Seelsorge, Psychologie und Medizin im Gespräch mit Spiritual Care (Psychologische Perspektive)

• Organisation

Pastoral and Spiritual Care
Across Religions and Cultures
Prof. Dr. Isabelle Noth
University of Bern
Dr. Georg Wenz
Ev. Akademie der Pfalz
The First International Conference on Intercultural Spiritual Care and Counseling tackles
challenges that emerge in pluralistic societies. Approaching the specific needs and
actions of chaplaincy, spiritual care and counseling in different areas, the conference
deals with major questions of intercultural, interreligious, and interdisciplinary dialogue.
It introduces different concepts of caring and counseling across religions, analyses
expectations of different communities towards spiritual care, and compares them
critically with confession based pastoral care and counseling.
Addressing people's needs in today's pluralistic societies requires understanding,
respect, and appreciation of others in their diversity. Therefore, encounter becomes
pivotal and the exchange between Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs,
people without religious affiliation, and Atheists is of utmost importance and greatest
value. Of equal significance is the cooperative approach of the disciplines concerned –
in particularly the disciplines of theology, psychology, and medicine. These two are key
issues of this conference which aims to promote a better integration and collaboration
of people from different faith-backgrounds, cultures and groups.
The first part of the conference focuses on grasping the concept of spiritual care from
the perspectives of the three disciplines: pastoral care, psychology, and medicine.
Emphasis will be placed on describing the impact of spiritual care upon each discipline.
The second part deals with spiritual and pastoral care and counseling in pluralistic
societies, also taking into consideration the complexity of voluntary engagement. In
particular, it will focus on the questions of how we can support more research in this
area, and how we can implement future research results for the benefit of the general
public. Thus, the conference's wider purpose is to encourage the cooperation of
researchers from different countries and disciplines working in the field of religious and
spiritual care.
The conference is organized by the Faculty of Theology, University of Bern, Switzerland
and the Protestant Academy of Landau, Germany. It will take place in the House of
Religions in Bern and is financed by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.
(Prof. Dr. Isabelle Noth, Dr. Georg Wenz