Humanist and Atheist Chaplaincy

"The nonreligious population is exploding, and somebody has to minister to them. Harvard’s humanist chaplain is on the road, sharing a vision of the common good, hoping his message will resonate with theists and atheists alike." (Religion Dispatches, Oct. 30, 2009)

With millions of people identifying as "non-religious" or "non-theist" in the U.S. there is a growing and often unrecognized need for spiritual or emotional counseling of those that fall into this group. Greg Epstein is one who has stepped up. He is a "humanist chaplain" at Harvard University who has recently published a book called Good Without God: What a Billion Non-religious People Do Believe (William Morrow, 2009) which discusses the reality of an atheistic spirituality.

I've been curious about this relatively new distinction people oftentimes make between 'religion' and 'spirituality.' When I ask people about the difference between the meaning of the two terms they usually retort that religion has something to do with institutions, social gathering, doctrine, dogma, etc. whereas spirituality has more to do with a personal, individual pursuit of meaning and truth. Thus, on this distinction, the notion of an atheistic spirituality would make sense, I suppose. Atheists can consider themselves spiritual but not religious; they have a personal quest for meaning and truth but not one that involves a particular institutional affiliation, doctrine, or belief about God, deity, divinity, or the like.

Since atheists do often consider themselves spiritual persons, then it is crucial that the spiritual service of chaplaincy address their particular needs as well. Thus, we must have chaplains that are trained and prepared to meet the emotional and spiritual needs of atheistic worldviews and lives, chaplains that can make that modern/post-modern distincition between religion and spirituality when working with atheist persons.

I like the idea of the work that Greg Epstein is doing. This kind of activity needs more public attention. This is an area of chaplaincy that is not much talked about but is crucial for servicing the spiritual needs of a now significant population of the U.S. and the world.

Read a review article of Epstein's new book at Religion Dispatches.

(Above image from Religion Dispatches.)