Our Research Advisory Board

With Key Publications

Though we can, by no means, present below all the up-to-date research on the topics of flourishing, suffering and the modifying effects of spirituality and participation in religious communities, we will simply present a representative sample below of the relevant research and books published by members of our research advisory board

The founder of Harvard's Human Flourishing Program, Tyler graduated from Oxford with a BA in Mathematics as well as Philosophy and Theology, before completing an M.A. in Finance and Applied Economics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania then a second M.A. at Oxford in Mathematics, after which point he completed an A.M then PhD at Harvard, staying on faculty and publishing with such a high volume of production that he became the fastest figure in Harvard’s history to reach full professor.

He has recently completed his foundational, new book, A Theology of Health. which is divided into three sections: Part I Health and Wholeness; Part II Ill-Health and Sin; and Part III Healing and Salvation, which is set to be released later this year.  

And he now follows Harold Koenig as one of the foremost figures in the realm of spirituality and health research, beoming with John Peteet (below) contributing editors in the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Religion and Health, published by Oxford University Press.

In regards to Tyler's academic publications spanning from suffering to flourishing to causal inference (on which he is a noted, global scholar, writing the essential textbook, Explanation in Causal Inference: Methods for Mediation and Interaction, also published by Oxford University Press), see the following links below. If you can only read a few, then try to read the first three.

We will start by highlighting one of his over 400 articles, which, we believe, is absolutely critical to our understanding of the nature of true flourishing. In elucidating this, we draw your attention to the text of an address he gave to the US Air Force chaplains society in 2017, which was published under the title,

VanderWeele (2018). Religious Communities, Health, and Well-Being – Address to the US Air Force Chaplain. Military Medicine, Volume 183, Issue 5-6, May-June 2018, Pages 105–109

Much can be said about this text, but very generally Tyler summarizes essentially all the major work in the spirituality and health literature, demonstrating that the powerful health effects of religion are inextricably tied to a person’s consistent, we might say, physical, bodily involvement in the life and services of a particular religious community.

Outside of this, as he convincingly shows, the health effects of spirituality are essentially nil. That is to say, if a person, self rates their spirituality as 10 out of 10, yet does not attend religious services, nor is involved in a religious community, the health effects are close to zero. When, however, a self-rated spirituality is undergirded by active participation in the life and services of a religious community, then we begin to bear witness to (martureó) extraordinary things like 20 - 30 - 40% reductions in all cost mortality over the ensuing decades. 

Li S, Stampfer MJ, Williams DR, VanderWeele TJ (2016). Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women. JAMA Intern Med; 176(6):777-85. (The extraordinary findings from this study, which followed 70K+ nurses over a 20 year period [i.e. the Nurses Health Study] would launch all that follows below, first demonstrating conclusively that religious service attendance lowered the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality in a dose-dependent, linear manner (33% reductions for attendance of >1/week; 27% for 1x/wk, etc.)

VanderWeele, T. J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. (This is where Tyler unveiled his Flourish Index which is now by far the most utilized instrument worldwide for assessing the complex dimensions of flourishing. As such, it is a fundamental metric for our longitudinal research).

VanderWeele, T. J. (2019). Suffering and response: Directions in empirical research, Social Science & Medicine, Volume 224, 2019, Pages 58-66 (This presents his seven-item metric on suffering entitled, the Personal Suffering Assessment, which we are also utilizing in the above mentioned research study).

Dorota Węziak-Białowolska, Eileen McNeely, and Tyler J. VanderWeele (2018). Flourish Index and Secure Flourish Index – development and validation. Cogent Psychology, 6(1), Article 1613613.

VanderWeele, T.J. (2022). The importance, opportunities, and challenges of empirically assessing character for the promotion of flourishing. Journal of Education, 2021:170-180.

Vanderweele, T., Balboni, T, and Koh, H (2017). Health and spirituality. JAMA, 318(6):519-520.

VanderWeele, T.J. (2017). Religious communities and human flourishing. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(5), 476–481.

VanderWeele, T.J., Balboni, T.A., Koh, H.K. (2022). Religious service attendance and implications for clinical care, community participation and public health. American Journal of Epidemiology, 191:31-35.

Lomas, T. and VanderWeele, T.J (2021). The complex creation of happiness: multidimensional conditionality in the drivers of happy individuals and societies. Journal of Positive Psychology, 18:1, 15-33

Lomas, T., Bartels, M., Van De Weijer, M., Pluess, M., Hanson, J., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2022). The architecture of happiness. Emotion Review. Volume 14, Issue 4.

VanderWeele, T.J (2023). On an analytic definition of love. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy. Vol. 25, No. 1.

On Statistics and Causal Inference:

VanderWeele, T. J. (2021). Can sophisticated study designs with regression analyses of observational data provide causal inferences? JAMA Psychiatry, 78(3):244-246

VanderWeele, T. J., Jackson, J. W., and Li, S. (2016). Causal inference and longitudinal data: a case study of religion and mental health. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51(11): 1457-1466.

VanderWeele, T. J. and Ding, P. Sensitivity analysis in observational research: introducing the E-value. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167:268-274.

The calculator that his team developed can be found here (and will be critical to us as we seek to account for the seemingly, innumerable variables affecting our longitudinal research on flourishing and the experience of suffering). 

As noted above, since Tyler publishes at a rate beyond most of our ability to actually read the articles, the above publications in no way represent his entire corpus…but they are for us, at the very least, a start!

John is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, as well as the Fellowship Site Director of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a practicing psychiatrist at the Brigham And Women's Hospital (since 1978). As noted above, he is one of the leading figures in the field of spirituality and health, editing with Tyler and Harold the 3rd edition of the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Health. In the field of psychiatry, specifically, he is a foremost voice as regards the application of virtue ethics to clinical practice, releasing in 2023, also with Oxford University Press, The Virtues in Psychiatric Practice.

