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Notes on categorization of SBNRs into various types by L. Mercadante in her book Belief Without Boarders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious”
Linda A. Mercadante points out in her book Belief Without Boarders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious that people unaffiliated with organized religion are an understudied group. There have been several attempts to arrange them into categories, as, for example, Robert Fuller who proposed in his Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America to divide the unchurched group into the totally indifferent, those with ambiguous relationship with organized religion, and the actual spiritual but not religious. Mercadante, though, looked even closer into the SBNR group and drew the distinctive categories within it. Understanding that there are several different types of people who identify themselves as spiritual but…
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Steps to Becoming a Chaplain
Chaplaincy training programs can be found at various colleges, universities, and seminaries. Many of these programs are master’s degree programs or form part of graduate level education. Courses may include counseling theory, theology and officiating religious ceremonies. Some organizations require prospective chaplains to have between two and four years of religious leadership experience, and some require ordination. Even though many chaplains are ordained ministers, one does not have to be ordained to work as a chaplain, but he or she has to have an endorsement or commission from a faith group. An endorsement may be obtained after satisfying specific education and training objectives outlined by an authority in that faith…