Annual Spirituality Research Symposium
The Twelfth Annual Symposium
May 21, 2009 -- Clair M. Fagin Hall SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS OF AGING:
INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH
Dr. Harold Koenig and Rabbi Dayle Friedman addressing the symposium
Our 12th annual Spirituality Research Symposium was held on May 21, 2009, at the
University of Pennsylvania's Clair M. Fagin Hall auditorium. The event was moderated
by Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman,
Director of Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism at the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College (Wyncote, PA). Harold G. Koenig,
MD, MHSc, founding Co-Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health
at Duke University Medical Center, gave the keynote address:
"Religion, Spirituality, and Health in Older Adults" and responded
to a case of a hospice patient presented by Joe Straton, MD, MSCE, Medical Director
of Penn's Wissahickon Hospice.
Andrew B. Newberg, MD,
Director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind
at the University of Pennsylvania spoke on "The Aging Brain and Spiritual
Capacity," and an interdisciplinary panel considered "The Values
and Vision of Our Aging Society," with Mary Ann Forciea, MD; Betsy Alexander,
RN; Claudia Parvanta, PhD; and Chaplain Ralph Ciampa joining Rabbi Friedman, Dr. Koenig,
Dr. Straton, and Dr. Newberg. The event was co-sponsored with the Penn Center for Spirituality and the Mind (with a Templeton Research Lectureship Grant) and the Penn Geriatric Education Center.
Dr. Koenig's slide presentation is available for download as a PowerPoint file or as a PDF file.
Chaplain Ralph C. Ciampa, Director of Pastoral Care
Spirituality and Cancer was the theme of the 11th Annual Spirituality
Research Symposium, on April 2, 2008, sponsored by the Department of Pastoral
Care, the Abramson Cancer Center, and Penn's
Center for Spirituality and the Mind.
The program was supported by the Mind, Religion, and Ethics in Dialogue
lecture series, funded by the Program on the Constructive Engagement between Science
and Religion from the Templeton
Foundation, and the Metanexus Institute.
The audience in the Medical Alumni Hall was welcomed by Andrew Newberg, MD, Founding Director
of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, and opening remarks were offered by
Joseph Carver, MD, Chief of Staff of the Abramson Cancer Center, and Ralph C. Ciampa,
STM, Director of Pastoral Care. Three research presentations followed:
COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES AND PRAYER USE
AMONG CANCER SURVIVORS
[Slides available as a PDF]
Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS ISSUES AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS
AT INCREASED RISK FOR CANCER
[Slides available as a PDF]
Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD
Associate Professor, Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES
OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH BLOOD CANCERS
Kava Schafer, MDiv, MA
Staff Chaplain, Department of Pastoral Care
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Chaplain Kava Schafer, HUP Department of Pastoral Care
The program was immediately followed by the inaugural Thorne Sparkman Lecture in
Spirituality, Religion and Medicine: Science and Faith: Conflict or Concordance?
by Francis S. Collins,
MD, PhD, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. The lecture was held
in the Dunlop Auditorium.
Since 1998, the Department of Pastoral Care has sponsored, through its
multidisciplinary Research Committee, an annual symposium on spirituality and pastoral
care research. The event explores issues of theory and methodology, offers a forum for
discussion of original research and trends in the field, and provides an occasion
for networking between clinicians, researchers, and pastoral care providers. As a
regular feature of the symposium, the Department offers an extensive annotated
bibliography of articles on spirituality & health.
The 10th annual symposium was held on Wednesday, April 25, 2007, in the Medical
Alumni Hall of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, exploring Spirituality
and Health Care Education.
Andrew Newberg, MD, Founder of Penn's Center for Spirituality
and the Mind
Panel: Elizabeth Mackenzie, Jean Kristeller, Paul
Derrickson, and David Hufford
Presentations included: "Training Physicians to Engage Spiritual Concerns," by
Jean Kristeller, PhD, Director of the Center for the Study of Health, Religion
and Spirituality
at Indiana State University; "Spirituality in Medical School Education," by David
Hufford, PhD, Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine; "Research
in Pastoral Care Education," by the Rev. Paul Derrickson, MDiv, Hershey Medical
Center, Penn State College of Medicine; "Humanistic Medicine: Laying the Foundations
in Undergraduate Education," Elizabeth Mackenzie, PhD, University of Pennsylvania;
and "The Integration of Spirituality into the Medical School Curriculum," by Gail
Morrison, MD, Vice Dean for Education, University of Pennsylvania [--see the Penn
Current article: "Teaching Doctors to Talk About Faith"].
The event was presented in conjunction with Penn's Center for Spirituality and the Mind,
supported by the Mind, Religion, and Ethics in Dialogue lecture series, funded by
the Program on the Constructive Engagement between Science and Religion from the
Templeton Foundation, and the Metanexus Institute.