A selection of his 100+ research publications is presented below, which can best be summarized in his words,

My scholarly interests have included the psychological aspects of oncology, the management of addiction, the interface between psychiatry and spirituality/religion, and moral and ethical aspects of practice. I began to focus on the clinician’s role in dealing with patients’ existential and moral concerns after seeing how often cancer patients expressed them and drew upon spiritual resources, and how infrequently these were acknowledged by the treatment team. At the same time I noted that psychotherapists lacked an accepted framework for approaching religious and spiritual issues. During the 1990s I collaborated with colleagues in presenting symposia and a course addressing these issues at the American Psychiatric Association (APA)’s Annual Meeting and in co-editing a 2004 book on the clinical implications of world view. I have since chaired the APA’s Corresponding Committee on Spirituality, Religion and Psychiatry, and until recently chaired the APA Caucus on Spirituality, Religion and Psychiatry. Given that clergy are the first providers for many individuals, and that cultural and religiously reinforced stigma impedes access to mental health treatment, I have worked as well with faith leaders and chaplains, most recently through the APA’s Mental Health and Faith Community Partnership, and the Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA).

Beginning with the most recent publications, start with the following:

Peteet JR. The virtues in psychiatric treatment. Front Psychiatry. 2023; 14:1035530.

Peteet JR, Witvliet CVO, Glas G, Frush BW. Ability as a virtue in medicine: from theory to practice. Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2023 03 22; 18(1):1

Peteet JR, Amonoo HL. Spirituality in the care of patients with cancer: What is the psychiatrist's role? Palliat Support Care. 2023 02; 21(1)

Haque OS, Lenfest Y, Peteet JR. From disability to human flourishing: how fourth wave psychotherapies can help to reimagine rehabilitation and medicine as a whole. Disabil Rehabil. 2020 06; 42(11):1511-1517.

Peteet JR. A Fourth Wave of Psychotherapies: Moving Beyond Recovery Toward Well-Being. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2018 Mar/Apr; 26(2):90-95

Amonoo HL, Harris JH, Murphy WS, Abrahm JL, Peteet JR. The Physician's Role in Responding to Existential Suffering: What Does It Mean to Comfort Always? J Palliat Care. 2020 Jan; 35(1):8-12.

Eipper-Mains JE, Kao LE, Gitlin DF, Peteet JR. Life-Threatening Mistrust: Assessing and Enhancing Capacity to Trust. Psychosomatics. 2019 Nov - Dec; 60(6):606-611.

Peteet JR. Psychiatric Medication and Spirituality: An Unforeseen Relationship. J Palliat Med. 2018 Aug; 21(8):1199.

Peteet JR. A Closer Look at Transcendence and Its Relationship to Mental Health. J Relig Health. 2018 Apr; 57(2):717-724.

Sanders JJ, Chow V, Enzinger AC, Lam TC, Smith PT, Quiñones R, Baccari A, Philbrick S, White-Hammond G, Peteet J, Balboni TA, Balboni MJ. Seeking and Accepting: U.S. Clergy Theological and Moral Perspectives Informing Decision Making at the End of Life. J Palliat Med. 2017 10; 20(10):1059-1067.

And as it relates to the metrics of our research work:

Castro LS, Balboni TA, Lobo TC, Moreira RSL, Koenig HG, Peteet JR, Cintra F. Assessing Religious Commitment in a Multicultural Inpatient Setting: A Psychometric Evaluation of the 10-item Belief into Action Scale. J Relig Health. 2021 Oct; 60(5):3576-3590.

Peteet JR. Putting suffering into perspective: implications of the patient's world view. J  Psychotherapy Pract Res 2001:10:187-192.

And in regards to teaching and physician formation:

Hathaway DB, de Oliveira E Oliveira FHA, Mirhom M, Moreira-Almeida A, Fung WLA, Peteet JR. Teaching Spiritual and Religious Competencies to Psychiatry Residents: A Scoping and Systematic Review. Acad Med. 2022 02 01

de Oliveira E Oliveira FHA, Peteet JR, Moreira-Almeida A. Religiosity and spirituality in psychiatry residency programs: why, what, and how to teach? Braz J Psychiatry. 2021 Jul-Aug; 43(4):424-429.

Richard is a social-personality psychologist and psychology research associate that Tyler brought to Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. With his PhD from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa and clinical work in the U.S. prior to a now full-time research post in the Flourishing Program, he offers us invaluable insights regarding psychosocial processes that shape adaptive functioning and personal growth, including character strengths and positive adjustment, especially in relation to resilience, humility, forgiveness and hope. Richard, like Tyler, publishes at an impossible-to-keep-up-with rate, so the below bibliography of select publications is likely missing many relevant pieces. Nevertheless, we will draw your attention to the following:

Wong PTP, Cowden RG. Accelerating the science and practice of psychology beyond WEIRD biases: Enriching the landscape through Asian psychology. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:1054519. PMID: 36619071; PMCID: PMC9815563.

This is an important piece as he coauthors it with Dr. Paul Wong, whose work you should most definitely review.

Chen ZJ, Cowden RG, Streib H. More spiritual than religious: Concurrent and longitudinal relations with personality traits, mystical experiences, and other individual characteristics. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:1025938. PMID: 36687860

Cowden RG, Nakamura JS, Chen ZJ, Case B, Kim ES, VanderWeele TJ. Identifying pathways to religious service attendance among older adults: A lagged exposure-wide analysis. PLoS One. 2022; 17(11):e0278178.

Wilkinson R, Cowden RG, Chen Y, VanderWeele TJ. Exposure to negative life events, change in their perceived impact, and subsequent well-being among U.S. adults: A longitudinal outcome-wide analysis. Soc Sci Med. 2023 05; 324:115861.

