A Commentary on Michael King. “The Challenge of Research into Religion and Spirituality.” Journal for the Study of Spirituality 4 (2014): 106–20

Abstract

King's publication based on a key note presentation at the 2014 British Association of the Study of Spirituality (BASS) conference, a well written and thought provoking paper, leads us to consider the contribution of this critique of spirituality research to contemporary debates on the topic The views expressed within the paper are important and foster debate about the validity of research in the field of spirituality and religion. However, at the same time, this debate is reminiscent of the negative responses sometimes expressed about research publications in this field. At the same time, it must be recognised that there is a view held that there is an extra yard stick required for researchers in this field, who can be subjected to much higher standards and expectations than other researchers simply because of the topic and the deep seated conflicting views that advocates and critics hold. This paper considers the merits and challenges of this paper in light of this.Keywords: spirituality; religion; evidence-based practice BackgroundKing's [1] publication, based on a keynote presentation at the 2014 British Association of the Study of Spirituality (BASS) conference, was well written and thought provoking. King's paper argues that although there is a body of published research in existence, which attempts to demonstrate a positive association between religion and health, that such findings could possibly be and often are, inflated. He contends that in essence, the health gain from attending to the spiritual or religious needs of service users is extremely limited, and that spirituality divorced from religious practice may indeed be associated with a worsening of mental and emotional well-being of a person. DiscussionAlthough King admits that research into this whole realm is on-going and expanding, he identifies a number of pitfalls, which are presented in relation to the current on-going research [1]. He argues

‘You never come back the same’: the challenge of spiritual care in a deployed military nursing context

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