Religious and Spiritual Aspects of Human Service Practice

Jane M. Thibault, Ellen Netting, James W. Ellor

Description

Promotes the importance of understanding spirituality and religious belief in health and human service care

Although health and human service professionals traditionally receive extensive training in the emotional and physical aspects of caring for a person, they rarely receive adequate instruction in an area often as essential—spirituality and religious belief. Recognizing the importance of religion to a large share of the population, Religious and Spiritual Aspects of Human Services fills this gap in human services literature. James W. Ellor, F. Ellen Netting, and Jane M. Thibault address the challenge of understanding the client's perspective—even when it involves a religious tradition unfamiliar to the practitioner—and consider the impact of the client's needs on the agency and on public policy.

Sujets

• Éducation
• Identity
• Experience
• Community
• Education
• Social sciences
• Theology
• Clergy
• Worship
• Religious denomination
• Organization
• Religious order
• Social work
• Religious symbolism
• Psychology of religion
• Spiritual practice
• Value (personal and cultural)
• Spiritual transformation
• TEXT
• Religious development
• Religión

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 26 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781643362304
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

U NDERSTANDING R ELIGIOUS AND S PIRITUAL A SPECTS OF H UMAN S ERVICE P RACTICE
Social Problems and Social Issues Leon Ginsberg, Series Editor
U NDERSTANDING R ELIGIOUS AND S PIRITUAL A SPECTS OF H UMAN S ERVICE P RACTICE
James W. Ellor, D.Min., L.C.S.W., B.C.D., C.G.P.
F. Ellen Netting, Ph.D.
Jane M. Thibault, Ph.D.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS
1999 University of South Carolina
Paperback edition published by the University of South Carolina Press, 1999
Ebook edition published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the University of South Carolina Press, 2021
www.uscpress.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the paperback edition as follows:
Ellor, James W.
Understanding religious and spiritual aspects of human service practice / James W. Ellor, F. Ellen Netting, Jane M. Thibault.
p. cm. - (Social problems and issues)
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57003-262-9 (pbk.)
1. Social service-Religious aspects. 2. Social workers-Religious life-United States. 3. Church charities-United States. I. Netting, F. Ellen. II. Thibault, Jane M. (Jane Marie), 1946- III. Title. IV. Series: Social problems and social issues (Columbia, S.C.)
HV530 .E62 1999
361.3 2-dc21 98-40222
ISBN 978-1-64336-230-4 (ebook)
Front cover art: Buddhist prayer beads, Star of David, and Roman Catholic rosary.
This book is dedicated to our families:
To Janet, Lisa, and Maggie, whose patience and love is a gift that I sometimes take for granted, but never want to be without. J.W.E .
To Karl, with whom I have learned to cherish the present and whose kind and compassionate spirit lights my future. F.E.N .
To Ron, a delightful combination of guiding light and Rock of Gibraltar, with a lively dash of humor included. Thanks for the support and love that makes all my work possible. J.M.T .
C ONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I
HISTORICAL INFLUENCES OF RELIGION ON HUMAN SERVICES
Chapter 1
The Influence of Religious Groups on the Historical Development of the Helping Professions
Chapter 2
The Influence of Religion on the Historical Development of Clinical Practice
Chapter 3
Understanding the Diversity of Religious Groups in the United States
PART II
CLINICAL APPLICATIONS AND SELF-AWARENESS
Chapter 4
Religious Diversity and Faith Development
Chapter 5
Spiritual and Religious Concerns in Human Service Practice
Chapter 6
Psychopathology of Religion and Spirituality
Chapter 7
Religion and Spirituality of Human Service Workers
PART III
ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY AND POLICY APPLICATIONS
Chapter 8
Community and Religion in the United States
Chapter 9
Religious Congregations and Human Services
Chapter 10
Religiously Affiliated Human Service Agencies
Chapter 11
Public Policy and Religion in the United States
Epilogue
Appendix: Course Outline
Index
P REFACE
The authors of this book met at the School of Social Service Administration (SSA) at the University of Chicago in the late 1970s. Jim had already graduated from the master s program, was completing his doctorate at Chicago Theological Seminary, and was directing a project at SSA on religious congregations and how they serve the elderly. Ellen and Jane were in the doctoral program at SSA. Ellen was taking the social development (policy) track, and Jane was engaged in the social treatment (clinical) track. What we all had in common was an intense desire to understand the religious and spiritual forces that framed our work and our studies.
Our collaboration began informally. Because Jim was working with Sheldon Tobin (one of our major professors) on the grant project, Shelly saw an opportunity to get us together. Jane and Ellen had bonded out of fear in the first weeks of their studies, but they had not yet met Jim. Shelly kept telling Jane and Ellen that they needed to meet Jim because he had both a religion and social work background. He was absolutely on target, for thus began a friendship as well as a working collaboration. When Ellen decided to write her dissertation on agencies with religious affiliations, both Jim and Jane were helpful and insightful colleagues and supportive friends. Since all three of us were gerontologists, it was natural that we continue our collaboration by presenting papers and conducting workshops in the years that followed our stint in Chicago. By then Jim was still in Chicago, but Jane was in Kentucky and Ellen had gone to Arizona.
