The proportion of Americans who identify as Christian has declined from around 90% in the 1970s to around 60% today, according to . Aside from migration patterns bringing in adherents of other faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, more people of Christian heritage are now identifying as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.” Changing religious dynamics will undoubtedly have an effect on the services of pastoral care, known as chaplaincy, in public institutions.
In the public consciousness, a chaplain is a Christian priest, pastor, or lay minister attached to an institution, a hospital, school, or prison. However, with Christianity’s hold on American society waning and other faiths increasing, there have been chaplains of other religions emerging. With the religious ratio shifting radically, the assignment of religiously specific identified chaplains will become far too complex to sustain.
This calls for generic chaplains, unidentified with a specific religion. According to , an Episcopal cleric, chaplain, author, and co-founder of the (CPSP), the movement for professional and secular chaplaincy was started by Anton T. Boisen in the 1920s.
Contrary to that era’s commonly accepted religious thinking, Boisen theorized an interconnection between religious experiences and certain forms of mental illness. He also advocated for chaplains to adopt the Freudian approach of healing and psychotherapy instead of evangelizing for their particular religion. Since f.
