Engaging Humanism in Spiritual Care
A Collegial Conversation Across Wisdom Traditions
A first-of-its-kind online symposium exploring Humanist contributions to spiritual care through dialogue across wisdom traditions.
In 2026, the International Association for Spiritual Care launched Engaging Humanism in Spiritual Care: A Collegial Conversation Across Wisdom Traditions, an online symposium conceived as an ongoing space for reflection, dialogue, and mutual learning.
Rather than a conventional conference built around a fixed program of presentations, the symposium unfolded progressively through essays, written responses, and online discussion. Humanism provided the starting point for a broader conversation about spiritual care in pluralistic contexts.
A First-of-Its-Kind Conversation
The symposium created a distinctive opportunity to place Humanistic approaches to spiritual care in sustained conversation with other wisdom traditions and worldviews.
Its purpose was to:
- identify and acknowledge Humanist contributions to spiritual care;
- foster comparative reflection across traditions;
- explore areas of convergence and genuine difference;
- consider how different traditions might enrich one another;
- and open possibilities for future collaboration and publication.
The initiative reflected IASC’s commitment to interfaith, intercultural, interdisciplinary, and international exchange in the field of spiritual care.
The Conversation Began with Humanism
The symposium opened with three essays on spiritual care from Humanistic perspectives.
These texts provided a common point of departure for participants and invited reflection on questions of human dignity, meaning, relationship, responsibility, suffering, agency, and flourishing.
Participants were encouraged to consider:
- Where do Humanism and other wisdom traditions converge?
- Where do significant differences remain?
- How might these perspectives enrich one another?
- Could Humanist concepts offer a shared language across traditions and disciplines?
Reading, Reflection, and Dialogue
Registered participants were invited to read the essays and engage in a dedicated online discussion space.
The format allowed the symposium to unfold over time, giving participants an opportunity to reflect before contributing and allowing the conversation to develop beyond the limits of a single meeting or conference session.
The purpose was not to erase differences among traditions, but to explore them critically, respectfully, and collegially.
Vineet Chander
A Hindu Perspective
Bhakti Beyond Finitude: A Hindu Response to Humanistic Spiritual Care
Writing from a Hindu perspective, Vineet Chander identifies meaningful affinities with Humanistic spiritual care around dignity, reflection, responsibility, relationality, and human flourishing.
At the same time, he raises deeper questions concerning the nature of the self, transcendence, the grounding of dignity, and the source of meaning, drawing particularly on Vedānta and Bhakti traditions.
M. Mookie C. Manalili
A Roman Catholic and Psychotherapeutic Perspective
At the ‘Wound’ of Humanity: A Humble (Migrant) Roman Catholic and Psychotherapeutic Response to Humanism in Spiritual Care
M. Mookie C. Manalili engages the Humanist essays from the perspective of a Roman Catholic practical theologian and clinician shaped by relational psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
The response identifies areas of convergence around suffering, dignity, humanization, relational accompaniment, and care, while also maintaining significant theological differences concerning revelation, Incarnation, grace, and Mystery.
Hans Alma
Religious Humanism
Understanding Religious Humanism
Hans Alma broadens the conversation by exploring Religious Humanism as a worldview capable of holding together Humanistic commitments to dignity, responsibility, compassion, imagination, and flourishing with an openness to wonder, mystery, and participation in a greater whole.
Her contribution also challenges any simple opposition between what is considered “religious” and “Humanist.”
Dialogue Without Reducing Difference
One of the central insights reflected in the symposium was that meaningful dialogue does not require participants to arrive at the same understanding of spiritual care.
Across the contributions, shared concerns emerge around dignity, suffering, meaning, relationship, responsibility, and compassionate accompaniment.
At the same time, important differences remain concerning the human person, transcendence, God, finitude, selfhood, and ultimate reality.
The symposium approached these differences not simply as obstacles to overcome, but as opportunities for deeper reflection and mutual learning.
A Continuing Contribution to Spiritual Care
The 2026 Online Symposium extended IASC’s ongoing work of fostering dialogue across religious, spiritual, Humanistic, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries.
By beginning with Humanism and inviting responses from other wisdom traditions, the symposium created a space in which spiritual care could be explored comparatively and critically while remaining grounded in collegial exchange.
The essays and responses produced through this process remain as a resource for the continuing exploration of spiritual care in an increasingly pluralistic world.
Symposium Conveners
Carmen Schuhmann, Ph.D.
University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Daniel Schipani, Dr. Psy., Ph.D.
President of the International Association for Spiritual Care