The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab publishes working papers on a growing variety of topics as part of its commitment to research and disseminating research findings. These resources are offered freely for use by all; when comment periods are open, a form is provided on the working paper’s individual page, linked below. Our working papers are drafted by CIL staff, partners, supporters, and experts in their field.
Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Working Papers
Mainstreaming Spiritual Care in Healthcare Organizations
Kelsey White et al.
This working paper describes how healthcare executives can maximize their utilization of spiritual care providers to enhance workforce wellbeing, patient experience, and access to care.
More than ‘None’: Spiritual Care by and for the Nonreligious
Amy Lawton and Wendy Cadge
This working paper describes the spiritual care landscape for Americans who do not identify as religious.
Chaplains in the United States: Gaps between Supply and Demand
Wendy Cadge and Amy Lawton
How does the field currently train and educate chaplains? Does that preparation meet the current demand for spiritual care among the US public? This gap analysis explores these questions and more.
Demand for Chaplaincy
Wendy Cadge and Amy Lawton
How does the general public understand chaplaincy? How many U.S. adults have interacted with a chaplain, and what were those interactions like? This paper aims to answer these questions with data gathered from a nationally representative survey and qualitative interviews with survey respondents.
Mapping Jewish Chaplaincy
Wendy Cadge, Bethamie Horowitz, Sara Paasche-Orlow, and Mychal Springer
This report offers a brief history of the work of Jewish chaplains, an overview of the current state of Jewish chaplaincy, and makes recommendations for the development of the field in the future. In naming and recognizing the messy boundaries around that work, it identifies Jewish chaplains as a vital resource “hiding in plain sight.”
Survey of Demand for Chaplaincy among US Adults
Wendy Cadge, Jessica Hamar Martinez, and Amy Lawton
This report begins describing the “demand” for, or utilization of, spiritual care provision in the United States.
Becoming a Chaplain: Costs and Compensation
Kelsey White, Jennifer Cañas Alegria, Amy Lawton, Michael Skaggs, Wendy Cadge and Shirah Hecht
This report begins describing the cost of training to become chaplain and the salaries and benefits chaplains receive in the United States.
What Are Chaplains Learning?
Wendy Cadge, Grace Tien, and Trace Haythorn
Employers, practitioners, educators, and leaders in the field of chaplaincy have differing views about the training chaplains need in order to do their jobs well. This article begins to map the “supply side” of chaplaincy, a complex array of organizations, agencies, and institutions that train and credential chaplains. Drawing on curricular materials, archival documents, and interviews from the supply-side, we show how professional chaplains are trained to work in some sectors in the United States, what they learn, and what institutions are involved in the process.
Black Chaplains in the United States, 1940-2021: The Role of Race and the Work of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care
Aja Antoine, Barbara Savage, and Wendy Cadge
Starting at the gallows and on the fields of war, the presence, and actions of Black chaplains parallel, converge, and diverge from patterns laid out in the normalizing studies of white chaplains. We begin to document these realities in this paper and lay out a preliminary research agenda. We recommend that individuals and institutions name, address, and respond to historically grounded racial inequities in the work of Black chaplains and other chaplains of color.
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