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Being a Chaplain

Reviewed by William Ruddle.

The concept of this book is sound – a library of personal accounts of chaplaincy followed by some theological reflection upon the theological principles and their challenges to modern chaplaincy.

Unfortunately, it misses its mark in its execution. At the end of the book, one is left observing the omissions rather than its content. For a book that is supposed to give an overview of chaplaincy, why does it have such an Anglican perspective? There are, for example, no obvious representations from the Pentecostal, House Church or Renewal movements within chaplaincy (even evangelical voices are hard to find). Though perhaps of more concern is that, given one of the theological reflective pieces deals with the challenges of the multi-faith context, none of the submissions are from ANY of the other world faith religions. These are not only increasingly represented in chaplaincy, but moreover must be `heard’ in a multi-faith context.

Critically, the book suffers from repetition – which may not have been obvious to the writers at the outset, but should have been spotted in editing. Eighty-seven of its 138 pages are given over to twenty-two personal accounts of chaplaincy that have similar motifs running throughout. Hearing the multitude, however, is at the expense of depth and thought provoking insight – each chaplain/author is restricted to 3-4 pages which, once they have explained their context, gives little time for anything else. Do we really need five differing accounts of healthcare chaplaincy, let alone seven encounters with chaplains in education?

If you have no understanding of chaplaincy within various UK contexts, then the testimonies in the first eighty-seven pages are both enlightening and accessible.  Be prepared to skip the last three chapters, though, due to their overly academic approach to current theological issues. Conversely, those steeped in chaplaincy and its current theological thorny issues are unlikely to appreciate the vast majority of the book being given over to superficial overviews. I fear in attempting to engage with two different audiences, Therefall-Holmes and Newitt have fallen between the two.