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Walking beside soldiers: Swedish military chaplains and their questions
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7327-8519
2025 (English)In: Practical Theology, ISSN 1756-073XArticle in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

This study explores the questions encountered by Swedish militarychaplains (MCs) in their role of providing Military Soul Care withinthe Swedish Armed Forces. While Swedish MCs are deeply rootedin the Lutheran tradition, their work extends beyond religiousboundaries, addressing existential, moral, and social issues thatarise in military contexts. Using a qualitative questionnairecompleted by 50 chaplains, the research identifies five thematiccategories: death, existential concerns, theological reflections,moral dilemmas, and social tensions. These themes reveal thecomplex realities faced by service members, ranging fromquestions about life and death to struggles with meaning,relationships, and ethical decision making. The discussionhighlights how these questions reflect fundamental humananxieties such as fear of death, guilt, and meaning, and arguesthat MCs are uniquely positioned to help soldiers confront theserealities. The article proposes an existential ordinary theologicalapproach that supports authentic living by fostering courage,resilience, and meaning amid the challenges of military life.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2025.
Keywords [en]
Military chaplain, Military Soul Care, death, existential, theology, moral injury
National Category
Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-247241DOI: 10.1080/1756073x.2025.2588055ISI: 001631352500001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105024773022OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-247241DiVA, id: diva2:2019437
Funder
Swedish Armed ForcesAvailable from: 2025-12-07 Created: 2025-12-07 Last updated: 2026-01-08

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Grimell, Jan

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf