ABSTRACT
Religion and spirituality can be considered as inter-related concepts, which concern phenomena that are experienced across human cultures. Using a common distinction, religion can be seen as ‘an organized, structured set of beliefs and practices shared by a defined community that are related to spirituality’ and spirituality can be understood as ‘the search for meaning, purpose, and morally fulfilling relation with self, other people, the encompassing universe, and ultimate reality, however a person understands it’ (Furman et al., 2004, p. 772; compare with Burton & Bosek, 2000, p. 98). Religion and spirituality therefore form an important part of the value frame of reference for individuals and communities. Yet, through the twentieth century, the place of religion and spirituality in social work and human services became ambiguous if not completely marginal. This may seem surprising, as the nineteenth-century origins of social work, youth work and community work in Western countries were often grounded in the application of religious concerns to the social problems and issues of the day (Forsythe, 1995; Canda & Furman, 1999; Bowpitt, 1998; Payne, 2005; Sercombe, 2010). Payne (2005), in particular, charts the gradual emergence of professional social work and other human service practices out of the secularization of Christian charitable action over a period from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, notably in Western Europe and its (then) colonies. He also notes the extent to which, in other parts of the world, religions other than Christianity can be regarded as having produced the sorts of practices that can be regarded as proto-professional social work and human services (Payne, 2005, p. 19; compare with Faherty, 2006, and Graham & Shier, 2009). Writers from Eastern traditions such as Buddhism also find it possible to see such connections, as do those from Indigenous and African spiritual traditions (Yellow Bird, 1999; Graham, 2002; Leung et al., 2009). Nevertheless, by the end of the twentieth century mainstream discussions and theorizing of professional knowledge, skills and values had tended either to become silent on matters or religion and spirituality or to confine such questions to a specialist concern with specific cultures, usually those considered as ‘minorities’ (Hodge & Limb, 2010). This is an approach to religion and spirituality that can be described as ‘secular public theology’ (McFayden, 2002) or ‘practical atheism’ (Whiting, 2008). 91(This latter concept arises specifically from a consideration of social work and human services.) However, in practice it may even lead to the deliberate ignoring of religion and spirituality, with this exclusion seen as an ethical choice (Burton & Bosek, 2000).
