Sideways Spirituality

In the United States today, a growing number of religiously unaffiliated people are turning to nontraditional avenues of spirituality and spiritual care. Sociologists Wendy Cadge and Amy Lawton argue that scholars of religion must respond to this change by shifting their thinking about and delivery of religion and spirituality. Centering the chaplain as an example, Sideways Spirituality offers an alternative to congregational religion as well as a window into different ways of seeing and conceptualizing the American religious landscape.

Chaplains meet people where they are and often in difficult situations—in hospital rooms and hospices, in military deployments, at colleges and universities, even at the US research station in Antarctica. Cadge and Lawton mirror this personal approach by listening to how members of the public, chaplains, educators, and others talk about their experiences with religion, spirituality, and other aspects of meaning-making. In response, they offer a vision for spiritual frameworks of the future, including improvements in theological education that may enable leaders to better support people in their everyday lives. Grounded in a multiyear study that included a national Gallup poll, Cadge and Lawton provide practitioners with a pathway to move spiritual caregiving forward in the midst of an ever-changing present.