Addressing Religion in Secular Healthcare: Existential Communication and the Post-Secular Negotiation

Aida Hougaard Andersen,Ricko Damberg Nissen

doi:10.3390/rel13010034

Abstract

This article aims to understand why religion has proven difficult to address in secular healthcare, although existential communication is important for patients’ health and wellbeing. Two qualitative data samples exploring existential communication in secular healthcare were analyzed following Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, leading to the development of the analytical constructs of ‘the secular’ and ‘the non-secular’. The differentiation of the secular and the non-secular as different spheres for the individual to be situated in offers a nuanced understanding of the physician–patient meeting, with implications for existential communication. We conceptualize the post-secular negotiation as the attempt to address the non-secular through secular activities in healthcare. Employment of the post-secular negotiation enables an approach to existential communication where the non-secular, including religion, can be addressed as part of the patients’ life without compromising the professional grounding in secular healthcare. The post-secular negotiation presents potential for further research, clinical practice, and for the benefit of patients.

Highlights

Religion has proven difficult in addressing the existential communication in Western secular healthcare, research has found it important for patients’ health and wellbeing (Brémault-Phillips et al 2015; Dillard et al 2021; Koenig et al 2012)
The theme establishes the presence of what the informants saw as two different spheres, namely that which was grounded in the secular societal discourse of healthcare and that which was not
The current study’s employment of the constructs of ‘the secular’, ‘the non-secular’, and ‘the post secular negotiation’ offer a nuanced understanding of why physicians argue religion to be private and difficult to address: grounded in the secular societal discourse healthcare, the physicians were challenged in existential communication when meeting religious patients in the consultation, since religious patients employ both secular and non-secular activities and move between the two spheres according to relevance

Summary

Introduction

Religion has proven difficult in addressing the existential communication in Western secular healthcare, research has found it important for patients’ health and wellbeing (Brémault-Phillips et al 2015; Dillard et al 2021; Koenig et al 2012). Scandinavian countries are often defined as highly secular countries, creating a view of the inhabitants as holding primarily secular values and approaches to the existential dimensions of life (Zuckerman 2008). In opposition to this view, studies of Scandinavians show a more complex picture of the relationship among secular, spiritual, and religious values, and ways to make meaning in life (la Cour and Hvidt 2010; DeMarinis 2008; Sørensen et al 2019). We take a social constructionist approach, and understand religion to be dependent on specific cultural and social contexts (Beckford 2003) as beliefs, experiences, and practices developed over time within a community and perceived to have a sacred character in relation to any form of transcendence (Koenig et al 2012; Pargament et al 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion