Publications
Scholarly Publications
Wendy Cadge’s research explores issues in contemporary American religion. She has a longstanding interest in how religion and spirituality are present in public institutions including ports, airports, healthcare organizations, Congress, institutions of higher education, and other sites. She regularly asks questions about professionalization in these settings and has separate lines of research about ethics committees and the moral lives of healthcare professionals. Earlier bodies of research explored Buddhism in America, conflicts over sexuality in religious organizations, and questions of religion and immigration. She regularly writes about epistemological and methodological issues in the social scientific study of religion and about teaching.
To see lists of selected articles organized by category, please make use of the links which appear below the book section.
Books
Chaplaincy and Seafarers – Faith at Work
(Oxford University Press, July 2024). A unique account of the perspectives of port chaplains and seafarers. Presents rich primary research from fieldnotes and interviews.
Spiritual Care: The Everyday Work of Chaplains
(Oxford University Press, November 2022). Shows how local religious life–congregations, theological schools, other religious leaders–shapes the work of chaplains. Learn more.
Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care in the Twenty-First Century
(The University of North Carolina Press, 2022). Written by a team of multidisciplinary experts and drawing on ongoing research at the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab at Brandeis University, this book identifies three central competencies—individual, organizational, and meaning-making—that all chaplains must have, and it provides the resources for building those skills. Learn more.
Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine
(University of Chicago Press, 2012). Analyzes how religion and spirituality are present and negotiated by physicians, nurses, chaplains and other healthcare workers in large academic hospitals. Learn more.
Religion on the Edge: De-Centering and
Re-centering the Sociology of Religion with
Courtney Bender, Peggy Levitt and David Smilde.
Eds. (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada
Buddhism in America (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Examines how immigrant Buddhists from Thailand and mostly white convert Buddhists understand and practice Buddhism in the United States.
.
Selected Articles
Wendy Cadge’s writings fall into a number of categories, some occupying more than one. Please see the following pages.
• Religion in Public Institutions
• Spirituality and Religion in Healthcare
• Spirituality and Religion in Higher Education
• Ethics Committees in Healthcare Organizations
• The Moral Lives of Healthcare Professionals
• Airport Chapels and Chaplains
• Conflicts over Sexuality in Religious Organizations
• Theoretical and Methodological Issues in the Study of Religion