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31-08-2022 | Care | Original Paper

Muslim Chaplains in the Clinical Borderlands: Authority, Function, and Identity

Authors: Lance D. Laird, Samsiah Abdul-Majid

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 1/2023

Abstract

This article, based on twenty in-depth interviews, examines the experiences of Muslim interfaith spiritual care providers in US healthcare institutions. These Muslim chaplains represent a public face of a minority religious community; provide a ministry of presence or accompaniment for those in the healthcare institution; and exercise a new form of professionalized religious leadership in the Islamic tradition. The border between religious leader and spiritual caregiver, between imam and chaplain, is blurry, gendered, and contested. We outline how Muslim healthcare chaplains interpret their authority, function, and identity within a professional space defined by dominant American religious norms as well as by shifting standards for leadership within American Muslim communities. We argue that the Christian hegemony often masked by “spiritual care” discourse and educational practice impels Muslim chaplains to critically evaluate, recover, and adapt traditional sources integral to the professional development of contemporary American Muslim religious leaders.

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Title: Muslim Chaplains in the Clinical Borderlands: Authority, Function, and Identity
Authors: Lance D. Laird
Samsiah Abdul-Majid
Publication date: 31-08-2022
Publisher: Springer US
Keyword: Care
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 1/2023
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01644-z

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Muslim Chaplains in the Clinical Borderlands: Authority, Function, and Identity

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