History and Identity of the Care of Souls

This course explores the history and identity of what is historically called the care of souls, and currently is practiced in spiritual care in hospitals and other health care institutions, prisons, chaplaincy, and congregations. The first half of the course explores a series of "snapshots" of the historical foundations and classic texts from the Christian tradition, including Biblical warrants and early church practices, self-reflexivity, the rise of religious institutions of care, Roman Catholic sacramental vs Protestant life-support approaches, social gospel vs. clinical trajectories, clerical vs. lay participation, and correlation of theories and practices of faith traditions with those of the human sciences. The second half of the course explores contemporary issues in the care of souls in the Canadian context, including challenges from narrative, postmodern, postcolonial, ecumenical, interfaith, and institutional perspectives, based on the particular interests of students in the class.