Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

Foreword

To date, two areas of behavioral science have informed one another too seldomly- positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality. Each subfield has now accumulated decades of empirically grounded wisdom on the practices and processes by which people can best forge their better selves. In uniting these two subfields, this innovative Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality leverages the accumulated evidence from each subfield and builds the case for further synergies between them. Whether people seek to be more joyful or peaceful, or more centered or moral, these seekers will be better served by deeper, more frequent, and more substantive cross-fertilization between these two scientific domains.

This scholarly fusion is well-timed. In an era of rising threat and mushrooming uncertainty, increasing numbers of pandemic-weary people are struggling to nurture and maintain their mental well-being and hope. Growing social divisiveness has eroded civility worldwide, undermining many people's faith in humanity. Making matters worse, all manner of scandals and greed have surfaced within traditional religious institutions. Eroded public trust in these institutions thus has often made them unattractive sources of solace. Against this backdrop, increasing numbers of people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" appear more likely to mix-and-match their own self-styled spiritual practices than to accept-or even explore-the longstanding prebundled practices that are offered by established religions.

Both personally and professionally, I find the fusion of positive psychology with the science of religion and spirituality to be generative. Having dedicated my career to establishing the science of positive emotions, I frequently use the insight that positive emotions both broaden and build to guide me toward personal spiritual practices that most effectively open my heart and mind and build my resilience and resolve. Seen through these lenses, nature hikes, meditation, and slow stretch yoga have become soul-satisfying "go-to" practices when I feel unmoored. By contrast, religious or spiritual practices that leave me feeling cold fail to sustain my attention.

In my professional life, seeds to integrate the science of religion and spirituality into my research program on positive psychology were first planted in twenty ten, when

I accepted the invitation to become a Templeton Research Fellow at the Danielsen Institute at Boston University. My charge was to explore the intersection of religious and psychological well-being. The ensuing six lectures I delivered at Boston University became the framework for my twenty thirteen book, Love two point zero, which in turn became a roadmap for my team's work in our Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More seeds were sown in twenty twelve when Patty Van Cappellen joined the PEP Lab, at first as a visiting doctoral student and eventually as a post-doctoral fellow and assistant research professor. She brought a deep scholarly understanding of religion and spirituality to the table, and since then, we together have investigated how religion and spirituality shape and are shaped by positive emotions. Dr. Van Cappellen's contributions to the subfields of positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality have since been honored with multiple early career awards, and I am fortunate to continue to learn from and with her.

The accumulating evidence, from my and others' research teams, has convinced me that both domains of inquiry-positive psychology and the science of religion and spirituality-unpack a multitude of complementary practices and processes that help people, relationships, and communities flourish. Flourishing, by definition, fuses individual psychological well-being with contributions to the greater societal good, thereby providing foundations for morality and spirituality. As I put it in my book Love two point zero:

I've been particularly drawn to religious writings that shine a spotlight on experiences of oneness and connection, because those are part of the signature of love. In these moments, borders seem to evaporate and you feel part of something far larger than yourself, be it nature, eternity, humanity, or the divine. Following in William James's footsteps, I take spirituality to revolve around expansive emotional moments like these. Philosophical and theological formulas are secondary products, like translations of a text into another tongue.

I especially resonate with how George Vaillant equates spirituality with positive emotions, noting that these states are what connect you to others, to the divine, and over time help you attain wisdom and maturity. As Vaillant succinctly concludes "Love is the shortest definition of spirituality I know."

These potent, boundary-blurring and heart-expanding experiences of positivity resonance that you share with others are not merely an academic concept or a poetic flourish. Positivity resonance changes your biochemistry in ways scientists are only just beginning to grasp. In this way, love and health cocreate each other in your life. At the same time, this reciprocal, upward spiral dynamic between micro-moments of love and lasting changes in your health forges a path toward your higher spiritual sense of oneness.

My team has since documented, through randomized field experiments, that when people begin a spiritual practice, like loving-kindness meditation, they build up their flourishing mental health. Likewise, when they begin a positive psychology practice, like forging more everyday moments of social connection, they build up their spirituality. Yet current understandings of these mutual influences barely scratch the surface. Further integration of these subfields will take us deeper, as is one of the central theses of this Handbook. To the science of religion and spirituality, for instance, positive psychology can bring fresh hypotheses about bio- psychosocial mechanisms. To positive psychology, the science of religion and spirituality can bring fresh concepts and measures to better capture ineffable experiences that seekers and believers might characterize as divine, sacred, or spirit-filled. It will also be vital to investigate the processes by which secular practices become sacred and whether and to what degree such sanctification increases the benefits of those practices.

In short, this new Handbook offers fresh seeds to germinate in the minds of researchers, practitioners, and laypeople worldwide. In the coming decades, when these ideas have fully taken root as tested hypotheses across wide-ranging research projects and real-world settings, we will have accumulated greater scientific understanding, better science, and more impactful applications of that science. Humanity sorely needs deeper scientific understandings-based on evidence gathered across continents, cultures, and social classes-of the practices and processes that support human flourishing. For some, that science might inspire a course correction in their life's journey. In aggregate, those course corrections stand to uplift all of humanity.

Eight Methodological Diversity in Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

Contributors