Chen ZJ, Bechara AO, Cowden RG, Worthington EL. Perceived posttraumatic growth after interpersonal trauma and subsequent well-being among young Colombian adults: A longitudinal analysis. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:993609. PMID: 36405125

Cowden RG, Chen ZJ, Bechara AO, Worthington EL. Associations of dispositional forgivingness with facets of well-being among Colombian adults: A longitudinal outcome-wide analysis. Int J Psychol. 2023 Apr; 58(2):153-163.

Cook KV, Kurniati NMT, Suwartono C, Widyarini N, Worthington EL, Cowden RG. Differential effects of decisional and emotional forgiveness on distress and well-being: A three-wave study of Indonesian adults. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:918045.

As the former Dean of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing (1984 to 2014) then Senior Vice President for Interprofessional Education from 2012-2016, Patricia brings a unique clinical and research perspective into the experience of suffering from her first publication that presented the Meaning in Suffering Test [MIST], which she developed in long term consultation with Victor Frankl). As a later leader within the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy, she has been the recipient of the Presidential Award for Distinguished Contributions and Sterling Leadership (2003), the Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), and the President’s Award (2015).

Most recently, she was among 13 nurses who received an award at the United Nations in May of 2023 (at the age of 83) by the organization, Nurses with a Global Impact. She was honored for her production of the documentary, Caring Corrupted: The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich (seen by over 6 million viewers), which endeavors to answer the questions, “Why, How, and What prompted the professional nursing community in Germany to engage in the termination of patients?”  The New York Museum for Jewish Heritage sponsored a round table discussion of the film with Dr. Starck, Dr. Joseph J. Fins and Cathy L. Rozmus which can be seen here.

A sliver of her lifetime of publications is below:

Starck, P. L. (1983). Patients' perceptions of the meaning of suffering. International Forum for Logotherapy, 6(2), 110–116.

Starck, PL. The management of suffering in a nursing home: an ethnographic study. NLN Publ. 1992 Mar;(15-2461):127-53. PMID: 1287581.

McNeill JA, Sherwood GD, Starck PL. The hidden error of mismanaged pain: a systems approach. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2004 Jul;28(1):47-58.

Starck, P.L. (1992). Suffering in a nursing home: Losses of the human spirit. The International Forum for Logotherapy, Journal of Search for Meaning, 15(2), 76-79.

Starck, P. L. (1992). The human spirit: The search for meaning and purpose through suffering. Humane Medicine, A Journal of the Art and Science of Medicine, 8(2), 132-137. (Note- This was a Canadian Journal that apparently ceased to exist or was renamed in 1997.  Perhaps some of you with university resources for searches could find the link)

Starck, P.L. (in process) Human Suffering . In Logotherapy and Existential Analysis: Proceedings of the Viktor Frankl Institute. Vienna, Austria. Volume 2. Eds. McLafferty. C. and Levinson, J.

Books and Book Chapters (selected by Dr. Starck):

Starck, P.L., Ulrich, E., & Duffy, M.E. (2009). The Meaning of Suffering Experiences.  In Batthyany & Levinson (Eds). Existential Psychotherapy of Meaning: A Handbook of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (pp. 487-502).

Starck, P.L. & McGovern, J.P. (Eds.) (1992). The hidden dimension of illness: Human suffering. New York: NLN Publishing.

Luis hales from Santiago, Chile and is an extraordinarily unique figure (a philosophical, poetic polymath of sorts that has somehow descended from a different dimension into medicine) with a PhD in Philosophy from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, a poetic output of over 50 books, ongoing work in clinical psychology at the University of Talca in Chile focusing on “extreme trauma,” as well as a former Presbyterian pastor for 15 years, who served as the regional secretary for the Southern Cone of the Latin American Theological Fellowship.

Key books of his that relate to medicine and psychology are:

Cruz-Villalobos, Luis. (2020). Keys of Posttraumatic Coping. Resilience, Posttraumatic Growth, Religious Coping, and Second Corinthians. Indenpendently Academic (2020).

Of which more is said below and of which one review declared:

Religions are traditions of wisdom, reflecting on fundamental human experiences and offering sage advice on how to cope with life’s vicissitudes and how to find a connection to the sacred. It should be no surprise then that the Bible –one of the repertoires of such wisdom– is full of stories of trauma and healing. In this book, Luis Cruz-Villalobos engages with such Biblical stories, notably on the apostle Paul, and reads them with a psychological lens. The reader will glean new insights about the bible and old wisdom about trauma. A fascinating transdisciplinary endeavor!

-Dr. Ruard Ganzevoort, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Cruz-Villalobos, Luis. (2021). Posttraumatic Exegesis. Analysis of posttraumatic coping in Second Corinthians. Indenpendently Academic (2021).

Which writing he later summarized here that begins with his definition of suffering:

“Suffering has been defined as ‘the interpretation of pain.’ It is not the same as pain; it is pain that is incorporated into our emotional and historical matrix and enters our narrative, both personal and social, taking on a meaning of its own, for better or worse. How we write, read, reread, edit and reedit our own history of adversity or trauma greatly affects how we suffer from it”.

His personal experience of coping with trauma, he goes onto write, occurred in the prolonged illness and later death of his 9-month-old son, Maximiliano. “During the painful process” of his nine days at home then nine months in the hospital with failed surgery after failed surgery and failed treatment after failed treatment, he composed, Tormenta Crisol: Salmos Desde el Dolor (Crucible Storm: Psalms From the Pain). “Despite” his “training as a Presbyterian minister as well as clinical psychologist,” he “made use, almost exclusively” of his “profession as a poet to express and configure everything that this process implied, which he came to understand “as a crucible.” And out of the depths of pain, arose thanksgiving: “I thank God for His patience…I thank God for those who were close to our hearts…and almost without understanding the point of saying it, I thank my beloved Maxy.”

