Caritas et veritas 2017, 7(1):136-147 | DOI: 10.32725/cetv.2017.015

Why Does a Social Worker Act in a Fanatic, Cynical, or Composed Manner? On the Relationship Between Spirituality and the Moral Attitude towards What Cannot Be Changed

Vojtěch Šimek

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Teologická fakulta, Katedra filosofie a religionistiky, Kněžská 8, 370 01 České Budějovice

The author begins by researching Czech relevant sources and contributes to the Czech expert discussion about spirituality and social work. His contribution is based on Christian philosophy and theology. The author analyses some basic relations between the selected central aspect of spirituality of the social worker and his moral attitude to what cannot be changed and what bothers him; the selected aspect is the search for the objective meaning of life. The author shows the relations with a selected typology - a fanatic, a cynic, a composed stoic, and a composed Christian - and offers to social workers and social work students an inspirational typological tool for self-reflection. The general analysis is illustrated with simple examples, also from the author's own experience. The main conclusion is that the spirituality of a social worker, in his moral attitude to what cannot be changed and what bothers him, has an integrating, but also destructive potential. This destructive potential is present in the spirituality of a fanatic and a cynic. To what extent it is possible to talk about an integrating potential in the spirituality of a composed stoic depends on the reader's perspective. According to the author, the greatest potential for integration is in the spirituality of a composed Christian.

Keywords: Christianity and social work, social work and spirituality, meaning of life, fanaticism, cynicism, Stoicism

Published: March 30, 2017  Show citation