Confessions of a Circuit Rider: A Marginal Chaplain's Apocalyptic and Disjointed Journal

Chaplaincy. Pastoral care. Ministry. The care of souls. What lies beneath that which lies beneath them?

Like Virgil, chaplain Stephen Faller guides an unusual tour winding through personal disclosure about ministry, adoption, chaplaincy, and disability. Contextualized within chaplaincy and clinical pastoral education, Faller examines these “visions from a little-known country.”

Within the landscape are the sights of living in a post-9/11 world as they prefigure the change and uncertainty that marked American life and ministry after the pandemic of 2020.

A conclusion to “a dialectical inquiry at the end of the world,” Faller explores the history of philosophy and religion in order to navigate an already unusual life within strange times. Essential reading for chaplains, and helpful insights for all those within the helping professions. As ministry continues to move beyond the surrounding walls of the institutional building, Faller suggests that chaplaincy can be a meaningful space for ordained ministry as one of the great “spaces between spaces.” Moreover, this confessor’s confession spells a way for storytellers and story collectors to find direction when meaning is lost. Chaplaincy itself is a meaningful response to a world turned upside down.