In the crucible of this experience, he was led outside himself to the person of Paul, as he “began to wonder how this man, who had gone through such extreme adversity, managed to remain steadfast and be a witness to so many generations of Christians.” As he immersed himself in the study of Paul;’s life, as set forth in his Second Letter to the Corinthians that articulates his “severe difficulties — beatings, stoning, shipwreck, sleeplessness and thirst, among others — and the way he understood and coped with them,” Dr. Cruz-Villalobos was ultimately led into a doctoral research project which formed the basis of his later publication, Keys of Posttraumatic Coping. Resilience, Posttraumatic Growth, Religious Coping, and Second Corinthians (mentioned at the opening). Here in this pain-laden process, he “identified 11 ‘coping keys’ in the Scriptural text.”

It was this publication that ultimately linked Luis to our project and we remain ever thankful for how these experiences—these fires that he endured—became a fire, not that destroyed, but a fire, a tormenting crucible, that refined him, and us together with him, into the image of our Suffering and Tormented and Crucified, and finally, Risen Savior.

Cruz-Villalobos, Luis (2021). Positive Coping with Trauma. A brief and complete review. Indenpendently Academic (2021).

Theory of Unhappiness. (Libros de Antipoesía). Indenpendently Academic (2021)

Also with an astonishing introduction,

We do not know for sure if this book was written in less time than it took to write this text which, as a prologue, wants and needs musicality to remain. Maybe it is because beauty has no end and our stubbornness makes us look for it, or maybe it is a whim, because books like this do not end at the end, but they begin. What we do know is that Luis Cruz-Villalobos is one of those writers who cannot write a single poem because he needs to write whole books. I do not say this because his poems are not pieces of craftsmanship or small organisms as complex as a space station or an ant, but because his creative capacity is not of this world. And what is from other worlds often makes us unhappy. And, as has always been known, unhappiness is but the other side of the coin called life. On the other side are the happy ones. I was saying that Luis Cruz-Villalobos is not from this world of poets that fight and move in search of a definitive poem. He is not of the race of those who sculpt until they die, until the marble is taken from their workshops while they sleep. It is not of those hunters who spend hours with their sights set on the place where their faith tells them that the defenseless prey will appear, maybe for a couple of seconds. He is the mammoth hunter, the one who comes out with a spear as weak as our bones in search of the meat by the ton. And he always arrives home with food. In his cave, they have never gone to sleep with an unhappy belly. Dedicated to the whole world and to the little gods –like Nicanor Parra–, this architectural complex called Theory of Unhappiness, and which, on the contrary, draws us to happiness as a landscape, is no other house than the embers that remain alive, hidden behind the gray of the coals, until the fire of the future. Perhaps that is all this theory is trying to tell us. Perhaps knowing that the fire hides –or sleeps, or rests– in the heart of the coals, of the mother or of our own heart, is enough to keep our unhappiness at the right temperature: so cold as to be happy and so hot as to make others happy. Here we speak of unhappiness but also of time, of questions to the dead, of bad and good poets, of a Roman emperor, of axioms, of our ancestor Alonso Quijano, of course of philosophy, of God, of how much would fit in our notebooks and our hands. Here, in Theory of Unhappiness, one speaks of what should be spoken of at schools, in parks, in fields, one speaks of life itself, as Cortázar said, defending himself. And it is these places, where we find life, where we shall have to stay and wait for death. But do not stand still and do nothing, because that, and only that, is the opposite to happiness. It says it well in one of the epigraphs of the book –those immortal verses of don Nicanor– and I say it well, now, on the point that poetry returns to give me warmth: Luis Cruz-Villalobos is there, so that silence does not grow crooked.

-Sergio Marentes (Prologue), Director General of Esturium, Director Literario de la Revista Virguliéresis«Leader» of the Grupo Rostros Latinoamérica, and former editor of the Revista Literariedad, and the Revista Esteros. Founder and director of the poetic collective Regálate un poema.

And for a selection of his other publications in Spanish click here.

For works related to poetry, see the following:

Cruz-Villalobos, Luis (2022). Theological Poetry: Haikus to Heaven / Eroga Tau. The accused poet opens his wings / Pauper God. Theographies (Theopoetry). Indenpendently Academic (2022).

And see this section of our site which features recent English translations of his work.

It should be noted that within a year, this work is already in its second edition. The original edition began with a Foreword by noted philsopher, John D. Caputo, who wrote,

"The task of weak theology is to sustain the exposure of theology to the primal event by which it is called into words in the first place. So when Luis Cruz-Villalobos entitles his book Theological Poetry, when he sets about to bring the theological matter to poetic word, he is not engaged in a work of ornamentation. He has struck the deepest root and touched the most ancient nerve of theology, which is that theology is poetry before it is doctrine; that is world-creation before it is creed; that it is poiesis before it is hardened over into a logic; that it breathes the words of life and death, of suffering and joy, before it allows its words to succumb to the formularies of orthodoxy and its canons. Theology is song before it is the stuff of a summa or of the councils. That is why the New Testament describes itself not as istoria, a sober historical record of the past, an accurate representation of the facts of the matter, but as euvangelion, a glad message, good news proclaimed to the poor and the imprisoned, a proclamation of the year of the jubilee. A gospel is not a predicative discourse but a promissory one. The year of the jubilee is the fiftieth year, the year that follows seven times seven, where everything is forgiven and we start out all over again. Fifty is not a number to be counted, a calendar date to be calculated, but a hope, a prayer, a dream, a messianic expectation, a marker of what is to-come, a symbol of a promise, and the Scriptures are its song.