The 9th Annual Spirituality Research Symposium
Our 9th symposium, on the topic of Beliefs in Health, was held on Tuesday, April 25, 2006, in the University of Pennsylvania's
Hall of Flags (Houston Hall), co-sponsored with Penn's newly-formed Center for
Spirituality and the Mind. The program revolved around four main presentations:
I. Spiritual Belief and Health: Which? Whose? Why? So What?
A thorough analysis of the spirituality, religion and health field carried out in
the spring of 2005
revealed much progress but also many gaps in the literature. One of
the most serious gaps lies in the cultural domain. The literature reflects a lack of
awareness and understanding regarding American cultural diversity in spirituality,
religion and health, as well as a lack of attention to issues of language and spiritual
experience relevant to health. This presentation sketched out these areas and offered
suggestions for making the field more comprehensive and more accurate with regard to
American society.
--Presented by David Hufford, PhD, University Professor and Chair, Humanities and Professor, Departments of
Neural and Behavioral Sciences and Family and Community Medicine, Penn State University,
an expert on the study of cultural and religious belief systems as they pertain to human health,
and author of the recent
field analysis noted above
[available as a PDF, 72 pages, via www.metanexus.org].
II. The Science and Spirit of Unselfish Love: Implications for Health and Well Being
Positive beliefs such as love have a major impact on human health and behavior. Love is a
fundamental motivator of human beings, influencing everything from family dynamics and
health to inner peace and global politics, yet modern science has virtually ignored the
subject as a valid source of practical and useful knowledge. This presentation reviewed
recent research initiatives into the understanding of how love, the body, and health intersect.
--Presented by
Stephen Post, PhD, Professor and Associate Director for Educational Programs, Center
for Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Editor-in-Chief
of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics (3rd ed.), and President of the
Institute for
Research on Unlimited Love, which focuses on the scientific study of phenomena such as altruism,
compassion, and service.
III. Religious Struggle: Evidence and Clinical Implications
When beliefs become negative, they can have a similarly negative impact on health. This talk
reviewed clinical implications that arise when individuals hold negative beliefs, particularly
religious, about themselves and about the meaning and purpose of their lives. It emphasised the
various kinds of negative beliefs, their psychology, their relationship to health, and ways that
individuals in the health care setting can help patients who have these negative beliefs.
--Presented by
George Fitchett, DMin, Associate Professor and Director of Research, Department of Religion,
Health and Human Values, and Associate Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Rush
University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, a leading researcher in religion and health,
and author of Assessing Spiritual Needs.
IV. Neurophysiological Correlates of Beliefs
How do beliefs form? How do beliefs affect our health? In order to address these questions,
studies of the underlying neurophysiology must be explored. This presentation reviewed
what is currently known about the brain's functions and how they relate to the various
components of human beliefs. This included a discussion of neuroimaging studies of
various religious states as well as an overview of current knowledge of how beliefs form.
--Presented by
Andrew Newberg, MD, Department of Radiology with secondary appointments in Psychiatry
and Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania, author of Why God Won't Go Away:
Brain Science and the Biology of Belief, and founder of Penn's
Center for Spirituality and the Mind. (For more
on Dr. Newberg's work, go to www.andrewnewberg.com.)
In 2005, the theme of the event was The Spiritual
Care of Hospitalized Children and Their Families: What We Know from Research and What We
Need to Learn, and was held at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Presentations included: "When Children Die: What Narratives Can Tell Us," by The
Rev. Dr. Dane Sommers, DMin, BCC (Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City); "Stages of Spiritual
Development During Childhood," by Andrew Newberg, MD (University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine); "Religion and Coping for Sick Children and Their Families," by Alexandra Boeving,
PhD (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia); and "Technology and the Erosion of Religious Values,"
by Robert Nelson, MD, PhD (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia). The Symposium was moderated by
Chris Feudtner, MD, PhD, MPH (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania),
who led a panel discussion about the needs for research in order to provide better
spiritual care of hospitalized children and their families.
