Browsing by Subject "Pastoral care"

This thesis will examine hospital chaplaincy and its role within the changing paradigm of population health by addressing the question of what chaplaincy looks like beyond the walls of the hospital. The thesis will include several moves that account for the development of the profession and possible areas of growth in dialogue with public health and behavioral health. The first move is historical. This section will cover the development of chaplaincy at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and its relationship to counseling, community engagement, and accrediting bodies. It will also discuss the formation of FaithHealth as both a divisional identity as part of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and a distinct department of community engagement. The second move will be to present the role of chaplain manager within the division of FaithHealth of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and its pioneering work of integrating chaplaincy, community engagement, and licensed counseling. The third move will describe the function of chaplain managers during the coronavirus pandemic and the structure that allowed the model to adapt to a changing landscape. The final move will evaluate the role of chaplain managers from the individuals that assume these roles and leaders within the medical system and provide a snapshot into future possibilities for this role and innovative ministry opportunities.The purpose of this work is threefold: 1) to provide a model for integrating spiritual care, behavioral health and population health into the role of chaplain manager; 2) to advocate for the profession’s continued expansion by adapting chaplaincy’s skillsets in community health; 3) to begin a conversation about modifying educational and professional bodies to best prepare graduates and professionals for the changing landscape of healthcare. Such a model could provide clearer vocational pathways for dual degree divinity school programs and forge new partnerships between public health and divinity schools. Furthermore, given the reinstated associational connection between pastoral counseling and clinical pastoral education, this model of integration could create new associational paths to certification. The connection between pastoral counseling and chaplaincy that thrived before managed care will be revisited as it shows different, yet complementary, fruits of deeply rooted spiritual care.

This dissertation studies Monsignor Óscar Romero’s theological, hermeneutical, and pastoral approach to preaching to the suffering and wounded people of El Salvador from 1977 to 1980 while he was the Archbishop of San Salvador. At that time, the marginalization, oppression, persecution, and exploitation of the poor people of El Salvador at the hands of the government, the oligarchy, the armed forces, and paramilitary groups was unbearable. The blood of the poor people and religious leaders who defended the poor, including his friend Rutilio Grande, was running through the mountains, lakes, and beaches of El Salvador, and Archbishop Romero could no longer ignore it. Through his homilies, he gave voice to their trauma and denounced the oppressive systems and structures that were at the root of their suffering. Inspired by the Holy Spirit and guided by his sentir with God, the people, and the Magisterium of the Church, Romero became the Spirit-guided and empathetic pastor the people needed. Through his homilies, Romero provided a “sanctuary space” where these suffering and wounded people could find refuge, hope, and possibility. The dissertation examines the ways in which Romero’s theological, hermeneutical, and pastoral framework can inform sermons that speak to suffering and traumatized people, such as undocumented Hispanic/Latinx immigrants in the U.S.

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This thesis outlines how a Christian leader can guide the faithful to live their life rightly in light of true stories of God, self, Church, and Creation. Each of us perceives, contextualizes, and interprets our experiences in life through our social imaginary, an interpretive framework that is narratively and communally formed. This social imaginary can be distorted by false stories that corrupt our understanding of what gives meaning to our lives, leading us to embrace destructive desires and no longer live in harmony with God’s intention for us. To unlearn such false stories and to re-form our social imaginary in harmony with God’s true stories is the work of narrative repentance, a cooperative effort of priest, parishioner, and God to heal our souls from the corrosive spiritual affliction of sin. Narrative repentance encompasses the human work of purifying our social imaginary from false stories and the hoped-for divine work of revealing to us the true story of our soul through divine illumination and communion with the life of the Holy Trinity. Understanding narrative repentance as a pastoral principle that underlies all pastoral work impacts the Christian leader’s effective practice of preaching, teaching, and worship. Most notably, an understanding of narrative repentance allows a Christian leader to enter the sacred space of parishioners’ social imaginaries and collaborate with them in unlearning false stories of God, self, Church, and Creation, and in adopting the true stories that may free them from captivity to their distorted desires and thus allow them to live freely in the world as witnesses to God’s love and the joy of life in His Kingdom.