Spiritual Care in the Military in Times of Accelerated Digitalization, Technological Advancement, and Societal Upheaval
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2025.532Keywords:
spiritual care, military chaplaincy, autonomous weapons, digital humanities, ethics of war, military and spiritualityAbstract
In this paper, I explore the concept of spiritual care in contemporary society. Drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical studies, as well as sociological and religious perspectives, I argue that within the Western cultural and political context, spiritual care has been gradually shifting from traditional pastoral models – closely tied to the practices of dominant religious institutions – toward pluralistic, interreligious, and humanist-secular forms of spiritual support.
The article examines the impact of the development of autonomous weapon systems and the information revolution, both of which contribute, directly or indirectly, to new forms of dehumanization and large-scale destruction. It analyses how various models of spiritual care – religious and humanist alike – respond to these transformations. Particular attention is devoted to the notion of moral injury, which has gained significant attention in recent religious and psychological scholarship, as the technological processes and socio-political changes of the present era appear to intensify such experiences of trauma.
This study suggests that spiritual care remains one of the few domains in which, amid the accelerated evolution of artificial intelligence and autonomous weaponry, direct human presence and ethical reflection continue to hold an essential place. This perspective enables an understanding of spiritual care as a holistic form of humanistic concern for the spirituality of the human being – an approach that transcends rigid geographical, religious, and normative boundaries.
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