Insights from an Emerging Field
Until quite recently many social workers and social work educators were reluctant to engage with religious diversity. Indeed, a 2008 nationwide survey of over 1,800 social workers found that nearly 65% reported receiving no training whatsoever on “religious or spiritual issues” in their social work education (see Edward Canda and Leola Furman, Spiritual Diversity in Social Work Practice, pg. 372). This troubling gap in cultural competence training has left many social workers unprepared to work effectively with religiously diverse clients and communities.
But this pattern has shifted in recent years, as a growing number of social workers have recognized the importance of religion and/or spirituality in their clients’ lives. There is now a thriving scholarly literature on religion, spirituality, and social work. Social work educators have developed a range of resources to help you engage with the religious lives of the people you serve, including scholarly and popular texts, video trainings, self assessment tools, and other materials. You’ll find links to many of these resources on this page, including materials developed by the Interfaith Center of New York and other organizations.
ICNY Bibliographies for Social Workers:
Click these bullets to download or print a series of bibliographies prepared for previous Social Work and Religious Diversity programs, including references to academic and popular sources on:
- Religious Diversity and “World Religions” – including broad discussions of religious diversity, faith-based perspectives on social justice, and introductions to specific faith traditions
- Religion, Spirituality, and Social Work – including broad discussions of the field, and discussions of social work practice with members of specific faith communities
- Religious Communities of New York City – including ethnographic and historical accounts of the kaleidoscopic diversity of New York, the “promised city” to immigrants from every corner of the globe
- Faith-Based Perspectives on Trauma and Healing – including published sources and online resources
- Faith-Based Perspectives on Domestic Violence – including published sources and online resources
- Faith-Based Perspectives on Aging and End-of-Life Care – including published sources and online resources
- Faith-Based Perspectives on Sexuality and LGBT Relationships – including published sources and online resources
- Faith-Based Perspectives on Depression and Mental Illness – including published sources and online resources
- Religion, Spirituality, and Family Life – scholarly sources on religiously diverse families
- Working Effectively with Interfaith Families – including published sources and online resources
Resources from Other Social Work Educators:
See the Council on Social Work Education’s Religion and Spirituality Clearinghouse for downloadable bibliographies, syllabi, and other resources on religion, spirituality, and social work practice.
See the website of the Society for Spirituality and Social Work, and especially its resources page, for downloadable bibliographies, syllabi, conference announcements, contact information for local chapters, and other resources.
See the website of the Canadian Society for Spirituality and Social Work, and especially its resources page, for downloadable scholarly essays, syllabi, bibliographies, and other resources.
See the website of the University of Kansas’ Spiritual Diversity and Social Work Initiative, and especially its resources page, for downloadable bibliographies and other resources.
See the website of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at Duke University, for a wide range of resources, publications, educational programs, and bibliographies.
See the Nathan Kline Institute’s Center of Excellence in Culturally Competent Mental Health for a range of resources on cultural competence in mental health care, including “Cultural Profiles” of Hasidic Jews and American Muslims.
See the quarterly Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work for current scholarship by social work educators. (Unfortunately, the journal is not open access – you may need to log on through a university library.)