The figure of Jesus in the New Testament is the figure of the archi-poet of the kingdom of God, a teller of parables about mustard seeds and buried treasures and prodigal sons, all bent on imagining the future of the coming of the kingdom, of the way it will be when God rules, not human greed and violence. Jesus is a poet who poetizes the Kingdom, who imagines what it would be like to live otherwise, in a time in which the grip of the world as we know it is broken. Jesus imagines the world differently, divinely, when retribution is displaced by forgiveness, violence and oppression by mercy to the least among us, and war is upended by weak force of peace.

In theopoetics, the name of this book, the very idea of “theological poetry,” is a magnificent tautology, a saying of the same in which something other—tout autre—something startling, something inbreaking, breaks in upon the business as usual of the world and calls upon theology to recall its ancient task of imagining the world otherwise.”

Father George is Dean Emeritus and former Professor of Patristics and Church History at Holy Cross Orthodox Seminary where he spent for 25 yrs after his tenure teaching Patristics and Orthodox Theology at Durham University from 1974-1995. It should also be noted that he did his PhD under Thomas F. Torrance of Edinburgh University (featured on our site here) then moved to Princeton to study under George Florovsky, both of whom had a profound influence on his development and whose legacies he has brilliantly and faithfully carried forward.

Though his C.V. (as you will see from the above hyperlink on his name) is 55 pages, we offer a selection of his writings regarding the Church Fathers, ecclesiology, suffering and healing below:

Orthodox Theology and the Sciences: Glorifying God in His Marvelous Works, by Protopresbyter George D. Dragas, Pavel Pavlov and Stoyan Tanev, Newrome Press, Columbia, Missouri, 2016, 378pp [General Editor and Contributor with 2 Bulgarian colleagues and 20 Orthodox theologians and scientists]

“The Mystery and Process of Death: An Interview of Metropolitan Ierotheos of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlassios by Dr. Pavel Chirila, Professor of Medicine in Rumania,” The Forerunner, 11:6 (June 2012) 2-19 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Editor]

According to Father George, Metropolitan Ierotheos of Nafpaktos is the most important orthodox thinker in regard to illness and health

See for example,

Orthodox Psychotherapy: The Science of the Fathers. Pelagia Monastery. 1994.

The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition. Birth of the Theotokou Monastery Press, 2005

Greek Orthodox Patrology: An Introduction to the Study of the Church Fathers, Orthodox Theological Library No 2, by Paragiotes K. Chrestou, Translated and Edited with additional bibliography by Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas,

Patristic Hermeneutics 4th-14th Centuries, Patristic Monograph Series 1, by Christos Ath. Arabatzis, translated and edited with an editor’s foreword, by Protopresbyter George Dion. Dragas, Magnavra Editions, An imprint of Newrome Press, Columbia, Missouri, 2013, 180pp. [Translator and Editor]

The Holy Sacraments of Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Communion: The Five Mystagogical Catechisms of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Orthodox Spirituality No 2, Orthodox Research Institute, Rollinsford NH 2008, xix+112pp. [Author and Editor]

Christian Philosophy in the Patristic and Byzantine Tradition, by B.N. Tatakis, Orthodox Theological Library 4, Edited, translated and fully annotated with bibliographies, by Protopresbyter Dr. George Dion Dragas, with with an Introduction to Basil Tatakis by Professor Vlassios Ioan. Phidas (School of Theology, Athens University) and Prof. Christos Terezis (School of Philosophy, University of Patras), Orthodox Research Institute, Rollinsford, New Hampshire 2007, pp. xiii+333. [Translator and Editor]

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria: Original Research and New Perspectives, Patristic Theological Library No 1, Orthodox Research Institute, Rollinsford, New Hampshire 2005, pp. xxix+345. [Author]

Athanasiana, Essays in the Theology of St Athanasius, London 1980, 188pp. [Author, publisher]

The Meaning of Theology, An Essay in Greek Patristics, Darlington, 1980, 101 pp. (2nd repr. 1989).

[For a review see, I. R. Torrance Expository Times, 93 (1981) 57-58; G. Bebis, Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 31 (1986) 447-448]

“Interview with Protopresbyter G.D. Dragas regarding T.F. Torrance, George Dion Dragas and Matthew Baker,” in T.F. Torrance and Eastern Orthodoxy: Theology in Reconciliation, ed. by Matthew Baker and Todd Speidell, Wipf & Stock Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 2015, pp.1-18. [author]

And from his work as a translator:

An Outline of Orthodox Patristic Dogmatics (in Greek and English), Orthodox Theological Library No 1, by Protopresbyter John Romanides, translated and edited with an Introduction and Bibliography by Protopresbyter George Dion. Dragas, with a Foreword by Metropolitan Methodios of Boston, Orthodox Research Institute, Rollinsford, New Hampshire 2004, v+155pp. [Translator and Editor]

“The Fall and Restoration [of Man],” from The Handbook of the Orthodox Faith, Ch. 7 and 8, by Fr. Antonios Alevizopoulos, The Forerunner, 12:5 (May 2012) 4-28 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator]

“The Person of the Holy Spirit,” from The Handbook of the Orthodox Faith, Ch. 10, by Fr. Antonios Alevizopoulos, The Forerunner, 12:6 (June 2012) 5-20 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator]

“The Person of the God-Man,” from The Handbook of the Orthodox Faith, Ch. 9, by Fr. Antonios Alevizopoulos, The Forerunner, 12:7 (July 2012) 5-20 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator]

“The Church as The Body of Christ,” from The Handbook of the Orthodox Faith, Ch. 12, by Fr. Antonios Alevizopoulos, The Forerunner, vol. 12:9 (September 2014), pp. 5-44 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator]

