NCP Domain 5 · Spiritual, Religious & Existential Aspects
Secular / Humanist / Existential Values
"Values" doesn't have to mean religious values. If you're secular, humanist, atheist, agnostic, or simply not sure, this page explains what the evidence shows about meaning-making, existential care, and chaplaincy support that doesn't presuppose religious belief.
Viewing as: Patient & Family · Change
Scope: secular structured interventions for existential distress, worldview-inclusive chaplaincy models, and evidence on serving religiously unaffiliated patients. Includes one documented counterpoint on faith-based chaplaincy's distinct value. This topic does not resolve which model serves patients better. Humanist institutional positions are named in prose only below, pending live verification.
Clinical evidence
A clinical framework synthesis found meaning-centered psychotherapy and dignity therapy address existential distress in serious illness through secular, structured interventions rather than religious counsel, associated with greater will to live and reduced stress in the literature synthesized.
Participatory action research with a Dutch multifaith chaplaincy team documented that worldview — including secular and humanist worldview, not only organized religion — is a legitimate basis for chaplaincy professional identity in secular contexts.
A theoretical model proposes 'existential well-being' — not religious salvation or observance — as chaplaincy's goal in a secular age, an explicit first-class framework that does not presuppose religious belief.
A position article argues faith-based chaplaincy provides distinct advantages even amid declining religiosity, explicitly framed as a counterargument to the secularist-humanist perspective — included here as a documented counterpoint, since this topic does not resolve which model serves patients better.
A qualitative study of 5 chaplains found one in four American patients now identify as religiously unaffiliated; chaplains described spiritual caregiving as still contributing to holistic wellbeing for the spiritual-but-not-religious, secular humanist, atheist, and agnostic, and proposed an assessment tool designed for this population specifically rather than adapted from religious frameworks.
A qualitative study of 16 bereaved parents in Beijing found nonreligious parents still sought religious support facing their child's death but also needed distinctly nonreligious supports — bereavement services, death education, family support groups — documenting that nonreligious identity is not monolithic.
A scholarly commentary examines what is distinctive about a chaplain's role in working with nonreligious patients specifically, in a society where more people define themselves as not religious, arguing case studies reveal what chaplains actually do rather than relying on thin, stereotyped accounts of religion.
Humanist institutional positions: pending live verification
Documented institutional positions are named here in prose only, without formal citations, because our verification pipeline has not yet completed a live check of their source documents: Humanists UK materials document that humanist meaning in death comes from personal relationships, legacy, and impact on others rather than religious or supernatural belief, and that humanist pastoral support should be available in hospitals and nursing homes alongside religious chaplains, not treated as secondary; the American Humanist Association documents an institutional position affirming the right of every person to choose death when the dignity, value, and satisfaction of life is impossible despite currently available therapies, alongside an affirmed responsibility to plan for one's own death. Per our methodology, a reference doesn't become a citation until it passes verification, including well-known ones.
Topics whose published claims share NCP domains with this page.