Religious Studies, Theology, and Human Flourishing

Religious Studies, Theology, and Human Flourishing explores the implications of religious studies and theology for well-being, illuminating connections between theory, pedagogy, and practice with nuance and depth. Contributors to the volume, part of The Humanities and Human Flourishing series, construct and critique various conceptualizations of well-being and different approaches to its cultivation, both inside and outside of the classroom. From north India to the buckle of the American Bible Belt, the volume provides a variety of perspectives on approaches to the cultivation of well-being, including formations of the ideal life and the perfect death in antiquity and modernity in the Muslim world; constructions of existential meaning, purpose, and goodness in pastoral theology, care, and counseling; and skepticism surrounding understandings of religion and spirituality in positive psychology, among others.

Justin Thomas McDaniel is an Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Hector Kilgoe is a Doctoral Candidate of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.