Workplace Chaplaincy: Technical or Critical Spirituality?

Abstract

Workplace chaplaincy is an emerging research field within the research area of workplace spirituality. This chaplaincy is regarded as a concrete manifestation of workplace spirituality due to the pastoral care provided by ecclesial institutions, professional chaplaincy associations or companies themselves, which serves the personal and spiritual needs of employees. Despite its long history, workplace chaplaincy has not received adequate academic attention yet and just a few articles have been published in scientific journals. Many publications emphasize its beneficial implications, however, it is indispensable to scrutinize workplace chaplaincy regarding its possible risks and potential of instrumentalization. The discussion about critical versus technical spirituality is triggered by the question if the existence of chaplains in organizations signifies a real integration of spirituality or is instrumentalized in order to improve performance. This article aims to review aspects of technical versus critical spirituality concerning workplace chaplaincy. The paper shows positions of workplace chaplaincy worthy of discussion and outlines some ideas to move toward a more critical spirituality. Furthermore, we present a practical example of workplace chaplaincy, which is characterized by a very strong position against instrumentalization and the reductionistic perspective of people and spirituality in the working world.