The Holiness of Wholeness: Religious Contributions to Human Flourishing

This chapter proposes that the essential contribution of religion to flourishing goes beyond any single factor. Instead, religion is concerned with human wholeness—that is, how people put the bits and pieces of their lives together into a coherent whole. What lends unity to the lives of many individuals is the focus on sacred matters. Religious institutions are most uniquely concerned with what people hold sacred and how they can develop and foster their relationship with ultimate concerns. Drawing on theory and research, this chapter examines three key ingredients of wholeness and their intimate connections to religion: the capacity to see and approach life with breadth and depth; a life-affirming view of oneself and the world; and the ability to organize the life journey into a cohesive whole. Wholeness may be understood as a superordinate virtue, a major key to human flourishing and life well-lived. Although the focus of this chapter is on “religion at its best,” the authors also acknowledge the darker side of religion and its capacity to lead to suffering and brokenness.