Presentations in previous years have included:
AN OVERVIEW OF SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH IN MEDICAL EDUCATION AND CONTINUING
EDUCATION FOR PHYSICIANS, with David Musick, PhD, Director, Graduate Medical
Education, UPHS, and Vice Chair, Education & Development, Department of
Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
SPIRITUALITY IN THE PRIMARY CARE INTERNAL MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM, with
Kevin Fosnocht, MD, Program Director, Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency
Program and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
THE SPIRITUALITY & MEDICINE SUMMER ELECTIVE COURSE AT THE PENN SCHOOL OF
MEDICINE, with Lynn Seng, MSEd, Director, Special Educational Projects, School
of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
A SURVEY OF MEDICAL STUDENT FEEDBACK ON THE PENN SOM SPIRITUALITY & MEDICINE
SUMMER ELECTIVE, with Martin Lavengood, MDiv, Chaplain Resident, Hospital of
the University of Pennsylvania
OVERVIEW OF RELIGIOUS COPING RESEARCH, with Anthony N. Fabricatore, PhD, Instructor
of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
HOW BRAIN IMAGING RESEARCH HAS SUPPORTED THE PERTINENCE OF SPIRITUALITY IN MEDICAL
EDUCATION, with Andrew B. Newberg, MD, Assistant Professor in Radiology and
Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
PHYSICIAN SPIRITUALITY IN THE DOCTOR/HEALER ROLE, with Horace M. DeLisser, MD,
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
AN OVERVIEW OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPIRITUALITY AND SOCIAL HEALTH: A SYSTEMATIC
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE,
with Byron Johnson, PhD, Director, Center for Research in Religion and Urban Civil
Society (CRRUCS), University of Pennsylvania
THE FIREARM INJURY EPIDEMIC AND ITS IMPACT ON THE HEALTH OF TODAY'S YOUTH, with
C. William Schwab, MD, Chief, Division of Traumatology and Surgical Critical Care,
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
IS RELIGION GOOD FOR ADOLESCENT HEALTH? A NATIONAL STUDY OF AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL
SENIORS, with John Wallace, PhD, University of Michigan
THE GREAT ESCAPE: HOW RELIGION ALTERS THE DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR OF HIGH-RISK ADOLESCENTS,
with Byron Johnson, PhD, and Marc Siegel, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
LIVING UP TO EXPECTATIONS: HOW RELIGION ALTERS THE DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR OF LOW-RISK
ADOLESCENTS, with Mark Regnerus, PhD, University of Texas
CROSSING THE FINE LINE: INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH ON HUMAN WHOLENESS, THE RELATION
BETWEEN HEALTH CARE AND PASTORAL CARE, AND ASSESSMENT OF CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY,
with David A. Scott, Ph.D., William Meade Professor for Theology and Professor of
Ethics, Virginia Theological Seminary, Emeritus; and co-author of "Walking a Fine
Line: Physician Inquiries into Patients' Religious and Spiritual Beliefs" (2001)
and "Prayer as Therapy: A Challenge to Both Religious Belief and Professional
Ethics" (2000), in The Hastings Center Report
PERSPECTIVES ON NEUROSCIENCE AND THEOLOGY,
with Andrew B. Newberg, M.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology, University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine; and co-author of Why God Won't Go Away: Brain
Science and the Biology of Belief (2001)
and The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience (1999)
DESIGNING, IMPLEMENTING, AND EVALUATIONG A SPIRITUALLY BASED PILOT INTERVENTION FOR
MINOR DEPRESSION IN OLDER ADULTS,
with Elizabeth Mackenzie, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, Division of Geriatric
Medicine; and Associate Fellow, Institute on Aging, UPHS
DESIGN OF A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL OF A PASTORAL CARE INTERVENTION AS ADJUNCT
THERAPY FOR PULMONARY REHABILIATION FOR EMPHYSEMA,
with Jason D. Christie, M.D., Senior Scholar, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and
Biostatistics; and Instructor in Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
DOUBLE-BLIND, RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF PRAYER FOR FROZEN SHOULDER IN THE PHILIPPINES,
with Thomas W. Findley, M.D., Medical Holistic Institute, Hackensack, New Jersey
PATTERNS OF RELIGIOUSNESS AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE LAST YEAR OF LIFE,
with Ellen L. Idler, Ph.D., Institute for Health, Healthcare Policy and Aging Research,
Rutgers University
RESULTS OF A PILOT STUDY OF RELIGIOUSNESS AND DIABETIC OUTCOMES: IMPLICATIONS FOR
FUTURE RESEARCH,
with David E. Nicklin, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family Practice and Community
Medicine & Medical Director, Penn Family Care, UPHS
REFLECTIONS ON RECENT CRITICISM OF THE SPIRITUALITY RESEARCH MOVEMENT,
with Larry VandeCreek, D.Min., Director, Pastoral Research, The Healthcare
Chaplaincy, New York
COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS IN SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH CARE RESEARCH,
with Margot Hover, D.Min., Teaching Chaplain, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
MEDITATION AS AN INTERVENTION FOR RESEARCH IN SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH,
with Michael J. Baime, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; and Director,
Penn Program for Stress Management, UPHS
AFRICAN AMERICAN NURSING HOME RESIDENTS' ATTITUDES CONCERNING PHYSICIAN INQUIRY ABOUT
SPIRITUAL/RELIGIONS BELIEFS,
with Barbara B. Ott, R.N., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College of Nursing, Villanova
University
THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING THE SCIENCE RIGHT,
with John Hansen-Flaschen, M.D., Chief, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division;
and Medical Director, Comprehensive Lung Center, UPHS
CONNECTIONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND HEALTH: AN INTRODUCTION,
with David J. Hufford, Ph.D., Professor, Departments of Humanities and Behavioral
Science, Penn State University; and Director, Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine
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