ABSTRACT

This international volume provides a comprehensive account of contemporary research, new perspectives and cutting-edge issues surrounding religion and spirituality in social work. The introduction introduces key themes and conceptual issues such as understandings of religion and spirituality as well as definitions of social work, which can vary between countries. The main body of the book is divided up into sections on regional perspectives; religious and spiritual traditions; faith-based service provision; religion and spirituality across the lifespan; and social work practice. The final chapter identifies key challenges and opportunities for developing both social work scholarship and practice in this area.

Including a wide range of international perspectives from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the USA, this Handbook succeeds in extending the dominant paradigms and comprises a mix of authors including major names, significant contributors and emerging scholars in the field, as well as leading contributors in other fields of social work who have an interest in religion and spirituality.

The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Spirituality and Social Work is an authoritative and comprehensive reference for academics and researchers as well as for organisations and practitioners committed to exploring why, and how, religion and spirituality should be integral to social work practice.

part I|14 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|12 pages

Religion and spirituality in social work

Creating an international dialogue

part III|83 pages

Religious and spiritual traditions

chapter 6|9 pages

The constructed ‘Indian’ and Indigenous sovereignty

Social work practice with Indigenous peoples

chapter 7|9 pages

The sacred in traditional African spirituality

Creating synergies with social work practice

chapter 8|8 pages

Studying social work

Dilemmas and difficulties of Ultra-Orthodox women

chapter 10|9 pages

Achieving dynamic balancing

Application of Daoist principles into social work practice

chapter 11|7 pages

Celtic spirituality

Exploring the fascination across time and place

chapter 12|10 pages

Material spirituality

Challenging Gnostic tendencies in contemporary understandings of religion and spirituality in social work

chapter 13|10 pages

Social work with Muslim communities

Treading a critical path over the crescent moon

part IV|54 pages

Faith-based service provision

chapter 15|10 pages

Partners in service and justice

Catholic social welfare and the social work profession

chapter 19|9 pages

Reclaiming compassion

Auschwitz, Holocaust remembrance and social work

chapter 20|9 pages

At a crossroads

The Church of Sweden and its role as a welfare provider in a changing Swedish welfare state

part V|62 pages

Religion and spirituality across the lifespan

chapter 21|9 pages

Spirituality

The missing component in trauma therapy across the lifespan

chapter 24|7 pages

Queer meaning

chapter 25|8 pages

From entanglement to equanimity

An application of a holistic healing approach into social work practice with infertile couples

chapter 26|7 pages

Life’s end journey

Social workers in palliative care

chapter 27|8 pages

Social work and suffering in end-of-life care

An arts-based approach

part VI|113 pages

Social work practice

chapter 29|8 pages

Spirituality and sexuality

Exploring tensions in everyday relationship-based practice

chapter 31|9 pages

Spiritual competence

The key to effective practice with people from diverse religious backgrounds

chapter 35|9 pages

Holistic arts-based social work

chapter 38|11 pages

Ultimate concerns and human rights

How can practice sensitive to spirituality and religion expand and sharpen social work capacity to challenge social injustice?

chapter 39|10 pages

Addressing spiritual bypassing

Issues and guidelines for spiritually sensitive practice

part VII|10 pages

Conclusion