Prof. Doug Oman
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, USA
Spiritually Integrated Public Health: An Emerging Healing Frontier For Health Professions
Abstract
We describe the promise and challenge of applying state-of-the-art public health approaches to spirituality and religion as psychosocial determinants of health. Best practices in public health are now understood as both cross-sectoral and multi-level, employing interventions to reduce risks and promote protective factors across multiple societal sectors (such as workplaces, schools, and clinics) and at multiple levels (individuals, social environments, and policies). Applying this approach to spirituality/religion (S/R) is a seldom noted but natural consequence of applying public health logic to the expanding evidence base for S/R as causal health determinants. But application must be incremental, subjected to ongoing evaluation, and culturally/religiously inclusive (including nonbelievers and the spiritual but not religious). Many initial steps have emerged autonomously in various sectors (some examples to be described). Further integration may be both facilitated and constrained by aligned or competing sociopolitical priorities and/or constraints, such as human rights, decolonization, or costs. Pathways must vary between societies, but will involve tasks/challenges potentially benefiting from international/interprofessional communities of practice. Challenges include balancing between universality/particularity, and understanding the nature of inclusively spiritually supportive social environments. Implications vary between nations and professions, and will be discussed with attention to Poland and psychology of religion.
Bio
Doug Oman is a professor at University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health, his research there since 2001 focusing on positive factors in health and well-being, especially spirituality and religion. He teaches on spirituality and public health, has directed a training program on the topic, and edited Why Religion and Spirituality Matter for Public Health: Evidence, Implications, and Resources (2018, Springer). His 100+ professional publications range from epidemiologic studies of longevity to theoretical papers on learning from spiritual exemplars, and randomized trials of repetition of holy names and mantrams. He has led two randomized trials of spiritual meditation. He is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Division 36, American Psychological Association). He received the 2018 William C. Bier award for integrating the psychology of religion/spirituality with other disciplines. Recent publications include “Mindfulness for global public health: Critical analysis and agenda” (2025; target article for 18-article special issue of Mindfulness); “What is a mantra? Guidance for practitioners, researchers, and editors” (2025, American Psychologist); “Spirituality as a determinant of health: Emerging policies, practices, and systems” (2024, Health Affairs); and “Spirituality, health, and well-being: Field overview and emerging frontiers” (2025, Routledge) (personal website: http://dougoman.org).
Prof. Vassilis Saroglou
UCL-UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN, BELGIUM
Presentation: Pro-Environmental Commitment: Is Religion/Spirituality a Collaborator or an Adversary?
Abstract
There is a global awareness today across major world religions and across religious leaders and scholars that pro-environmental concern, commitment, and action should be a moral, religious, and spiritual priority of the faithful. Does this religious and spiritual imperative translate into real pro-environmental concern and behavior in people’s individual lives? The major trend of the psychological studies in the last 40 years is that it mostly depends on the specific religious/spiritual ideology: religiousness (or eco-spirituality) emphasizing “stewardship” (humans are responsible for God’s creation) encourages pro-environmentalism, whereas religiousness endorsing “dominion” (anthropocentrism) is detrimental to pro-environment attitudes and behavior. While true, this is however a bit tautological. Furthermore, recent studies in the last 10 years provide mixed, divergent, and inconclusive empirical evidence.
In this presentation, I will focus on recent studies in secularized European countries that investigated the role of religiosity, spirituality, and atheism on pro-environmentalism. These studies allow for a deeper understanding of the psychological dynamics (cognition, emotion, values, identity) explaining such role, as well as important cross-cultural similarities and differences across European countries of different religious heritage as well as between Western societies and other parts of the world.
Bio
Vassilis Saroglou studied psychology (MA and PhD) and philosophy (BA) at UCLouvain, Belgium, as well as religion (MA) at Univ. of Athens, Greece, and UCLouvain. He has been professor of psychology since 2001 at UCLouvain, visiting scholar at the College of William & Mary, Virginia, Arizona State University, and New York University, and invited lecturer at several European and other Universities. He has served as president of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, vice-president and president of the Académie des Sciences Religieuses, and associate editor and co-editor of the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.
