Online Resources
- Are religious people happier, healthier? Our new global study explores this questionStudies have often credited religion with making people healthier, happier and more engaged in their communities. But are religiously active people better off than those who are religiously inactive or those with no religious affiliation? The short answer is that there is some evidence that religious participation does make a difference in some – but not all – of these areas, according to a new Pew Research Center report that looks at survey data from the United States and more than two dozen other countries.
- Does Spirituality Make You Happy?Time article exploring the link between happiness and spirituality.
- How Does Religion Affect Happiness Around the World?A new study suggests that the answer depends on the stresses your society is facing.
- Religion is a sure route to true happinessArticle on religion and the connection to happiness from the Washington Post.
- Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the WorldIn the U.S. and other countries, participation in a congregation is a key factor.
Journals & Reference Materials (Log in Required)
- Are Happiness and Life Satisfaction Different Across Religious Groups? Exploring Determinants of Happiness and Life SatisfactionThis study explores whether different religions experience different levels of happiness and life satisfaction and in case this is affected by country economic and cultural environment. Using World Value Survey (from 1981 to 2014), this study found that individual religiosity and country level of development play a significant role in shaping people’s subjective well-being (SWB). Protestants, Buddhists and Roman Catholic were happier and most satisfied with their lives compared to other religious groups. Orthodox has the lowest SWB. Health status, household’s financial satisfaction and freedom of choice are means by which religious groups and governments across the globe can improve the SWB of their citizens.
- Religious Attendance and Happiness: Examining Gaps in the Current Literature—A Research NoteTwo major gaps exist in research examining the positive association between religious attendance and happiness. First, scholars have argued that this association may be because of people's perceived relationship with God or the social cohesion one experiences with other parishioners, but scholars have not studied both pathways simultaneously. Using nationally representative cross-sectional data (General Social Survey), I first examine the influence of one's perceived relationship with God and one's perceived social cohesion within the religious community on happiness. One's perceived relationship with God is more strongly associated with happiness than is social cohesion. Second, scholars overwhelmingly use religious attendance as the independent variable, with happiness as the dependent variable. Using two waves of data from a nationally representative panel study (National Survey of Families and Households), I then examine the relationship between religious attendance and happiness over time, finding that religious attendance has a greater effect on happiness than happiness has on religious attendance.
Splendid Vices and Happiness in Hope
In this lecture, you'll reach the climax of Augustine's argument toward civic-minded Romans, which answers the question of how best to pursue happiness while also being a good citizen. The answer takes you through a dazzling discussion of fate versus free will, the nature of divine providence, the errors of glory-seeking, and the tragic nature of the world.
Source: Kanopy
Perspectives
Come Matter Here
Come Matter Here is a call to stop putting your life on hold until "someday" and start digging your heels into the here and now to build the life God has designed for you. Life is scary. Adulting is hard. When faced with the challenges of building a life of your own, it's all too easy to stake your hope and happiness in "someday." But what if the dotted lines on the map at your feet today mattered just as much as the destination you dream of? Hannah Brencher, TED Talk speaker and founder of The World Needs More Love Letters, thought Atlanta was her destination. Yet even after she arrived, she found herself in the same old chase for the next best thing...somewhere else. And it left her in a state of anxiety and deep depression. Our hyper-connected era has led us to believe life should be a highlight reel--where what matters most is perfect beauty, instant success, and ready applause. Yet, as Hannah learned, nothing about faith, relationships, or character is instant. So she took up a new mantra: be where your feet are. Give yourself a permission slip to stop chasing the next big thing, and come matter here. Engage the process as much as you trust the God who lovingly leads you. If you are tired of running away from your life or tired of running ragged toward the next thing you think will make you feel complete, Come Matter Here will help you do whatever it takes to show up for the life God has for you. Whether you need to make a brave U-turn, take a bold step forward, or finish the next lap with fresh courage, find fuel and inspiration for the journey right here.
Courageous Faith
As trusted pastor Dr. Charles Stanley comes to the later years of his life, he is ready to share his personal story--on a more intimate level than ever before. As he walks us through his ups and downs, he shares how the biblical principles he's taught all his life affected the way he's actually lived. In this new book from Dr. Charles Stanley, he looks his readers in the eye and says, This is how my faith has worked for me at the most challenging times of my life and how it has led me to the victories God had in store for me. As Dr. Stanley looks back over his long life of ministry, he is now ready to share how his personal faith choices directed his every step. He shares how God walked with him through his most difficult days as a pastor when he faced internal conflict in a church he'd led for years. He gently shares painful family issues that brought him to his knees and taught him to look to God for answers when life wasn't simple and trite answers didn't work. Dr. Stanley reminds us that choosing to follow and obey God when life is hard can be both the toughest and best thing we'll ever do. As Dr. Stanley reflects on the biblical teachings that have led him through his difficulties and joys, he always comes back to this principle: Do what God says is right and leave the consequences to Him--no matter what that means.