What made our collaboration stimulating was that each of us had a different perspective on religion and spirituality. Jim, being an ordained Presbyterian minister (PCUSA) as well as a social worker, held the clerical credentials so essential to understanding the institutional church. Ellen, on the other hand, was a minister s wife who had disdained that role and reacted with skepticism and irreverence in the face of expectations as to what that role implied. If anything it cast her in the role of skeptic and caused her to question the expectations that accompanied any organization of religion. Jane emerged from a Catholic background and is a member of the lay Carmelites. She instituted her own reformation by remaining a member of her Catholic parish while also joining a United Methodist church. Over the years she began conducting spirituality workshops throughout the country.
Interestingly enough, with each of us manifesting our thoughts about religion and spirituality in different ways, we are also located in three diverse settings. Jim teaches in a human service program and is parish associate at a local Presbyterian church; Ellen teaches in a school of social work; and Jane teaches in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in a medical school. Within those settings we often recognize the ways in which religious and spiritual forces influence colleagues across various fields of study and the ways that colleagues react to this influence. What is common to our experiences, however, is that no one seems to react in a nonchalant manner when religion and spirituality are discussed. Some colleagues jump on the self-transcendence bandwagon for a New Age ride; some state their commitments to local churches with which they affiliate. Others shrug their shoulders in dismay or vent anger over the inclusion of spiritual and religious content in their curriculum. Few people seem to have no opinion when it comes to religion and spirituality, and opinions can be polarizing.
Suffice it to say, that even among us there are skeptics (and Ellen has typically played that role), but we all strongly agree that it is absolutely essential to recognize and respect religious and spiritual expressions, even when there is great divergence of opinion. Given our backgrounds, which range from highly clinical to highly macro/policy, we also believe that it is essential to integrate micro and macro practice, and that religion permeates practice at whatever level one intervenes. The new interest among human service professionals in religion tends to be found in micropractice issues of personal spirituality. However, we believe that the impact of this topic runs across the micro to macro continua. That is why we agreed to write this book when Leon Ginsberg called us, now several years ago, after he had seen an article we had published in the Journal of Social Work Education .
It has taken us a long time to write this book because of relocation, job changes, floods, and a multitude of commitments along the way. On the other hand, we believe that the last untapped diversity frontier is that of religion and spirituality. For some (and probably many) reasons, human service professionals have been shy about taking on the complexities of religion and what it means. We cannot solve the problems and issues here, but we hope to raise consciousness about the ways religion and spirituality are enmeshed in our profession.
It seems to us that the need for dialogue about religion and spirituality is increasing rapidly. We will touch upon the professional uncertainty that has arisen as people across disciplines talk about spirituality. We listen to the rhetoric of religious groups engaged in the national political scene and are amazed at how diverse the voices are that proclaim religious values and approaches in this country. We see what many congregations are doing to help the homeless in their communities and are dismayed when churches are burned. Faith-based organizations represent the very fiber of their communities. We recognize that there are people in this country who are quite religious, but not Christian, and that their voices often are not heard. We have seen what can be done in the name of religion and spirituality, and we recognize the potential for tremendous good, for oppressive evil, and for everything in between. We believe that we must begin a dialogue because there are diverse views of religion and spirituality that both bind and divide our country. Human service workers cannot afford to ignore these forces.
James W. Ellor F. Ellen Netting Jane M. Thibault
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the following persons for their support and assistance in writing this book: Leon Ginsberg for his encouragement throughout this project and his critique of chapter 3 , particularly the section on Judaism; Naveeda Athar for her critique of chapter 3 , particularly the section on Islam; Swami Bardinarda for his willingness to offer suggestions for chapter 3 ; Marie Bracki for her contributions to e