With his students and collaborators, he has conducted numerous research projects in his lab investigating religion, spirituality, fundamentalism, and atheism from the perspective of various psychological fields: social and personality, cross-cultural, and moral psychology, and psychology of positive emotions. This research has resulted in 150 publications, including edited (Religion, Personality, and Social Behavior) and authored (The Psychology of Religion) books. He has received awards and scientific distinctions in personality psychology (EAPP), social psychology (SPSP), psychology of religion (IAPR, APA Division 36), psychology of humor (ISHS), psychological sciences (APS), and human and social sciences (FNRS).
Prof. Stefania Palmisano
UNIVERSITY OF TURIN, ITALY
From Religion to Spirituality and Back: Insights from the Italian Context to Contemporary Spirituality from a Sociological Point of View
Abstract
Historically, religious institutions and groups have been used to protect vulnerable people not only by means of the traditional religious communities, but also by means of specific institutions of religious origin that have made solidarity their mission. Today the social, political, cultural, and environmental scenarios continue to demonstrate that religions play a key role in mitigating social vulnerabilities. These religious laboratories demonstrate that vulnerability and resilience can become – under certain conditions – two sides of the same coin.
While this is very well established in matters of religion, this is not the case for the other notion of spirituality. More specifically, the kind of spirituality that, at least 50 years ago, the sociological community has renamed “contemporary spirituality”, “alternative spirituality” and also “post-Christian spirituality”. These expressions have been coined to indicate the quest for the sacred outside the borders of traditional religions. Under this umbrella phenomena such as New Age, Neopaganism, Neoshamanism, Oriental spiritualities, Eco-spiritualities and the cults of the female divine have been inserted. These forms of spirituality have often been criticized in sociology, accused of being “individualistic”, “private”, “narcissistic” and “selfish”.
In my talk I’d like to demonstrate that spirituality, on the contrary, can prove to be a ‘service’ resource to cope with vulnerability, to come to terms with fragility and to nurture resilience. Secondly, I’d like to demonstrate that spirituality can fulfil these purposes but does so in a different way from religion because spirituality has its own characteristics that distinguish it from religion. With this task in mind, I shall start from the many studies, now available, arguing that spirituality is a resource of meaning both to implement coping modalities in the face of dramatic, extraordinary and unforeseen events, and to improve everyday life as well as to claim spaces of emancipation and empowerment.
Bio
Stefania Palmisano, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Torino. Former coordinator of the CRAFT (Contemporary Religions and Faiths in Transition) Research Centre based at the Department of Culture Politics and Society, she is secretary of the Italian Association for the Sociology of Religion and Vice-director of the Master’s in Religious Sciences and Intercultural Mediation. Director of the degree course in Politics and Social Services, she is a member of the Teaching Board of the International Joint Ph.D Programme ‘Religion, Culture and Public Life’ at the University of Padua. She was Visiting Research Fellow at Lancaster University, Boston University; Wolverhampton University; and at University College Dublin. Her research includes mainstream religions, alternative spiritualities, new religious movements, women and religion and the relationship between spirituality and care in the Italian healthcare system. She is the author of “Exploring New Monastic Communities: The Re-invention of Tradition” (Ashgate, 2015), co-editor with Isabelle Jonveaux of “Monasticism in Modern Times” (Routledge, 2016), co-editor with Nicola Pannofino of “Invention of Tradition and Syncretism in Contemporary Religions: Sacred Creativity” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and she published (with Nicola Pannofino) “Contemporary Spiritualities: Enchanted Worlds of Nature, Wellbeing and Mystery in Italy” (Routledge, 2020). In 2024 she published (with Alberta Giorgi) “Donne e religioni in Italia. Itinerari di ricerca” (Il Mulino).
