Religion, Religiosity, and Spirituality

Introduction and Overview

Social scientists have long been interested in the study of religion, human behavior, and well-being. In fact, scholarly writings on these issues trace back to the emergence of some disciplines. Influential works on religiosity include (among others) an early 1900s publication by William James, who is credited as laying the groundwork for American Psychology, as well as classic pieces on suicide published in the late 1890s by Emile Durkheim, the prominent sociologist whose work drew heavily on religious affiliation as a form of social cohesion. Despite the interest in religiosity generated by these early works, throughout the twentieth century, research on the topic dissipated with the growth of empiricism, behaviorism, and scientific paradigms grounded in biomedical models. These ideologies created barriers that forestalled and marginalized research on religiosity. Over the past few decades, however, dissatisfaction with the narrow focus of biomedical models...