Transforming Chaplaincy Book Series

Series Editors: George Fitchett, Cheryl Holmes, Steve Nolan, and Anne Vandenhoeck

Pickwick Publications: an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers (wipfandstock.com)

Contemporary spiritual care, as practiced in healthcare contexts, is very different from the way many healthcare professionals and patients perceive it. Two factors are responsible for effecting this change. 

First, spiritual care is plural. The days are gone when spiritual care was the sole domain of religious clergy. Representation of a variety of faith traditions is now the norm in chaplaincy teams, and an increasing number of professional chaplains identify as religiously unaffiliated. In addition, the concept of generalist/specialist lends the idea that every healthcarer has a responsibility to care for the spiritual needs of their patients. 

But healthcare itself has changed. Since the turn of the century, the culture of evidence-based practice has become part of the fabric of contemporary healthcare. In part, improvements in medicine and healthcare practice have driven that cultural change. But allied to improved medicine, health economics are such that interventions have not only to be effective, they have to be cost-effective. Spiritual care is no exception.

These dynamic factors are transforming chaplaincy. Chaplaincy is now a plural profession and empirical research into chaplaincy and spiritual care is growing year on year. However, considered reflection on the issues raised by chaplaincy’s altered context has not kept pace with the changes affecting the profession. 

The Transforming CHAPLAINCY series aims to thoughtfully address strategic gaps in the literature, in ways that are relevant to both healthcare chaplains and other spiritual care practitioners. Edited by an international team that has wide expertise in research, practice and policy development, the Transforming CHAPLAINCY series is planned to include, among other topics: 

• Spiritual Needs Assessment
• Spiritual Care Interventions
• Humanistic Chaplaincy
• Theories of Spiritual Care Practice
• Chaplaincy Leadership and Management
• Chaplain Competencies

Titles are planned to include book-length treatments of a topic by single authors, as well as edited collections of research-informed papers, written by academics and spiritual care practitioners. All the topics covered will be directly relevant to chaplaincy and spiritual care practice. 

The Series Editors welcome inquiries about book proposals.

George Fitchett (george_fitchett@rush.edu), Cheryl Holmes (ceo@spiritualhealth.org.au), Steve Nolan (stevenolan@PAH.org.uk), Anne Vandenhoeck (anna.vandenhoeck@theo.kuleuven.be).