UNLABELLED Religion and spiritual practices are among the resources used by patients to cope with chronic pain. The major concepts of Hinduism that are related to pain and suffering are presented. Ways that Hindu traditions deal with pain and suffering are reviewed, including the concept of acceptance, which has been studied in the pain medicine literature. By becoming more familiar with Hindu ...

Parallel to the growing interest in spiritual life in mainstream culture, in Western culture there has been an increasing distinction between religion and spirituality. This article defines the concept of spirituality and its constitutive elements and presents evidence from the literature to show that, in spite of its importance for mental health patients and suicidal people, it is still an ove...

Spirituality is one of the forms of religion that seems to thrive in secularised Western societies. It has become an umbrella term for a variety of experience-oriented religious practices in Western societies. The popularity of spirituality is clearly visible within Christian settings, both inside and outside churches. This paper explores the nature of ‘marginal’ Christian spirituality, i.e. Ch...

THERE ARE promising and problematic connections between ethics and the emerging phenomena of spirituality. Any definitive resolution of this relationship would be premature because the discipline of spirituality is still defining itself. The variety of spiritualities is enormous, ranging from New Age practices to feminist political writings and Twelve Step programs. On the positive side, certai...

Much of the evidence that religion provides a protective factor against completed suicide comes from cross-sectional studies. This issue of the Journal includes a report of a new prospective study. An understanding of the relationship between spirituality, religion and suicide is important in assessing and caring for those at risk.

Modern medicine makes use of the natural sciences and their methods, which forgo the “God hypothesis”, explaining sickness and health „etsi Deus non daretur“. Up to modernity, the cultural history of sickness and health is, to a great extent, the history of religion. Only the advent of modern medicine, based on natural science, leads to a separation of medicine and religion, and thus also of he...

Today's mental health system is largely a product of western science. Like a one-eyed giant, it has great power, but it lacks the wisdom which makes life sacred and meaningful. The challenge for today's mental health system is to unite East and West; to integrate wisdom and science; to make room for the sacred as well as the practical. One of the most critical domains for integration-and one of...

Religious and spiritual factors are increasingly being examined in psychiatric research. Religious beliefs and practices have long been linked to hysteria, neurosis, and psychotic delusions. However, recent studies have identified another side of religion that may serve as a psychological and social resource for coping with stress. After defining the terms religion and spirituality, this paper ...

What is the happiness that we strive for and what does it mean our understanding of being human? As pursue happiness, find complex, in many ways subjective to experiences contexts individuals or groups. Happiness also can be found attaining greater self-awareness a sense meaning/purpose. This article argues religion/spirituality has role play facilitating well-being/happiness terms tension held...