Caregiving as Spiritual Expertise: Spirituality and Lived Religion among Portuguese Hospital Chaplains

Abstract

The sociological study of spirituality has recently emerged as a focal point of questions about secular formations, State–religion relations, and lived religion. Where a religious tradition is historically and politically dominant, spirituality remains embedded in debates on religion; it is either enmeshed in institutionalized religion and therefore invisible or not seen by sociologists as relevant enough to merit discussion. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with hospital chaplains show an emerging understanding of spirituality. These individuals’ efforts to negotiate their identity from Catholic chaplains into spiritual experts pose important questions. Their evolving gazes into human experience depend upon secular formations; in that sense, public policy and State arrangements offer little guidance as to what status spirituality among individuals with clear religious affiliations ought to have. This chapter investigates these problem spaces and explores spirituality as an emerging concept.