A Way Forward for Spirituality, Resilience, and International Social Science

This special issue on spirituality in resilience processes across international contexts helps clarify a three-pronged research agenda for the future study of trauma and disasters by psychologists of religion and spirituality. First, the special issue demonstrates the value of expanding from U.S.-based theories, data, models, and practices to incorporate a wider repertoire of international research (e.g., Western Africa, Romania, Haiti, China, and diverse additional contexts). Second, the special issue suggests that the topic of resilience defies the constraints of traditional variance-based research methodologies and requires the adoption of newer process-based research methodologies in order to study longitudinal phenomena, such as cosmology episodes, post-traumatic growth, and forgiveness processes. Third, the special issue emphasizes the need for psychologists of religion and spirituality to collaborate more frequently with allied social scientists (e.g., sociologists of religion and scholars of management, spirituality and religion) in order to comprehend the systemic, multilevel complexities of large-scale trauma. ********** Over the past several years we have had the opportunity to study resilience processes across a variety of contexts and populations. From our years of research emerged The Center for Trauma Studies and Resilience Leadership, which is devoted to the study of large-scale trauma and the resilience processes that lead to resilient individuals, teams, organizations, communities, and nations. We have studied populations such as earthquake survivors in Haiti; Human Terrain Team members serving in the war in Afghanistan; survivors of the 2008 earthquake in China; survivors of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and protestors, pastors, police, media, and community leaders involved in the racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Additionally, we have reviewed hundreds of articles on resilience that have included survivors of countless disasters and tragedies (Orton & O'Grady, in press). The diversity of the populations we have studied is nearly matched by the diversity of the doctoral students who have served in the Center's research laboratory. One type of diversity that we have benefitted from in the Center is faith diversity: Buddhists, Pagans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others. A complementary type of diversity is country of origin: Korea, China, South Africa, Jerusalem, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the United States, and others. Our students are diversified in many other areas including age, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Diversity in the lab has elucidated constructs through multiple cosmological lenses, which has led to rich discussions and complex theoretical developments. Leveraging these diverse perspectives in the lab and in the field we have concluded that a rigorous definition of resilience is multi-level, process-focused, evidence-based, context-respectful, and spirituality-inclusive. First, although most research on resilience has been conducted on personal resilience, our emerging definition of resilience focuses on collective, multi-level understandings of resilience at the individual, team, organizational, community, and national levels. Second, although most research on resilience portrays resilience as a trait (which cannot be managed) instead of a process (which can be managed), our emerging definition identifies five resilience processes. Third, although most research on resilience employs traditional, individual-level, trait-focused, and variance-based research methods, our emerging definition emphasizes the value of newer process-based research cosmologies, ontologies, epistemologies, and methods that allow for stronger evidence-based understanding of collective resilience processes. Fourth, although some research on resilience occurs in environments that do not require a high degree of resilience, our emerging definition prioritizes research within dangerous, extreme, and "high-reliability" contexts; furthermore, our definition requires contextual awareness of the fact that societies express resilience in unique ways. …