate) and has contributed several book chapters and published articles on aspects of health care chaplaincy. Chris is the professional lead for the MA in Health & Social Care Chaplaincy offered at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Mark Cobb is a Senior Chaplain and a Clinical Director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and holds honorary academic posts at the University of Liverpool and the University of Sheffield. His interest in the theory and practice of healthcare chaplains has resulted in publications including The Hospital Chaplain’s Handbook (Canterbury) and he teaches on a range of programmes for healthcare professionals including the MA in Health & Social Care Chaplaincy at Leeds Metropolitan University. Mark’s academic work spans palliative care, ethics and practical theology and he has published authored and co-authored works on subjects including healthcare ethics, chaplaincy, end of life care and spirituality. He is the lead editor and contributing author of The Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare (Oxford University Press).

Andrew Todd is Director of the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies, a partnership between Cardiff University and St Michael’s College, involved in developing research into chaplaincy, as well as delivering educational and professional development programmes to chaplains (including the Cardiff MTh in Chaplaincy Studies). In 2011, with Dr Lee Tipton, Andrew delivered the research report, ’The Role and Contribution of a Multi-Faith Prison Chaplaincy to the Contemporary Prison Service’.