“The Word Became Flesh,” by Saint Justin Popovich (of the Serbian Orthodox Church), The Forerunner, vol. 12:12 (November 2014), pp. 5-16 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator]

“Repentance, the Fourth Sacrament,” From Bishop Theophilos of Campania’s A Treasury of Orthodoxy, The Forerunner, 11:1 (January 2012) 2-13 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator]

“The Resurrection of Christ and the Mortification of Death: The Greatest Event in History,” by Protopresbyter George Metallenos; and – “Christ is Risen: The Pascha of Isaac,” From Το σταυροδρόμι της καρδιάς μου, Εκδόσεις Φιλοκαλία, The Forerunner, 11:5 (April 2012) 4-12 and 13-23 (Modern Greek and English versions). [Translator and Editor]

Scott Cairns has served on the faculties of Kansas State University, Westminster College, University of North Texas and Old Dominion University. He recently retired as Curators' Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Missouri, transitioning back to his home state of Washington where he works as Professor of English and Director of the MFA in Creative Writing at Seattle Pacific University. He has been spoken of by the likes of Fr. Thomas Hopko (former Dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and son-in-law of Alexander Schmemann) as the "greatest living Orthodox poet" and has written in an exceedingly insightful way on the nature of suffering in his book, The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain.

We will include below links to his poetic collections, but will first present below one poem to give you a taste of his poetic style which comes from his work, “Adventures in New Testament Greek: Nous” from Philokalia: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002.

Adventures in New Testament Greek: Nous

You could almost think the word synonymous

with mind, given our so far narrow

history, and the excessive esteem

in which we have been led to hold what is,

in this case, our rightly designated

nervous systems. Little wonder then

that some presume the mind itself both part

and parcel of the person, the very seat

of soul and, lately, crucible for a host

of chemical incentives—combinations

of which can pretty much answer for most

of our habits and for our affections.

When even the handy lexicon cannot

quite place the nous as anything beyond

one rustic ancestor of reason, you might

be satisfied to trouble the odd term

no further—and so would fail to find

your way to it, most fruitful faculty

untried. Dormant in its roaring cave,

the heart’s intellective aptitude grows dim,

unless you find a way to wake it. So,

let’s try something, even now. Even as

you tend these lines, attend for a moment

to your breath as you draw it in: regard

the breath’s cool descent, a stream from mouth

to throat to the furnace of the heart.

Observe that queer, cool confluence of breath

and blood, and do your thinking there.

As promised, here are the links to his most recent works:

Descent to the Heart (A verse adaptation of selections from the writings of Saint Isaak of Syria, Forthcoming)

Anaphora: New Poems (Paraclete Poetry). Paraclete Press, 2019

Short Trip to the Edge: A Pilgrimage to Prayer (Spiritual memoir, 2007 & 2016)

Of which one reviewer wrote the following:

“We have heard about pilgrimages of lands and terrains; distances and heights. What about the practice of prayer? In this book, Scott Cairns does both. Calling Mount Athos (Agion Oros) in Northern Greece a ‘Holy Mountain,’ Cairns has been making trips to encounter the meaning of being ‘inhabited by a holy presence.’ It is also the readying of the heart to encounter God not only in the speedy race of life but also the slowing pace of reflectiveness. Given time, even the slowest would eventually make the turn. Even the highest mountain would be climbed...I appreciate this creative description of the learning of prayer. By infusing prayer throughout the book and the humility to keep learning how to pray, this book enables us to read it prayerfully. Many times, we read with the purpose of mining information. Due to the constant rush for deadlines, busyness with many other activities, and the incessant demands on our time, we can fail to listen to that soft whisper of God. There must be a reason why Paul teaches us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). As children of God, our heavenly Father often wants to reach out and touch us. When we pray, we are more sensitive to this outreach from heaven to earth. We are more open to sense the touch of the Spirit in our hearts. We learn best to pray when we let God lead and guide us. The way that Cairns describes his learning is something we can all learn from. For all the detailed descriptions of his pilgrimage, do not miss out on his reflective moments that leave him wanting more of God, more pilgrimages, and more prayer.”

—Conrade Yap, Panorama of a Book SaintEndless Life (translations and adaptations of Christian mystics, 2007 & 2014)Descent to the Heart (a verse adaptation of selections from the writings of Saint Isaak of Syria).

Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems (Paraclete Poetry). Paraclete Press, 2015.

Idiot Psalms: New Poems (Paraclete Poetry). Paraclete Press, 2014.

Endless Life: Poems of the Mystics (Translations and adaptations of Christian mystics, 2007 & 2014)

And as mentioned above, this full length treatment of suffering is extremely elucidating for our work:

The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain (Parclete Press, 2009)

Kelly has a BA from Wheaton, MDiv from RTS and PhD in Systematic and Historical Theology from King's College, University of London where his PhD advisor was Colin E. Gunton. He is currently Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College and a prolific author, recently receiving the World Magazine as well as Christianity Today Book of the Year award for his work, Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering (IVP Academic, 2017), which was followed by You're Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God's Design and Why That's Good News (2022) that again secured the Christianity Today Book of the Year award in the category of Theology (Popular) as well as the Southwestern Journal of Theology’s Book Award in Applied Theology/Ethics. (Two lectures on each of these books can be found here and here, respectively). Further works are offered below and it should be noted that he is currently working on a Templeton Foundation grant studying "Christian Meaning-Making, Suffering and the Flourishing Life," all of which make him an invaluable addition to our project.

Select Book titles:

Kelly M. Kapic, A Theology of Christian Life, in New Studies in Dogmatics Series, ed. Michael Allen and Scott Swain (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic). Research and writing is well under way.

