Researcher of the Month, April 2025: Chris Swift
Our April Researcher of the Month is Revd Dr Chris Swift, Director of the Leeds Church Institute (LCI), with which CRPL has well-established ties.
Tell us a little about your research journey?
My journey into research started back in the 1990s. I embarked on a PhD exploring the current operation of health care chaplaincy in the NHS. That took me in several directions, from understanding something of the history of chaplaincy to conducting some autoethnography. The nature of power and the role of the Established Church also came into it, with a lot of politics in chaplaincy in the early years of this century. This led to me publishing the book Hospital Chaplaincy in the Twenty-first Century (Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empirical Theology) (Routledge: 2009/2015).
I have taken part in several research projects in healthcare settings, and in social care. In care homes this involved a longitudinal qualitative study investigating the changing experiences of chaplains as they accompanied and supported older people through a year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What are you currently, or about to start, working on?
I’ve recently completed a sabbatical project exploring and re-evaluating the writing and preaching of the 18th century vicar-novelist, Laurence Sterne. This led to a book focusing on the surprising nature of what Sterne wrote (he’s most celebrated for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman) and many of the connections to the Church of England today. This work includes Sterne’s correspondence with the black British abolitionist, Ignatius Sancho, and his use of satire to highlight the repeated exclusion of women in debates and decisions about their own bodies. Sterne’s many references to a particular understanding of conception in the 18th century has led me into a consideration of biblical views of conception and how this might impact Christian understandings of the Incarnation.
On 2 December 2024 I took up a new role as director of the Leeds Church Institute. This is a Leeds-based charity that goes back to the middle of the 19th century and has a commitment to theological and religious education. It sponsors an MA student at the University of Leeds and produces a quarterly journal, CITYtheology. At this stage I’m conducting a strategic review in order to work with the trustees and determine the next stage in LCI’s development. I’ve no doubt, whatever direction we take, theology will be at the heart of our strategy.
In what way(s) do you feel your research examines the role of religion in public life and the relationship between the two?
The thing I have always found most fascinating about chaplaincy is that questions about the role of religion in daily life are central. People involved in chaplaincy often get asked about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Simultaneously, chaplains have the opportunity to put unusual questions to the assumptions of secular values and practices. For example, I recall being approached by the catering manager at Dewsbury Hospital and asked to explain why the take-up of Halal meals was far below the known number of Muslim patients. Working alongside my Muslim colleague we were able to explain that in many Muslim families a shared meal is an act of worship. By bringing food onto the wards the family was continuing to include their hospitalised relative in the religious life of the home. No matter what the hospital did, it was not possible to reproduce what the family was offering – which was more than physical nutrition.
Doing research from within this kind of inter-faith practice enables a richer narrative of care to be developed. On several occasions I’ve witnessed how the diversity of faiths represented on a hospital ward, or in intensive care, stimulates conversations which might not have taken place otherwise. On one occasion I was paged to attend ICU on a Saturday afternoon. The mother of a young man mortally injured in a traffic accident had been approached to consider giving permission for organ donation. In the next bed was a Muslim patient whose family had been asked the same question. When the two families spoke it became clear that religion was influencing the Muslim family’s decision. That made the Christian mother of the young man wonder what her faith taught about organ donation. Having expressed this concern, the staff on the ward paged the chaplain and we had a lengthy pastoral, and theological, discussion.
Religion is far more significant in public life than popular perception might imagine, or the media portray. It is a part of daily discussions and significant decisions. Research allows a more disciplined exploration of this kind of experience, ensuring that religious and spiritual needs are recognised and understood.
[Image provided by and used with the permission of Chris Swift]