Mindfulness som kirkelig praksis

Abstract

The basis for this article is that, as a student chaplain, I offer mindfulness tuition to students and employees at a Norwegian university. I discuss whether and, as the case may be, how the tuition, which is a nondenominational offer at campus, may be understood as church practice and being firmly established in line with the ordination vow. Based on theory of both mindfulness and Christian prayer, I determine that my tuition may rightly be called mindfulness and is not prayer in itself. At the same time, it cannot be disconnected from one’s own theology or prayer life, and I argue that it functions well as a preparation for and combination with prayer practice for those who take part. Seeking support in Paul Tilloch and the Logos christology, the article shows that seeking God outside oneself in prayer and seeking God within oneself is not necessarily contradictory. For many people silence and mindfulness are well suited to sense God’s presence in one’s own body and own life. Furthermore, with a dialogcal-theological view, I look at my adaptation of the language to the plural, secular complexity that a university represents. I maintain that, in itself, my role as a chaplain expresses a Christian basis and that linguistic caution when interacting with people with other beliefs is imperative. Based on this review, I conclude that it is possible to give my tuition of mindfulness a theological attachment that also places it within the framework of the ordination vow.