Kelly M. Kapic, M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall, and Jason McMartin, Traveling a Road Marked with Suffering (Downers Grove:IVP). Research and writing is under way

Kelly M. Kapic and Brian Fikkert, A Field Guide to Becoming Whole: Principles for Poverty Alleviation Ministries (Chicago: Moody Publishers, Sept. 2019).

Kelly M. Kapic and Brian Fikkert, Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty is Not the American Dream (Chicago: Moody Publishers, March 2019). Book award in 2019 by Reintegrate in category of “Public Theology/Cultural Engagement.”

Kelly M. Kapic and Hans Madueme, ed., Reading Christian Theology in the Protestant Tradition (T & T Clark, 2018)

Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition (IVP: Downers Grove, 2013).

Kelly M. Kapic with Justin Borger, God So Loved He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).

Kelly M. Kapic, Communion with God: The Divine and the Human in John Owen’s Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007).

Articles, Book Chapters, and Essays:

Kelly M. Kapic, “Suffering” St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology [16,000+ word essay, peer reviewed article. Appeared with opening articles Fall 2022. Funded by the John Templeton Foundation in effort to make top scholarship accessible and free to the global Church and world].

Park, C. L., Silverman, E., Sacco, S. J., Kim, D., Hall, M. E. L., McMartin, J., Kapic, K., Shannonhouse, L., David, A., & Aten, J. (in press). “When Suffering Contradicts Belief: Measuring Theodical Struggling.” Current Psychology.

Kelly M. Kapic, “The Beautiful Paradox,” Christianity Today, Advent Booklet, December 2022.

Hall, M. E. L., McMartin, J., Park, C., Sacco, S. J., Kim, D., Kapic, K. M., Silverman, E. Shannonhouse, L., Aten, J., Snow, L. M., & Lopez, L. “Suffering with Christ: Emic Christian coping and relation to well-being.” SSM – Mental Health 2 (2022).

Hall, M. E. L., Silverman, E., Sacco, S. J., Park, C., McMartin, J., Kapic, K. M., Shannonhouse, L., Aten, J., & Snow, L. M. (2022). “Intimacy with God: Development of an emic Christian measure and relationship to well-being.” Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 41(10, 36-53. I

Hall, M. E. L., Kapic, K. M., Park C. L., Sacco, S. J., Kim, D., McMartin, J., Silverman, E., Shannonhouse, L, Aten, J., & Snow, L. M. (manuscript in preparation). “Lament and well-being: Measuring a Christian meaning-making practice.” 10.31234/osf.io/fkda6.

Park, C. L., Kapic, K. M., Sacco, S. J., Hall, M. E. L., Kim, D, Silverman, E., McMartin, J., Shannonhouse, L., & Aten, J. (under review). “A religious tradition-specific perspective on wellbeing: The construct and measurement of Christian flourishing.”

Silverman, E. J., Hall, M. E. L., Park, C., McMartin, J., Kapic, K. M., Shannonhouse, L., Aten, J., & Abernethy, A. “The value of a meaningful life as a response to the problem of evil.” Faith and Philosophy. Vol. 39 No. 1 January 2022.

McMartin, J., Kapic, K. M., Davis, D. E., Witvliet, C. V. O., Hall, M. E. L., Hook, J. N., Evans, C. S., Silverman, E. J., & Park, C. L. (2022). “Reflections on the prospects and perils of interdisciplinary collaboration in emic research.” Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 41(1), 69-83.

Kapic, K. M., Hall, M.E.L., & McMartin, J. “A theology of human flourishing for positive psychology pedagogy.” Special issue in Journal of Psychology and Christianity.

Additional collaborative research endeavors:

• Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) Grant = Part of the core team working on “The Christian Practice of Lament: Mechanisms of Change, Moderators, and Flourishing Outcomes,” awarded 2022 and ends 2025. Interdisciplinary team of psychologists, philosophers, and a theologian.

• John Templeton Foundation Grant = Part of a nine-person Core team working on “Christian Meaning-Making, Suffering, and the Flourishing Life.” Team includes six psychologists, one philosopher, and two theologians (of which I would be one) (2018-present).

• Recipient of John Templeton Foundation Grant for Spring 2014. Relocated for the term to the Center for Christian Thought at Biola University where I engaged in research and writing while working in an interdisciplinary context with other scholars. Together we labored under the larger umbrella theme of “Psychology and Spiritual Formation.” My project focused on the relationship between faith and suffering, giving chronic pain particular attention.

• On the Board of Editorial Consultants for Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care (2015 – present) • Contributing Editor for the journal Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture (2003 – present).

• One of eighty “crafters” invited to shape the statement: “A Call to Spiritual Formation – San Antonio, 2009.” Led by Richard Foster, Eugene Peterson and others, the group comes from a variety of Christian traditions, diverse academic and congregational environments, as well as different geographical locations.

Lauris is the Richard M. Caplan Chair in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Iowa as well as Director of the Program in Bioethics and Humanities and full Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.

A selection of his publications are below:

Kaldjian LC, Pilkington BC. Why Truthfulness is the First of the Virtues. Am J Bioeth. 2021 May;21(5):36-38.

Kaldjian LC. Practising the ethics we teach in international medical education. Med Educ. 2020 May;54(5):384-386.

Kaldjian LC, Jones EW, Rosenthal GE. Facilitating and impeding factors for physicians' error disclosure: a structured literature review. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2006 Apr;32(4):188-98.

Kaldjian LC, Jones EW, Rosenthal GE, Tripp-Reimer T, Hillis SL. An empirically derived taxonomy of factors affecting physicians' willingness to disclose medical errors. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Sep;21(9):942-8.

Kaldjian LC, Yoon J, Ark TK, Shinkunas L, Jotterand F. Practical wisdom in medicine through the eyes of medical students and physicians. Med Educ. 2023 Apr 29.

