{"title":"Military chaplaincy in Sweden: A contemporary perspective.","authors":"Jan Grimell","doi":"10.1080/08854726.2020.1745490","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pastors serving as military chaplains have been an integral part of the Swedish Armed Forces for hundreds of years. This close relationship has continued even after the Church of Sweden was formally separated from the state in 2000. Yet contemporary research drawing from experiences of Swedish military chaplains during their pastoral and spiritual assignments within a military context is virtually non-existent. This research explores the contemporary situation for military chaplaincy in Sweden through the lenses of proportional accessibility for military personnel, availability to civilian congregations, increasing cultural and ethnic diversity, religious embeddedness in military culture, theological tension, and personal identity development among chaplains. It furthermore suggests that military chaplains navigate a complex situation: they are expected to serve professional service members, many of whom have war zone experiences, in addition to shepherding increasing volumes of conscripts now that conscription has been reinstated, all within a new interreligious paradigm.</p>","PeriodicalId":45330,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/08854726.2020.1745490","citationCount":"8","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2020.1745490","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2020/4/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 8
Abstract
Pastors serving as military chaplains have been an integral part of the Swedish Armed Forces for hundreds of years. This close relationship has continued even after the Church of Sweden was formally separated from the state in 2000. Yet contemporary research drawing from experiences of Swedish military chaplains during their pastoral and spiritual assignments within a military context is virtually non-existent. This research explores the contemporary situation for military chaplaincy in Sweden through the lenses of proportional accessibility for military personnel, availability to civilian congregations, increasing cultural and ethnic diversity, religious embeddedness in military culture, theological tension, and personal identity development among chaplains. It furthermore suggests that military chaplains navigate a complex situation: they are expected to serve professional service members, many of whom have war zone experiences, in addition to shepherding increasing volumes of conscripts now that conscription has been reinstated, all within a new interreligious paradigm.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy publishes peer-reviewed, scholarly articles based on original research, quality assurance/improvement studies, descriptions of programs and interventions, program/intervention evaluations, and literature reviews on topics pertinent to pastoral/spiritual care, clinical pastoral education, chaplaincy, and spirituality in relation to physical and mental health.