Program Unit In-person November Annual Meeting 2025

Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Unit

Call for Proposals

The Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Unit gathers scholars, educators, researchers, and spiritual care providers to explore chaplaincy in both traditional and emerging settings. We welcome papers from a variety of perspectives and locations.  In 2025 we are particularly interested in: 

Innovations at the Liberatory Edges
What does spiritual care look like in spaces and climates of unfreedom?  The AAR Presidential theme of “Freedom,” and the meeting location of Boston, where Rev. Howard Thurman (whose non-violent, interfaith, interracial vision of peace was inspired by Gandhi) was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University prompt us to ask: How can chaplains intervene when lives are at risk, recognition of common humanity and dignity are lost, species extinction accelerates, and persons of color disproportionately suffer imprisonment, deportation, and inadequate healthcare? What spiritual and moral voices of justice, compassion, or love offer methods and vision for what spiritual care may be? 

Innovations at the Professional Frontiers 
How are changes across political, legal, educational, and economic landscapes – from licensing for spiritual care, to psychedelic research and regulations, to clinical pastoral education outcomes, and uses of “religion” vis a vis freedom, democracy, and the First Amendment  – impacting the fields of spiritual care and chaplaincy? What do we need to be aware of on the horizon, and what are individuals and institutions adding to their toolkits?

Innovations in Perspectives – Sourcing Wisdom and Care from the Margins of the Field Muslim, Hindu, Humanist, Pagan, and Buddhist, “minority” chaplains are shifting from the privately undertaken work ‘internal translation’ to navigate and spiritually negotiate educational and clinical spaces toward translating publicly their sourcing from their canonical texts, foundational teachings, or orienting systems into contributions to contemporary chaplaincy praxis. What does it sound like for non-Judeo-Christian Spiritual Care providers to also meet educational outcomes, professional standards of care, and engage in ‘theological’ reflection on their work, in their own words?

Co-sponsored session with SBL on prison chaplaincy focused on Sarah Jobe’s new book No God Forsaken Place: Prison Chaplaincy, Karl Barth and Practicing Life in Prison (Forthcoming from T&T Clark in the Spring of 2025)  (contact Aaron Klink aaron.klink@duke.edu )

Co-sponsored session with Buddhism in the West and/or Buddhist Critical Constructive Reflection: panel, roundtable, or paper proposals welcome, related broadly to intersections of Buddhist thought, practice, communities, texts, and research methods with pastoral theories, professional practices, and contexts of spiritual care/chaplaincy, or specifically, Buddhist traditional and secularized practices and texts that demonstrably benefit chaplains and their care recipients. (contact: Leigh Miller, program@maitripa.org)

We welcome papers on any topic related to chaplaincy and spiritual care including but not limited to: training and educational pathways for work in these fields, the interfaith aspects of chaplaincy and spiritual care, models for interfaith spiritual care that emerge out of a specific religious, theological, or historical tradition, research on chaplaincy and spiritual care in a variety of settings including prisons, hospitals, the military, universities, and businesses, and expanding to political movements and other growing sectors for chaplaincy, navigating difference in spiritual care along lines of race, sexuality, gender identity, class, religious tradition, and experience. The above topics are simply a glimpse at the wide breadth of possible topics. Our unit is interested in all cutting-edge research and critical reflection on the fields of chaplaincy and spiritual care from both scholars and practitioners.

We remain open to other papers or roundtable proposals on chaplaincy in all its forms and settings as well.  

Statement of Purpose

Chaplaincy is becoming more and more central to the religious/spiritual experiences of individuals and communities in the world. Shifts in religious leadership, religious/spiritual affiliation, and theological education are all occurring at a rapid pace; this unit helps shape AAR as the primary academic home of these discussions. This unit is not only academic in nature; its work is consonant with the AAR’s commitment to the public application of scholarship taking place within the Academy. This unit gathers researchers, educators, and broad-minded practitioners to break down the barriers between these siloed communities and draws them into a common conversation on how best to meet individuals’ and communities’ spiritual needs today. Doing so requires: • translating the research needed to support the work of accompanying individuals through growth, change, and struggle; • investigating how chaplaincy provision is shaped by the people it is offered to and the institutions within which it is provided; • asking how chaplains can be more effectively present in settings currently lacking spiritual care providers for those in need and how those chaplains can respond most effectively to the increasingly diverse religious landscape. The mission of Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care is to improve how chaplains are trained, how they work with diverse individuals (including those with no religious or spiritual backgrounds), and how chaplaincy and spiritual care coheres as a professional field.

Chair Mail Dates
Aaron Klink, Duke University aaron.klink@duke.edu - View
Leigh Miller, Maitripa College program@maitripa.org - View
Steering Member Mail Dates
Feryal Salem fsalem@aicusa.edu - View
Joshua Morris, Union Presbyterian Seminary joshtmo@gmail.com - View
Philip Lindholm mail@Philiplindholm.com - View
Richard X, Fordham University rlucas9@fordham.edu - View
Tara Flanagan taraelizabethflanagan… - View
Review Process: Participant names are visible to chairs but anonymous to steering committee members until after final acceptance/rejection
The Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Unit is committed to inclusion. Successful pre-arranged sessions or panel proposals will demonstrate diversity, such as diversity of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, theoretical or research methods, academic and/or professional sector and rank in the proposal.