Abstract
In religiously pluralized societies, caregivers frequently care for patients or clients with a religious, spiritual, or secular orientation that differs from their own. Empirical studies exploring the implications of this faith diversity for spiritual care interactions between caregivers and clients are scarce. Some literature suggests that similarities in faith orientation between caregivers and clients relate to better professional caring relationships than encounters with dissimilar faith orientations, while other studies suggest that faith similarities do not relate, or relate only under certain conditions, to the way in which professional caring relationships are perceived. This study supports the second line of thought. Based on a survey among 209 clients and 45 chaplains in hospitals in the Netherlands, it shows that clients in faith-concordant encounters evaluate the spiritual care encounter just as positively as do clients in faith-discordant encounters. This is in line with broader trends of secularization and blurring of boundaries between the religious, spiritual, and secular domains.
Highlights
Diversity is often framed—in scientific literature and in popular debates alike—as something that is challenging, especially when it comes to religious diversity (e.g., Becci & Roy, 2015; Brown & Brown, 2011; Fawcett & Noble, 2004)
This situation led us to question how to think of religion and religious differences in interactions where a person’s religious, spiritual, or secular (R/S) orientation is relevant, such as in spiritual care interactions in hospitals—an “edge” where religion is visible in secular organizations outside of congregations (Bender et al, 2013; Cadge & Konieczny, 2014)
We are interested in whether religious differences relate to the way in which such interactions are perceived or evaluated, and, second, we aim to investigate whether religious differences relate to how these spiritual care interactions are shaped in secularized and pluralized contexts, i.e., regarding clients’ experiences with, activities during, and the content of the encounter
Summary
Diversity is often framed—in scientific literature and in popular debates alike—as something that is challenging, especially when it comes to religious diversity (e.g., Becci & Roy, 2015; Brown & Brown, 2011; Fawcett & Noble, 2004). According to the similarity-attraction hypothesis, the more people are similar to each other, the more they like each other (Byrne, 1971), and, following social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), people in the same ingroup are likely to view themselves more positively than those in other groups Support for these theories and evidence that this applies to religious diversity is found in research among Dutch citizens: respondents felt more attracted to those who were perceived as similar to themselves—in terms of nationality, employment status, and religion—than to those who were dissimilar to themselves (Van Oudenhoven et al, 2000). In a survey among Dutch spiritual caregivers, respondents report a higher estimated satisfaction with their spiritual care provision for clients in same-faith than in interfaith encounters (Liefbroer & Berghuijs, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
