Chaplains as hosts: balancing humility and assertiveness in spiritual care

ABSTRACT Interfaith spiritual care (ISC) is a non-sectarian and open-ended spiritual therapy ubiquitously performed by healthcare chaplains. However, these carers face uncertainty in navigating the many epistemological and ethical norms involved. A theological framework is needed that guides ISC practitioners in engaging and provisioning the existential, religious, and ritual needs of diverse populations. This paper recaps the author’s doctoral work (Youngblood 2020), proposing a pastoral hospitality that opens our hearts and minds to a wider range of religious truths, even strange and uncomfortable ones. It also critiques a postcolonial notion that carers in non-Western contexts should identify primarily as humble ‘guests’ rather than ‘hosts’. Instead, the author maintains that chaplains should still sometimes imagine themselves as hosts empowering the patient. Ultimately host–guest is a dynamic relationship, not a static role. Imagining one’s pastoral ministry as alternating between the two allows the chaplain to balance humility and empathy with assertiveness and (sometimes) confrontation.