A reference point for the emerging field of artificial intelligence in spiritual care.
Whether we like it or not: Chaplains and other spiritual caregivers are increasingly meeting artificial intelligence at work.
It can draft chart notes, triage who gets referred to them, and offer something that resembles spiritual conversation directly to the people in their care.
The introduction of AI in healthcare, however, was not designed with spiritual care in mind.
There is an emerging research literature scattered in diverse fields: in books on practical theology and in proceedings of human-computer interaction conferences, in nursing journals and in bioethics, in English and German and several other languages. Much of it does not cite the rest. A chaplain, a researcher or an ethicist arriving at the question has no obvious place to start.
This site is an attempt at that starting place: what has been published, what the arguments actually are, and where the work is being done. It collects the field's own literature rather than any one group's output, and it is added to as new work appears.
Six topics the literature is debating.
The oldest and least settled question in the literature. Presence, attentive accompaniment without an agenda, is what most traditions treat as the heart of spiritual care. Indeed, spiritual care is often called a "ministry of presence". AI cannot be present in the way humans can. Authors divide over whether this is a limit of current systems or a limit in principle.
Few authors argue that AI should simply replace the chaplain. But there is debate over which parts of the work can be handed over, and what is lost when they are. The literature argues over ethically, theologically and professionally appropriate relationships with AI systems — abdication, substitution, assistance, enhancement, delegation, collaboration.
The field of care robotics is rapidly progressing through the integration with AI systems. Care robots raise everything the chatbot debate raises, but bring into it the added dimension of a physically embodied system: who is accountable when a care robot causes harm, who gets access to one, and what it means for a body to be tended by a machine.
Three domains where AI and spiritual care meet in practice.
A smaller, more recent body of work looks at use rather than principle: people forming attachments to companion apps, visitors speaking to an AI avatar in a chapel, nurses describing what they see on the ward.
A strand from human-computer interaction asks what changes when chaplains and faith leaders are in the room while a system is designed and stress-tested, rather than consulted afterwards.
The least discussed and probably most widespread use: machine learning applied to documentation, screening and measurement. Spiritual care is often poorly captured in health records, and AI — depending on how it is configured and used — may either worsen or improve the situation.
Places and resources to go deeper.
A structured, citable repository of case studies from spiritual care and clinical ethics. Cases are contributed by practitioners worldwide, de-identified, and recorded against a common schema. The aim is to make case studies publicly available so they can be used for spiritual care research, practice, and education. A structured repository of real cases also helps AI systems understand what spiritual care is, and how chaplains work.
A network of spiritual care providers, managers and researchers working at a distance, with practice guidelines, recorded events and an AI special-interest group. It meets several times a year online, hosted by the University of Zurich and Transforming Chaplaincy. Participation is free.
"Digital Spiritual Care: Towards a Vision for Compassionate Care in Digital Health" is a three-year international project funded by the John Templeton Foundation to empower chaplains to become leaders in digital health. Rush University, Zurich, Heidelberg and Virginia Commonwealth.
The library is added to as work appears. If you have published something that belongs here, or a correction to an entry, please send it.