All Shall Be Well. Religion and Progressive Change

It's not just today that religion's contribution to regressive change has been highlighted, but also in the past.  The 30 years war of religion in the 17th century provoked Pascal to observe 'Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction'.  Yet empirical sources equally demonstrate religion as significant agent for progressive change.  For the Dalai Lama, 'All of these religions can make an effective contribution for the benefit of humanity'.  That important judgement from leader of a great world religion and player in China's emerging history is corroborated from secular sources as well.  Demonstrating this conclusion can be achieved in terms of: noting the links between religion and wellbeing today, locating religion and progressive change in the historical long term and in case studies from the USA and Britain since 1700, and finally, by developing ways of measuring religion's contribution to progressive change. 

Wellbeing and Religion

Promoting the wellbeing of all people is increasingly promoted by national governments, like Britain's, and international bodies like the OECD and World Bank.  Research in economics, psychology and sociology also confirms this importance.  Richard Layard, a leading British economist (writer of the Foreword to CNSO) recognises that increasing economic growth since 1960 has not been accompanied by increasing happiness.  The latter depends on contributions from sources which include income, but also family relationships, work, community and friends including voluntary bodies, health and especially mental health, participation in work and politics, and personal values, philosophies of life and commitments to the common good. 

Also emerging from this research is growing acknowledgement of religion's contribution to wellbeing, and therefore to progressive change.  Layard concludes that 'one of the robust findings of happiness research' is 'that people who believe in God are happier'.  Empirical evidence is also mounting that religious based ties are likely to be 'morally freighted in a way that most secular ties are not', that religion is better able to promote moral values in life, a conclusion full of potential for the necessary reinvigorating of the moral dimensions of family life, education, politics, media and finance.  There is also strong evidence, as psychologist Seligman demonstrates, that 'healthy people who have good psychological wellbeing are at less risk of death from all causes' - and religious people are more likely to share such profiles than the non religious. 

Secular disciplines like psychology and economics are also developing profiles of what it means to be religious, including beliefs, transcendence, ritual, lifestyle, social networks, growing up religiously, and philosophy of life.  These overlap with what Christian traditions and experiences regard as central to their nature.  Further research has developed these understandings, including from evangelical sources (Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life), and Roman Catholic (The Abbot of Worth's Finding Happiness. Monastic Steps for a Fulfilling Life).  Resonances between them are remarkable - as they are when extended to other faiths, for example, Muslim, (Dr Musharaf Hussain's) and Buddhist (the Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness).  But it also extends to non religious spirituality, for the Dalai Lama as basic spirituality for 'moral people without religion', and for Seligman's as a spiritual fitness module (deployed with the US army). 

Religion and progressive change in historical contexts

These extend religion's role beyond today's wellbeing debates to encompass politics, technology and physiology, in case studies of religion's role in progressive change in the USA and Britain, 1700-2100.  This is then located in a longer time frame, using Morris's study of social development from 1200 BCE to 2100 CE focussing on the West and on China as the East.  This also extends interfaith studies beyond Judaism, Christianity and Islam to Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Taoism.  This broad survey also confirms the supreme importance for the dramatic (and much progressive) change from 1800-2100, confirmed by 3 graphs from the geoscientist Cooke's study of energy consumption, Nobel economist Fogel's study of world population growth and technology, and Morris's social development scores from 12000 BCE.  The patterns revealed show the negligible growth from 12000 BCE to 1800 CE and then a vertical take off.  Many disciplines, including religious studies, have never engaged these changes effectively. 

Measuring religion and progressive change

Measuring religion is embedded in modernity, whether the 1851 British religious census, or the Church of England's remarkable registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials from the 16h century. These are now added to by secular World Values Surveys since 1981. 

Measuring religion's contribution to progressive change can deploy supportive secular and then religious sources.  4 proven secular tools include: Morris's social development index measuring societys' abilities to get things done from 12000 BCE to 2100 CE; the United Nations Human Development Programme's human development index measuring nations' GDP per capita, life expectancy at birth, and literacy - this has also been adapted to take account of inequalities within nations; the index of sustainable economic welfare runs environmental alongside socio-economic indicators; and finally, National Accounts of Wellbeing measures personal and social wellbeing.  In the light of these proven tools 4 religious tools include: a religion and happiness index deploying a secular happiness inventory alongside a scale of attitudes to religion, tested in Christianity, but also adapted for Judaism, Islam and Hinduism - and suggesting positive associations between religion and happiness; a religiosity index measuring religiosity in America, and religion's contributions to volunteering, giving, trust and civic participation, and to engaging income inequality and government's role in poverty alleviation; a spiritual capital and added value index, still under development and measuring motivating and energising forces behind religion's superior outputs for progressive change; and finally, a religion and progressive change index now  being developed from material in this lecture and in CNSO.  This tool tries to measure religion's contribution to progressive change, focussing on the periods 1700-2100 in the USA and Britain, but now located in wider historical contexts and now including China and Eastern religions.