PDF A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy; Spiritual Care; and the Law by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan in History

Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The New Established Church of American Unitarian UniversalismBy Hugh RockThe specialist focus indicated by the title of this book; which would have led me to pass it by but for a friend’s recommendation; belies the fact that it raises far-reaching questions about the future direction of Christianity; about the relation of religion; culture and government; and; most intriguingly; whether the distinction between ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ has any meaning.Winnifred Sullivan focusses specifically on government sponsored pastors. In a rapid and discreet expansion these have achieved a “ubiquity; invisible and unquantifiable.” This wave of employment has been aided by the privatisation of government services. As an introductory example of the new comprehensive scope; Sullivan records an interview with the pastor to the game wardens of the state of Maine; whose service to individuals is simply to “be present”. Government paid pastors can be found now; not only in the traditional military environments; but in fire services; hospitals; airports; universities; legislatures and care services.These pastors have a specific religious brief which enforces a distinctive professional identity that is in tension with with the sectarian divisions of Christianity. Any hint of denominational proselytization is forbidden. They are obliged to take a position; expounded; for instance; by the army service; that is essentially Universalist or Quaker: “each person has to find the truth for himself.” A tension arises from the fact that all pastors must be denominationally approved; but the government sets the curriculum for the Master of Divinity Degree and the Clinical Pastoral Education Certificate; which are essential to employment. The government is thus in charge of public theology.This tension is epitomised by the eight hundred evangelical chaplains who sued the navy in the complaint that the navy’s theology discriminated against them.The constitutionality of this sponsorship has been vigorously contested by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. But; crucially; the FFRF has lost the case. Government pastors are here to stay and set to proliferate. The Supreme Court decided that their sponsorship escapes constitutional prohibition because spirituality is not religious; (a distinction that sociology has found vacuous) and also that the government has a legitimate interest ensuring the availability of free choice of religion.Sullivan; although never stating this explicitly; seems; from a conventional ecclesiastical perspective to take a regretful stance toward this Universalism. Religion is being “stripped to the basics”; “neutralized and naturalized”. Faith has become a universalising category; of “therapeutic religion”; a holy trinity of “mind body; and spirit”; “ambiguously secularist”; in which sin and salvation has given way to “self-realization” and Christian theology has given way to “the language of therapy. . .and behavioural psychology.”It is; moreover; a politically inspired project. It is a “national project of interfaith equity and moral education”; “civil religion theology”; legally enforced secularization; in which orthodoxy has become undesirable. Chaplains have become “priest[s] of the secular”; support “rationalist epistemologies” and give blessing to the national endeavour.But there is an alternative; more positive interpretation available. These chaplains are real priests. They are priests of the new religion; as Sullivan notes from other observers; in which pluralism is the new truth claim. This is the new religion in which “mid-century pluralist sensibility” has given way to an “emerging universality”. This erases any boundary between religious and secular. It is a religion that emerges naturally from the paradoxical fact that the prohibition of government promotion of religion; embedded the equality of all religions in the constitution. This is the Established Church of American Unitarian Universalism.Sullivan’s work raises profound questions that sociology and theology have barely touched on. It is a magnificent sourcebook of developments from which to start such an investigation.