Assessing Spirituality in a Diverse World

This volume addresses an important problem in social scientific research on global religions and spirituality: How to evaluate the role of diverse religious and spiritual (R/S) beliefs and practices within the rapid evolution of spiritual globalization and diversification trends. The book examines this question by bringing together a panel of international scholars including psychologists, sociologists, and researchers in religious studies, public health, medicine, and social work. The content includes chapters describing innovative concepts of post-Christian spirituality, Eastern forms of meditation, afterlife beliefs associated with the three dominant cultural legacies, various non-religious worldviews, spiritual Jihad, and secular and religious reverence. The book also covers such important themes as spiritual well-being, faith, struggle, meaning making, modeling, and support, as well as mysticism and using prayer to cope with existential crises. This book advances theunderstanding of the role of R/S across different faiths and cultural systems, including both Western and non-Western ones, and enriches the mainstream of psychological sciences and practices. It appeals to students, educators, researchers, and clinicians in multiple related fields and disciplines.

AMY L. AI, Ph.D., earned her Ph.D., M.S., M.A., and MSW at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her academic career has focused on interdisciplinary research and has published extensively on outcome research linking behavioral health, traumatic experiences, existential crises, cultural diversity, spirituality, and religiousness. She is Professor at Florida State University, affiliated with several institutes, departments, and colleges. Ai is the Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association of Psychological Sciences, and the Gerontological Society of America, a Fulbright scholar, and a grant reviewer for grant funders in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Hong Kong, China. 

PAUL WINK, Ph.D., received his M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of Melbourne and his Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the Nellie Zuckerman Cohen and Anne Cohen Heller Professor of Health Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Wellesley College. Wink has published extensively in the areas of religiousness and spirituality, adult development, generativity, narcissism, and wisdom and is the co-author of In the course of a lifetime: Tracing religious belief, practice, and change (2007, University of California Press) and The Crown of Life: Dynamics of the Early Post-Retirement Period (2007, Springer Publishing Co.), Prima Donna: The psychology of Maria Callas (in press, Oxford University Press).

Raymond F. Paloutzian, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Experimental and Social Psychology, edited The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion for 18 years. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, and wrote at Westmont College, Stanford University, and University of Leuven. Paloutzian authored Invitation to the Psychology of Religion, 3^rd ed. (2017, Guilford), co-edited Forgiveness and Reconciliation (2010, Springer), Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2^nd ed. (2013, Guilford), and Processes of Believing: The Acquisition, Maintenance, and Change in Creditions (2017, Springer). He has given invited talks on “The Psychology of Religion in Global Perspective” in various countries around the world.

KEVIN A. HARRIS, Ph.D., LP, received a Ph.D. from Ball State University in Indiana. He is a licensed psychologist in Texas, an assessment specialist in health psychology at Algos Behavioral Health in San Antonio, and a former assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and Our Lady of the Lake University. His research focuses on the psychology of religion and spirituality, assessment, music psychology, sexual assault prevention, and an integrative model of Lake University.