Religious Communities and Human Flourishing

Abstract

Participation in religious services is associated with numerous aspects of human flourishing, including happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. Evidence for the effects of religious communities on these flourishing outcomes now comes from rigorous longitudinal study designs with extensive confounding control. The associations with flourishing are much stronger for communal religious participation than for spiritual-religious identity or for private practices. While the social support is an important mechanism relating religion to health, this only explains a small portion of the associations. Numerous other mechanisms appear to be operative as well. It may be the confluence of the religious values and practices, reinforced by social ties and norms, that give religious communities their powerful effects on so many aspects of human flourishing.

Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood: evidence from three prospective cohorts

“…44 It is perhaps the coming-together of shared values and enhanced social integration that provides the health benefits. 1 , 16 , 45 This may also help to explain why the associations of service attendance with many outcomes in this study remained robust, even after adjusting for other major aspects of social integration.…”

The Role of Spirituality and Religiosity in Subjective Well-Being of Individuals With Different Religious Status

“…Different aspects may contribute to and influence how people appraise the many facets of their lives, ranging from individual characteristics that distinguish between happy and unhappy personalities, to values people consider important and worth pursuing in life or the fulfillment of social needs (Balzarotti et al, 2016; Diener et al, 2018; Schwartz and Sortheix, 2018). Among others, a growing body of research investigates the role that spirituality and religiosity play in individuals’ self-perceived well-being, identifying a positive effect of religion and spirituality on many psychosocial and health-related outcomes across the lifespan (e.g., Fabricatore et al, 2000; Fry, 2000; Mueller et al, 2001; George et al, 2002; Levin and Chatters, 2008; Krause, 2011; VanderWeele, 2017).…”

Religion and Income as Determinant of Well-being Among Employees in Faith-Based and Secular Educational Institutions in Southern Nigeria

“…The significance of income was supported by Easterlin et al [32] who averred that an increase in income and consumption enables the satisfaction of needs and therefore leads to increase in wellbeing. The significance of religion is corroborated by a multitude of studies including Vanderweele [12] who found that active religious involvement has been found to increase longevity, Lim [14] who found significant relationships between Church attendance, personal prayer, belief in God and psychological well-being, and Ismail and Desmukh [18] who found that many people find inner peace and contentment by engaging in varied forms of religious rituals and rites.…”

“…Individuals have been known to use religion as a means of reducing the distressing effects of their day-to-day activities, coping with fears, and/or feeling confident that nothing bad will happen to them [11]. Active religious involvement has been found to reduce mortality rate by 25% to 35% over a period of 10 to 15 years; participation in public religious practices, such as church attendance, increased the chances of living longer by 43% [12]. Also in a study investigating the role of religion on health and well-being, positive relationship was revealed between religious participation and health outcome [13].…”