Religion, Spirituality, Well-Being and Positive Psychology

Dear Colleagues,

The topic of interactions between religion and well-being as well as mental health has been and continues to be an object of ongoing research in the psychology of religion, and surely falls squarely both within the scope of the discipline’s foundational focus and its current empirical inquiry and studies. The aim of this Special Issue of Religions, “Religion, Spirituality, Well-Being and Positive Psychology” is to go beyond the classical approach applied in the mainstream of the psychology of religion. First, the Special Issue will reach beyond the classical, Western understating of religion and religiosity and embrace such terms as spirituality or existential research in its scope. Then, it will also extend beyond the WEIRD sample, with studies conducted on groups outside the traditional context of Western culture being particularly welcome. Also, as it is one of the aims of many journals on religion (e.g., Archive for the Psychology of Religion) to go beyond traditional samples composed of Western sophomore students (of psychology in the case of this discipline), it centers on a collaboration between the Guest Editors of this volume—one working in the context of the psychology of religion in Europe and the second working at a Thai university in the field of anthropology and religious studies. Then, it stretches beyond narrow approaches to mental health and well-being by applying the approaches of humanistic and positive psychology, encouraging the study of such psychological phenomena as happiness, mindfulness, personal growth and self-development, eudaimonia, flourishing, healthcare practices and well-being issues both inside and outside the clinical context from all perspectives possible—be they situated within cultural psychology or the clinical, developmental, behavioural, social, political, etc. Last but not least, we pay attention to the methods and methodologies applied—we strongly encourage researchers who use qualitative methods in their studies (engaged social sciences included) and study understudied religious/spiritual groups (like new religious movements, minorities, indigenous religions from psychological perspective, migrants, refugees, unprivileged groups, etc.). We find the journal Religions as an inclusive, open space to provide us with a platform to communicate our research or engage in theoretical, historical or methodological debates. The lead Guest Editor of this Special Issue hails from the Institute of Psychology, Ignatianum University in Kraków, Poland, the mission of which is to give voice and space to the unprivileged in academia, so we encourage researchers from both renowned universities and from smaller ones, experienced academics and those at the beginning of their careers (like PhD candidates and post-docs), from various ethnic backgrounds and groups, and also those academics preferring more “cameral”, qualitative studies that relatively rarely fall within the scope of major journals in the field of psychology or medical sciences.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome, and research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Mutual relations between religion/spirituality and well-being;
• Existential health—one of the major topics for positive psychology;
• The role of religion and spirituality in positive and humanistic psychology approaches—from historical and theoretical inquiry to empirical studies;
• Religion, spirituality and mental health and well-being;
• The psychology of spiritual counselling and existential issues;
• Positive psychology and its topics (self-development, happiness, the quality of life) and the psychology of religion and spirituality;
• The religion and spirituality of marginalized groups and their relationships to well-being and mental health;
• Positive and humanistic psychology in the history of the psychology of religion and spirituality;
• Theories of spirituality—between psychology, anthropology and religious studies;
• Spiritual well-being and health;
• The religion, spirituality and well-being of healthcare professionals;
• Spirituality and personal development;
• The positive psychology of marginalized groups and the psychology of religion and spirituality;
• Engaged social research in the fields of the psychology of religion/spirituality and religious studies;
• Qualitative studies in positive psychology and religion/spirituality/existential issues;
• The methodology of the psychology of religion and spirituality;
• Mindfulness, well-being and health;
• Spirituality and religion in gender perspective—aspects of positive psychology themes;
• Religion and spirituality in humanistic psychotherapy.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

All the best,

Dr. Adam Anczyk
Prof. Dr. Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska
Dr. Anna M. Maćkowiak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• psychology of religion
• spirituality
• well-being
• positive psychology
• humanistic psychology
• mindfulness
• happiness and religion/spirituality
• spirituality and mental health
• religion and migration