Chaplaincy Innovation Lab

The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab is a think tank that supports research, teaching, and the provision of spiritual care in a range of settings. As the human spirit grows, changes and struggles, chaplains and spiritual care providers accompany people along the way. We gather and translate the research needed to support this work. Headquartered at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, the Lab links people across the United States and around the world.

Our Mission

Formed in 2018 out of the success of the Transforming Chaplaincy Project, the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab brings chaplaincy leaders, theological educators, clinical educators, and social scientists into a research-based conversation about the state of chaplaincy and spiritual care. Driving our work are questions about how, in the midst of changes in the American religious landscape, spiritual caregivers can do their best work. We aim to improve how chaplains are trained, how they work with diverse individuals (including those with no religious or spiritual backgrounds), and how chaplaincy and spiritual care coheres as a professional field. We’ve produced a case statement on spiritual care today to help start a conversation on how to address spiritual needs most effectively.

We are seeing more and more of the work of spiritual care providers in social movements, disaster zones, at sites of mass shootings and in animal hospitals.

Our Principles

All are welcome. Spiritual needs and struggles are not limited to any one group. The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab excludes none. We foster care provision that is responsive to all individuals, regardless of present or past spiritual or religious affiliation (including none), race, nationality, sexual orientation, ability, and gender identity.

Research-driven. The best spiritual care offers interpersonal support from an empirical basis and best practices. The Lab gathers, fosters and shares rigorous academic research about the provision of spiritual care in a range of settings. We actively investigate how spiritual care provision is shaped by the people it is offered to and the institutions within which it is provided.

We respect differences. Chaplaincy does not seek to proselytise, convert, or otherwise convince others of one’s own religious or spiritual convictions. Chaplaincy practice effective in one cultural context may be ineffective or harmful in another. We support a professional field cognisant and responsive to cultural and individual differences in all forms.

Website Information:

Information is available on the following topic areas of interest:

• Getting Started as a Chaplain
• Clinical Training Organizations
• CPE sites
• Degree Programs
• Professional Organizations
• Chaplaincy Endorsers

The Resources section has links to

• Research Bibliography
• Multimedia Resources
• By Sector
• Airports
• Corrections
• Crises
• Government
• Healthcare
• Higher Education
• Military
• Palliative Care
• Public Service
• Recreation
• Seaports
• Workplace
• Webinars

Research on Chaplaincy

We aim to share current and historical materials about chaplaincy here that will assist all seeking to learn about the field. You can visit our fully-searchable bibliography directly at Zotero.org If you’d like to let us know about a new article or book or think we’ve missed something here, write to us at info@chaplaincyinnovation.org

Training Available in the US

Approximately one-quarter of theological schools in the United States offer some kind of formal training in chaplaincy. This list includes all of the programs we are aware of with information about the type of training available; please contact us if you have additional information. Wendy Cadge and Beth Stroud offer more information about the growth of this training in this article at Huffington Post. If you’ve got questions or think we’ve missed someone, let us know at info@chaplaincyinnovation.org.