Faculty Publications

Spirituality, Religion, And Social Work: An Effort Towards Interdisciplinary Conversation

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Cultural diversity, Interdisciplinary conversation, Religion, Spirituality

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work

Volume

23

Issue

4

First Page

67

Last Page

84

Abstract

Social work scholars and practitioners have approached the question of how to integrate religion and/or spirituality into their profession in one of four typical ways: (1) resistance or avoidance; (2) an overly-generalized syncretism; (3) radical separation of the terms spirituality and religion; or (4) a genuinely interdisciplinary conversation between the disciplines of social work and religious studies. This latter approach not only identifies social work’s conflictual founding legacy, but also recognizes broader contemporary intellectual traditions which do not easily separate “religion” from “spirituality”. Such awareness and common grounding allow social work to more substantively and creatively partake in cross-disciplinary research and discussion. © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Department

Department of Social Work

Original Publication Date

11-29-2004

DOI of published version

10.1300/J377v23n04_05

Link to Full Text

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