INTERFACING RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY AND SOCIAL WORK
3.3 RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL ROOTS OF SOCIAL WORK
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scale, relatively informal and very flexible as is common with most traditional religions (Canda, 2010). As Derezotes (2006) notes, the trend for proponents of spirituality to criticise religion and the trend for proponents of religion to criticise spirituality is unhelpful for social workers who must find ways of working across both spirituality and religious diversities. Cheon (2010) posits that religion and spirituality overlap in that both are concerned with the search for meaning. He further mentions that spirituality is expressed in religious forms in many people. He, however, notes that spirituality is broader than religion.
Numerous scales have been developed to measure religion and spirituality. These include among others; the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Treatment Spirituality/Religiosity Scale, Spiritual Orientation Index, Expression of Spirituality Inventory and the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being.
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and community level that encourage social and personal transformations. Asher (2001) contends that once social workers begin to consider the role of spirituality and religion in the lives of their profession‘s beneficiaries, they will begin to have insights into how they can intervene more effectively.
Despite how secular social work practice may try to be, religion and spirituality cannot simply be ignored in social work practice. Social workers should be prepared to identify and address ethical dilemmas resulting from the relationship between their professional and spiritual values (Neagoe, 2013). For many years, social work has been secular and the belief was that religion and spirituality have nothing to offer was dominant. There is, however, a global resurgence of professional interest in religion and spirituality in social work today. According to Spano and Koenig (2007), there has been suspicion and even hostility towards social workers who attempted to incorporate a religious dimension in their practice. Religion and spirituality, which had previously been relegated to the realms of values and private life, have started to regain some of their lost ground in the public and professional spheres (Neagoe, 2013).
The increased number of publications which show the relationship between religion, spirituality and social work indicates that religion and spirituality have made themselves known to social work. Various professional associations in the field of social work have started to produce materials which are designed to assist practitioners in dealing with spiritual matters. Most accepted values of the social work profession may be said to have a corresponding value in the area of Christian ethics. According to Zastrow (1999:317), ―social work has its historical roots in religious organisations, social work originated under the inspirations of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition...‖ This view
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is supported by Day (2009) and Dwyer (2010) who note that social work‘s core values are consistent with Judeo-Christian values. According to Day (2009), social work emerged at the end of the 19th century from religious charity activities. Though social work has spiritual and religious roots, it has drifted away from its religious foundation at some point. Canda (1990) purports that the urge to professionalise and compete with other helping professions led social work away from its spiritual foundation.
According to Martin (2003), the origins of social work can be traced back to the nineteenth century in Britain with the establishment of Charity Society Organisations (CSO). The CSOs reflected religious values and the concept of charity (Lindsay, 2002).
The earliest form of welfare for the poor and disadvantaged in American societies was a provision of charity by members of local communities who were primarily organised by religious leaders of local congregations. This relationship, between religion and social work, has also been noted in developing countries. For example, Mugumbate and Chigondo (2013) writing in the context of Zimbabwe note that the link between social work and churches is in the value of helping the poor and those in distress to overcome their challenges.
The spiritual component of social work is evident when one looks at humanity, love and compassionate aspects of the social work profession. Holistic practice in social work has also been found to necessitate the marriage of spirituality and social work. Ife (2002) contends that holistic practice views individuals, families and communities as a complex whole rather than separate disaggregates. Spirituality may have or may not have a sense of community. Catholic spirituality tends to be group-centered while protestant spirituality leans toward individual pietism (Gumz, Wall & Grossman, 2003).
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Neagoe (2013) juxtaposes social work principles and Christian values as shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Relationship between social work values and Christian values Social Work Values and
Principles
Christian Values Bible verses to support the Christian values
Human dignity and worth Creation of human beings after God‘s own image
Genesis 1:26 Social justice Jesus‘ acceptance of the
socially excluded Micah 6:8, Mark 2: 15-17
Service Serving others despite
one‘s superiority Matthew 20: 26-28
Integrity Holiness 1 Peter 1 : 15-17
Competence Serving God and people
within the limits of one‘s self Matthew 25: 14-30, Corinthians 12
Data source Neagoe (2013).
Relating social work values to Christian values supported by a Bible verse strengthens the argument that Christianity has played a critical role in the formation of the social work profession. Canda and Furnam (1999) contend that there are spiritual elements embedded is social work values and practice. The inspiration to help others seems to have thus developed as part of religion. The influence of religion on social work has been uneven. Greater appreciation of diversity in religious matters has served as an additional stimulus for practitioners to listen to matters of the spirit in discussions with their clients (Canda, 2005).
According to Canda (1997), spirituality involves understanding the connected aspects of all people. Compassionate helping is a natural way of life and a human birth-right. The renewed interest in spirituality suggests that social work may be rediscovering its soul
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(Canda, 1997). Spirituality inspires a sense of mutual responsibility. Canda (1997) also argues that a spiritually sensitive social worker is in harmony with many stages and types of change in human life and cannot be confused by conflicting ideas. ―Spiritual sensitivity fosters an ethic of mutual benefit and social justice rather than selfish one sided gain‖ (Canda, 1997:2).