Has Science Displaced the Soul?
Can science explain powerful human emotions such as love and happiness? Or, are these emotions something more than the action of biochemicals and electrical impulses? Science is constantly uncovering the mysteries of our nature, but we are uneasy about submitting our most intimate feelings to its scrutiny. Religion tells us that God is love but neuroscience counters with love as a well-timed trickle of transmitters and hormones. In the 21st century, is it necessary to discard our traditional beliefs of a loving God in favor of dopamine? With doctorates in both mathematics and theology, Kevin Sharpe explores these notions and asks the question, Has Science Displaced the Soul? Unflinching in facing these issues, Sharpe provides a clear and current summary of the discoveries of science and what our spiritual traditions still have to offer in the ongoing effort to understand our deepest urges. He confronts serious unanswered questions. How can the Divine direct a random process like evolution? How can we reconcile the big bang with creation out of nothing? Does it make sense to claim that the non-biological Divine shares in human purposes and desires? Sharpe's solution is controversial since it requires that we demolish and reconstruct some of our most trusted conceptions. By examining the ways in which scientific and religious claims can be harmonized, he offers a radical and powerful interpretation of love and happiness in the divine context.
Good God, Lousy World, and Me
"In this extraordinary memoir of grace, one of the foremost human rights advocates of the last half century shares her brutally and hilariously honest story of finding God on one of the most unlikely, irreverent, and utterly beautiful pilgrimages through life as it actually is." --Gary A. Haugen, president and CEO, International Justice Mission "It used to be that my own religious philosophy was to work hard, charm everyone within spittin' distance, and do a lot of crafts. So how did this hard-core leftist skeptic find peace and happiness among Bible-quoting, praying-out-loud, born-again evangelicals? I realized that my two choices--the existence of a loving God or the reality of evil--weren't the only options. Option three is that God is good and the world is lousy. But wait. There's more. God knows the world is lousy. Knows it, hates it, and wants us to do something about it..." --Holly Burkhalter, Good God, Lousy World & Me For over thirty years, Holly Burkhalter has worked as an international rights advocate for victims of genocide, rape, and injustice. Throughout most of her career, the heartbreak she encountered around the world--and in her own life--had convinced her that there was no such thing as a loving God. How could there be? If God was there, he should be charged as a war criminal for tolerating atrocities against the young, the poor, and the vulnerable. Then, Holly discovered a new truth: God was there--in the grief, in the violence, in the questions. And God was good. It was the greatest, hardest, most radiant surprise of her life. This is her story.
The Moral Landscape
New York Times bestselling author Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people--from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists--agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith. In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false--and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.
Forgive for Good
Results from Dr. Fred Luskin's Stanford University Forgiveness Project, one of the largest and most important studies on forgiveness ever conducted, show that learning how to forgive improves our emotional and physical well-being. Holding onto resentment or hurt disrupts our personal and professional lives, leads to bad decision-making, and releases stress chemicals that can have a negative effect on our health. Yet all too many of us clutch our grievances and give away our power by remaining victims of the people who have hurt us. By teaching us how to forgive, this book enables us to move beyond being a victim to a life of improved health and contentment. Based on scientific research, this groundbreaking study from the frontiers of psychology and medicine offers startling new insight into the healing powers of forgiveness. Through vivid examples (including his work with victims from both sides of Northern Ireland's civil war), Dr. Fred Luskin offers a proven nine-step forgiveness method. Participants in Stanford University's Forgiveness Project experienced: Decrease in feelings of hurt Reduction in the physical symptoms of stress, including backache, muscle aches, dizziness, and upset stomach Increase in optimism Reduction in long-term experience of angera significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease Forgive for Good distills the essential elements of Dr. Luskin's forgiveness training into an accessible guide for overcoming the negative effects of anger, bitterness, and resentment by gaining control of our feelings. Forgiveness does not mean condoning the behavior of those who have hurt us. Forgiveness is a choice that we make to release our past and heal our present.
Yalom's Cure - A Guide to Happiness
Bestselling author, popular scholar and existentialist Irvin D. Yalom is one of the most influential living psychotherapists. This cinematic feature is more than a classic biography. Together with Dr. Yalom we traviel in a existential journey through the many layers of the human mind while he shares his fundamental insights and wisdom. Dr. Yalom's books sold millions of copies worldwide and critics describe him as: mind-bending, stunning, inspiring, haunting, life-changing.
Source: Kanopy