Religion and human flourishing

ABSTRACT

Can religion promote human flourishing? Existing research says yes. However, this work has largely been done within ‘WEIRD’ and Christian contexts. Might the reasons why or the answer be different elsewhere? Here, we outline how religion can contribute to flourishing among individuals and cultures using a cross-cultural approach. In five sections, we cover how religion and culture shape meaning in life, character/virtue, positive emotion, social relationships, and physical/mental health. We emphasize how little these relationships have been studied around the world and why the relationship between religion and flourishing, especially, would be aided by a cross-cultural look. We close with future directions in the study of religion and flourishing, with special attention to how and why this relationship may vary across cultural and religious groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Flourishing
• religion
• global perspectives
• cross-cultural
• well-being

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Public significance statement

Religion is understood to promote human flourishing, but this research has not been studied sufficiently outside of Western, Christian contexts. Yet, there is reason to believe and importance in studying how domains of flourishing differ across religious and cultural contexts.

Notes

1. Positive emotion encompasses experiences of positive mood, specific positive emotions (i.e. gratitude, awe), and overall positive attitudes about one’s life (i.e. life satisfaction, psychological well-being, emotional well-being).

Additional information

Funding

This work originated at a meeting of the Global Scientific Conference on Human Flourishing in Phoenix, Arizona, sponsored by the Templeton World Charity Foundation [grant #2022-30689]. ASW is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. JWM acknowledges funding from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche [under the Investissement d’Avenir programme, grant #ANR-17-EURE-0010] and the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. [grant #30290]. ABC’s contribution was supported by a grant from the United States Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences [grant #W911NF-17-1-0175], the Florida State University Research Foundation [grant #3194 from the John Templeton Foundation], and Templeton World Charity [grant #2022-30279].