A new piece of research conducted by Harvard academics has suggested that “human flourishing” is connected to faith and spirituality, with religious believers generally scoring higher than the irreligious.
The Global Flourishing Study, published this week, looked at more than 200,000 people across 22 countries over the last five years.
Prof Tyler VanderWeele, who led the report, said, “Religious service attendance was one of the factors most consistently associated with present or subsequent wellbeing, across countries and across outcomes.”
The study suggests that there is a direct correlation between attendance at religious services and happiness.
Those who attend a service more than once a week have an average “global flourishing score” of 7.67. That figure goes down the less a person attends services, reaching 7.08 for those who go a few times per year and to 6.86 for those who never go.
According to the research, Britain is one of the least flourishing places among the 22 countries surveyed, in part because of weak church attendance.
Out of the 22 countries, Britain came 20th, beating only Turkey and Japan on the human flourishing index.
Topping the list for human flourishing according to the study was Indonesia, a country with noticeably lower GDP per capita than Britain, but higher religious observance. Israel came second.
Rev Joshua Rey, the vicar of Holy Trinity Roehampton, gave The Telegraph his own view on the results of the research: “The explanation of our anxiety, distress, dismay and hopelessness in the face of the unparalleled prosperity and freedom we enjoy in this country is junk food, smartphones and the decline of organised religion.”
Rev Rey also noted the value of the unconditional love and acceptance of God, of community, even imperfect ones and the notion of living not only for oneself, but in service to others and to one’s Creator.
