Deepen your understanding of spiritual formation and critical theological reflection while you cultivate the requisite skills and arts of pastoral care.
Programs
Our Learning Model
Developing research literacy
by framing knowledge of socio-political determinants for well-being as core concepts for spiritual care, interreligious and multidisciplinary competency. Competency refers to the practical expertise needed to provide skilled or generalist informed spiritual care in light of broad-based social stratifications that diminishes health and wellness, and the possibilities for creating truly caring relationships.
Analyzing and assessing
whether persons/communities are able to exercise agency in support of their wellness through the concepts of structural vulnerability and stigma.
Advocating
for justice, health and wellness along causal relationships that are visible and invisible, spiritual and material/physical, emotional and socio-political.
Examining
models of suffering, goodness, evil, justice, restoration and resiliency to identify how fields of ‘the possible’ are shaped in peoples’ lives, and how spiritual care and religion is complicated or distorted by delimiting binary models of good and evil that rationalize unhealthy relationships.
Building
interreligious and multidisciplinary coalitions that inspire hope, well-being, restorative and transformative spiritual care activism, and to better understand wellness causality and competency in partnership with allied mastery-based educational programs.
Foregrounding
spiritual care courses that root the prophetic voice and function of spiritual care practitioners in their faith as a way to develop the powerful and creative healing challenge of spiritual care, compassionate leadership and wellness to the world.
We are excited about the Shaw Institute Scholars Curriculum. With support from Rev. Dr. John Shaw and the Shaw Family, SCI engages the communities and institutions that stand to benefit from research in spiritual care, education in spiritual care theory and compassionate leadership practice, and multidisciplinary/trans-professional networking.
Our motto is Learn. Lead. Care.
The Institute’s curriculum and programming supports the formation of spiritual care leaders and spiritually interested learners empowered to engage the emotional, spiritual, physical, intellectual and moral needs of people.

Rev. Dr. Laurie Garrett-Cobbina
Shaw Family Chair for Clinical Pastoral Education,
CPE Supervisor, Director of Shaw Chaplaincy Institute
Let's have a conversation
In this world poised for healing, do you feel called to bring compassionate presence to others? Get in touch with your questions, and I’ll be very happy to help you explore ways in which the Shaw Chaplaincy Institute is able to help you bring your whole self into service.
- Rev. Paul Gaffney,
Program Manager of Education, Community Relations and Spiritual Care Services
