Lawrence A. Whitney

Background

About Lawrence A. Whitney

Over fifteen years as a higher education chaplain at Boston and Brandeis Universities I have honed my approach to chaplaincy as a person-centered human services profession that attends to spiritual health as a component of a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. In my chaplaincy work I have advocated for equity and inclusion of marginalized members of the community, fostered interfaith engagement and programming, and contributed to policy efforts in line with these emphases, developing and implementing religious life and accommodation policies, and serving on the Provost’s Free Speech Committee. As a scholar, my research focuses on the cognitive and cultural dynamics of the dramatically changing religious landscape in the United States. I recently published the first empirical study of Confucianism in America, and current research projects investigate religion, race, and the Covid-19 pandemic; entheogens, religious experience, and health applications; and ritual as a medium of social cognition.