Kaldjian LC, Shinkunas LA, Reisinger HS, Polacco MA, Perencevich EN. Attitudes about sickness presenteeism in medical training: is there a hidden curriculum? Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2019 Sep 5;8:149.

Greiner AM, Kaldjian LC. Rethinking medical oaths using the Physician Charter and ethical virtues. Med Educ. 2018 Aug;52(8):826-837.

Ely JW, Kaldjian LC, D'Alessandro DM. Diagnostic errors in primary care: lessons learned. J Am Board Fam Med. 2012 Jan-Feb;25(1):87-97.

Braddock CH 3rd, Snyder L, Neubauer RL, Fischer GS; American College of Physicians Ethics, Professionalism and Human Rights Committee and The Society of General Internal Medicine Ethics Committee. The patient-centered medical home: an ethical analysis of principles and practice. J Gen Intern Med. 2013 Jan;28(1):141-6.

Kaldjian LC, Weir RF, Duffy TP. A clinician's approach to clinical ethical reasoning. J Gen Intern Med. 2005 Mar;20(3):306-11.

Kaldjian LC. Teaching practical wisdom in medicine through clinical judgement, goals of care, and ethical reasoning. J Med Ethics. 2010 Sep;36(9):558-62.

Kaldjian LC. Patients and borders, money and mission: responding to medically needy persons from other countries who lack financial resources. Perspect Biol Med. 2012;55(2):186-200.

Tyler is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Oregon Health and Science University and a practicing palliative care physician, whose work has placed him on the leading edge of thought into the complex dimensions of suffering.

His research focus, in his own words is as follows:

I am a pediatric palliative care physician, biomedical ethicist, and qualitative researcher at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). My primary scholarly focus is on understanding and addressing complex forms of human suffering, and the majority of my academic work sits at the intersection of ethics, historical and cultural analysis, and medical theory and practice. As a palliative care physician, I am also interested in identifying and analyzing the conceptual foundations of palliative care with a particular focus on the dynamics of patient-clinician relationships, empathy and love, and the ways that language and metaphor are utilized during medical encounters. Within medical ethics, I research and write about the moral formation of clinicians, and specifically about how medical education can better cultivate compassionate and humanistic medical care

His focus on suffering:

Characterizing the nature and ethics of suffering and developing strategies to reduce illness-associated suffering. My long-term research goal is to advance the understanding, prevention, and alleviation of human suffering, with a special focus on the suffering of children. I am approaching this research goal through conceptual, ethical, historical, and qualitative projects that have a strong bearing on the field of bioethics. Human suffering is a complex phenomenon that requires a multidisciplinary approach to analyze and address. My earliest publications examined canonical theories of human suffering, largely focusing on the work of physician Eric Cassell. These publications demonstrated that American medicine has been utilizing problematic and outdated theories of suffering. My more recent work on suffering has had three main goals.

  • First, to use qualitative methods to investigate the language of patient suffering and categorize thematic elements within the lived experience of suffering.

  • Second, to develop humanistic approaches—which clinicians can utilize when encountering suffering patients—that promote patients’ biopsychosocial and spiritual healing.

  • Third, to create ethical guidelines for the medical care of children with severe cognitive impairment (e.g., Trisomy 13 and 18); these children have often been denied treatment in order to prevent alleged future suffering.

Campella G. Tate T. Empathetic practice: the struggle and virtue of empathizing with a patient’s suffering. The Hastings Center Report. 2019; 49(2):17–29. PMID: 30998276. doi: 10.1002/hast.989.

Tate T. The liminal space: a lamentation on faith, nihilism, and the senseless death of a child. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2018; 21(11):1666–1667. PMID: 30383514. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2018.0163.

Tate T. Clair J. Love your patient as yourself: on reviving the broken heart of American medical ethics. Hastings Center Report.2023;53(2):12–25. doi:10.1002/hast.1470

Tate T. Tyler Tate replies. Hastings Cent Report. 2023;53(4):46–47. doi:10.1002/hast.1503

Kim AJH., Marshall M., Gievers L., Tate T., Taub S., Dukhovny S., Ronai C., Madriago E. Structured framework for multidisciplinary parent counseling and medical interventions for fetuses and infants with trisomy 13 or trisomy 18 [published online ahead of print, 2023 Aug 24]. American Journal of Perinatology. 2023;10.1055/s-0043-1772748. doi:10.1055/s-0043-1772748

De Bie F.R. Tate T. Antiel R.M. Maternal-fetal surgery as part of pediatric palliative care. Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. 2023; 28(3):101440. doi:10.1016/j.siny.2023.101440.

Tate T, Stein E, Pearlman RA. "A Shell of My Former Self": Using Figurative Language to Promote Communication About Patient Suffering. Narrat Inq Bioeth. 2022;12(2):153-165.

Tate T. What we talk about when we talk about pediatric suffering. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. 2021; 41(4):143-163.

Tate T. Philosophical investigations into the essence of pediatric suffering. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. 2021; 41(4):137-142.

Tate T. Pediatric suffering and the burden of proof. Pediatrics. 2020; Aug;146(Suppl 1):S70-S74.

Tate T. & Pearlman, R. What we mean when we talk about suffering---and why Eric Cassell should not have the last word. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 2019; 62(1):95-110.

Lalani H, Tate T. Listen to me. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2019; 22(2):228-229.

Barton K, Tate T., Lau N, Taliesin K, Waldman E, Rosenberg A. I'm not a spiritual person. How hope might facilitate conversations about spirituality with teens and young adults. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2018; 55(6):1599-1608.

Tate TP, Pearlman RA. Military metaphors in health care: who are we actually trying to help? Am J Bioeth.2016 Oct;16(10):15-17.