A steadily growing number of people in Western industrialized societies are turning to spiritual worldviews and practices, while bonding traditional religious institutions are becoming less and less important. This change in the religious field has been termed the “spiritual turn” in the social sciences and religious studies.
People who see themselves as spiritual are characterized above all by their interest in a personal, individually shaped and experience-oriented access to a higher reality or transcendent dimension, by feelings of an all-encompassing connectedness and the search for self-realization and existential meaning.
Since around the mid-1980s, there has also been a change in the health professions in the sense of a “spiritual turn”. This is reflected in an increased interest in the possible effects of a spiritual orientation and practice on mental and physical health. While a critical attitude towards religion prevailed for a long time in the past and the possible pathogenic effects of religiosity were the focus of interest, attention is now increasingly turning to the salutogenic and growth-promoting aspects of spirituality and religiosity.
