While chaplains are required in the military, federal prisons, and the Veteran’s Administration, they are also present in a range of other settings across the United States. In ports, religiously motivated individuals and institutions have long histories of evangelizing and providing social services. We focus on chaplains in 15 of the largest American ports today to ask how they negotiate access to seafarers and how they work with them daily. Chaplains negotiate security protocols, the hierarchy of ships, and their own self-presentations to get on board vessels. In their daily work, they shift among economic, moral, religious, and advocacy roles. Chaplains access seafarers by providing economic support and then use that access to develop the relationships they see as central to their work. By being present in these relationships, connecting seafarers to broader communities, and serving as an invisible global safety net, port chaplains see themselves acting as humanizing agents of modern capitalism. The case of port chaplaincy suggests additional strategies chaplains use to gain access not yet present in the sociological literature, further illustrates how the work of chaplains is shaped by the institutions within which it takes place, and expands sociological approaches to religion “on the edge” by showing multiple ways religion appears at the water’s edge not yet theorized in that literature.

中文翻译：

---

现代资本主义的人性化代理人？港口牧师的日常工作

虽然军队、联邦监狱和退伍军人管理局都需要牧师，但他们也出现在美国各地的一系列其他环境中。在港口，有宗教动机的个人和机构在传福音和提供社会服务方面有着悠久的历史。我们关注当今美国 15 个最大港口的牧师，询问他们如何与海员谈判，以及他们如何每天与他们合作。牧师协商安全协议、船舶等级和他们自己的自我介绍，以登上船舶。在日常工作中，他们在经济、道德、宗教和倡导角色之间转换。牧师通过提供经济支持来接触海员，然后利用这种接触来发展他们认为对工作至关重要的关系。通过出现在这些关系中，将海员与更广泛的社区联系起来，并作为一个无形的全球安全网，港口牧师将自己视为现代资本主义的人性化代理人。港口牧师的案例表明牧师用来获得社会学文献中尚未出现的访问的其他策略，进一步说明牧师的工作如何受到其发生的机构的影响，并扩展了“边缘”宗教的社会学方法通过展示宗教出现在水边的多种方式，该文献尚未理论化。