Midwifing Social Movements: How Movement Chaplains Practice Pastoral Theology Through Accessible, Critical, and Collective Spiritual Care

Abstract

ABSTRACT In recent years, individuals of myriad religious and spiritual persuasions have volunteered to serve as chaplains to social justice movements. Drawing on a thematic qualitative text analysis of online materials, I argue that movement chaplains enact the work of pastoral theology when they render spiritual care more accessible, critical, and collective. I delineate two resources that an analysis of movement chaplaincy contributes to pastoral theology. First, movement chaplains model the integration of the ethics of care and spiritual care practices. Second, they offer a generative metaphor for the work of pastoral theology: that of accompanying midwife. As the field grapples with the implications of a changing religious landscape, movement chaplaincy challenges us to develop a pastoral theology that cares for souls across a plurality of religious (dis)affiliations and that accompanies those souls as they endeavor to birth spiritual lives that nourish and sustain.