The Roles of Religion and Spirituality in Healthcare

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide context for how healthcare practices benefit from or are impeded by a person’s religious and/or spiritual (R/S) beliefs and practices. We build on the work of George Engel (1977), who, in describing the need to expand medicine from biology alone to the biopsychosocial model, asked, “When is Grief a Disease?”. Implicit in this question is the answer that some things that may look like disease are part of the lived human experience and can only be understood in their cultural and social contexts. Recent research has found that spirituality has a unique vocabulary and place in healing, in addition to the psychological and social realms. This Special Issue will offer introductory essays that explore these ideas and articles that provide specific examples from medical practice.

Aims and Scope:

We are pleased to announce that this Special Issue, “The Roles of Religion and Spirituality in Healthcare”, is dedicated to studies focused on the interface of religion and healthcare, with particular attention to the roles that religion and spirituality can play in illness management, maintenance, and recovery. Historically, religion and health have been intricately connected. Healing through prayer is central to many religions and numerous positive health benefits have been associated with religion. Likewise, adverse health outcomes have connections to religious distress. Consequently, this Special Issue aims to shed light on the ways in which religion and spirituality can impact healthcare.

The Special Issue is inclusive of every religious tradition and connections to medicine and healthcare. Specialties can range from obstetrics and pediatrics to geriatrics and end-of-life care. Topics can range from diagnosis and preventive medicine to medical management and palliative care. Medical doctors, chaplains, nurses, psychologists, and social workers, among those from other allied health disciplines, are welcome to contribute to this Special Issue and delve into the intricate interplay between health, healing, and wellbeing from religious and spiritual contexts. Clergy who interface with the healthcare system are also welcome to submit contributions.

Suggested themes and article types for submissions:

This Special Issue of Religions is dedicated to studies focused on the interface of religion and healthcare, with particular attention to the roles religion and spirituality can play in illness management, maintenance, and recovery. Religion and health are linked in complex and varying ways. From the perspective of the religious adherent, prayer and rituals may be central aspects of healing. Patients making medical decisions at critical points in life, such as pregnancy, birth, and death, often consult the clergy. Religion can also be a source of hope that encourages a person to adhere to medical treatments (Osler, 1910). In contrast, religious adherents may hold beliefs that question the morality of or the need for medical intervention. From the perspective of health science, numerous positive health benefits have been associated with religion (Balboni et. al., 2022. Likewise, adverse health outcomes have connections to religious distress (Koenig, VanderWheele, & Peteet, 2023).

Recognizing the connection between religion and health, numerous efforts have encouraged and trained medical professionals in inquiring about patients’ religious and spiritual lives (Puchalski). However, ambivalence about such integration persists and often stems from the complexity of determining the role of medical professionals in intervening in religious and spiritual matters, the role of physicians’ personal beliefs in medical care, and unclear paths for collaboration among medical professionals, religious leaders, and patients (Sloan, 2006). Consequently, this Special Issue aims to shed light on the role religion and spirituality can play in healthcare processes, surfacing both the complexity and the utility of the inclusion of religious and spiritual inquiry in medical care.

This Special Issue is inclusive of every religious tradition as well as personal spiritual orientation and their connections to medicine and healthcare. We seek contributions concerning patient populations throughout their lifespan: from obstetrics and pediatrics to geriatrics and end-of-life care. Topics can range from assessment, diagnosis, and preventive medicine to medical decision-making, treatment, management, and palliative care. We welcome contributions from physicians, chaplains, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and other allied healthcare professionals who can showcase how religion and spirituality factor into their work. Clergy members who interface with the healthcare system are also welcome to submit contributions.

In this Special Issue, we welcome a variety of methodologies and perspectives: original research articles, reviews, critical analyses, practical insights, first-person accounts, and case studies. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Hope and healing through religious traditions (prayer, rituals, places of pilgrimage);
• Religious and spiritual beliefs and positive health outcomes;
• Religious struggles and adverse health effects;
• Religious struggles among healthcare providers;
• Moral injury;
• Religion, spirituality, and mental health, including suicidology;
• Religion, spirituality, and coping strategies;
• Roles of religion and spirituality in public mental health and sustained recovery;
• Roles of religion and spirituality in substance abuse treatment and recovery;
• Religion, spirituality, and reproductive health issues such as surrogacy and prenatal diagnosis;
• Religion, spirituality, and medical professional boundaries (e.g., proselytizing);
• Interfacing with community clergy in healthcare settings (from either the perspective of clergy or healthcare practitioners).

Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Keywords: religion, spirituality, healthcare; religious faith and medical considerations; health and spirituality

References:

Engel, G. L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196(4286), 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.847460

Koenig, H. G., VanderWeele, T., & Peteet, J. R. (2023). Handbook of Religion and Health (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/handbook-of-religion-and-health-9780190088859?cc=us&lang=en&#

Balboni, T. A., VanderWeele, T. J., Doan-Soares, S. D., Long, K. N. G., Ferrell, B. R., Fitchett, G., Koenig, H. G., Bain, P. A., Puchalski, C. M., Steinhauser, K. E., Sulmasy, D. P., & Koh, H. K. (2022). Spirituality in Serious Illness and Health. JAMA, 328(2), 184-197. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.11086

Osler, W. (1910). The Faith that Heals. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 1(2581), 1470-1472. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.2581.1470

Sloan, R. P. (2006). Blind faith: The unholy alliance of religion and medicine. Macmillan.

Dr. Anne Klee
Dr. Arielle Rubenstein
Dr. Glen Milstein
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religion, spirituality, and healthcare
• religious faith and medical considerations
• health and spirituality