Religion, well-being and quality of life

We must recognize that we are not dealing with an obvious issue, and that many may be surprised by a Investigation programme which could rather lead to disappointing results, or worse, could falsify and trivialize the meaning of the fe religious, especially, of the Christian faith founded on the cross of Christ. It is important to start our proposal from the objections and doubts that may arise, before going ahead and clarifying what this program of study of religion, its possible developments, and the fruits it is already bearing. In fact, we are dealing with a relatively new project: it is not easy to identify a theological and spiritual tradition that explores the relationship between the Christian faithon the one hand, and human dimensions such as well-being, happiness, quality of life or the idea of full life, on the other. These are closely related concepts that express the ideals and expectations that motivate us.

Does the Christian faith have anything to do with well-being? This question can have several answers, and the first one is clearly negative: it’s not that it has little to do with it, it’s that said faith has ruined life of many people, it has made them neurotic and scrupulous, or simply prevented them from enjoying the joys of life. However, that can’t be the whole truthand we know of many cases in which this faith has filled men and women of all time with joy.

We know that the Christian faith is a “salvation religion” and, as such, its main objective is to save everyone, that is, to see everyone free from evil and suffering and that they achieve full life, the best for everyone. In this sense, Christianity shares the same interest with the great religions, which also offer salvation. However, this proposal is understood differently in each case.

Beyond death

The Christian tradition has generally deferred to another life, beyond death, the complete realization of said ideal. Perhaps some mystical traditions could also claim that purpose for before, nowbut his proposals, as in the case of the ascetic path, are today quite counterintuitive, at least in relation to what is meant by ‘well-being’ and ‘quality of life’.

Surely it is shocking to us, at least to those of my generation, to raise the meaning of christian faith and salvation advertises in terms that can be associated with the wellness industry, which today knows a wide development; or to the self Help Literature, with so many published books; or to popular culture, which is expressed in comedies, in the most flattering or in the dreams of consumerism.

But there are other fields in which these ideas have a more positive meaning or may be closer to Christian sensitivity, such as the field of therapies or of the treatments who try to compare the psychological suffering; or that of the social programs, which try to mitigate structural ills; or even the altruism studiesprosocial attitudes, or the most serious ways of addressing issues of quality of collective and personal life.

A relevant topic

A very broad panorama opens before us, since governments and public and private administrations consider the issue of levels of satisfaction and personal and collective well-being a factor of great importance and closely linked to the sustainability programs. The question is to what extent this topic May be relevant for Christians too and the churches.

Certainly, there are plenty of reasons to think that wellness theme is not for us, or that the salvation that we Christians talk about has little to do with the models of good living and personal satisfaction that the consumer culture sells us. However, it would be disappointing not to pay attention to that concern, and not connect with that “sign of the times” which also deserves discernment on our part.

First of all, the reasons for mistrust they are quite plausible. At one extreme would be the most radical, such as the apocalyptic, which also abound today: for them, it makes no sense to speak of well-being in the circumstances in which we find ourselves; It would be an alienation, an inability to notice our deep discomfort associated with sin. Furthermore, if our hope is in the afterlife or in a radical transformation that only God and his Christ can bring about, then it would be almost a betrayal to seek well-being in this life, since, in principle, it cannot be found here, at least not until the Messiah returns.

Sustainability in question

Something similar happens with the sustainability programs: Christian apocalyptists have absolutely no interest in making this world of sin sustainable. Quite the contrary: rather, they hope that it will self-destruct soon to make way for “the new heavens and the new earth”; the old is deeply corruptedand what we suffer under the effects of climate change, pandemics and other miseries are nothing more than symptoms and warnings about the expiration of the present world, the vanity of our aspirations to improve and the nearness of the end.

Anyway, we don’t need the company of doomsayers to find reasons for mistrust regarding the issue of well-being. Another important reason is its absence in the Christian tradition. I am a professor of Theological Anthropology for 30 years at a Pontifical University in Rome, I know the bibliography of my subject very well, and I have also studied soteriology, or the treatise on salvation, which should encompass various related treatises: Christology, ecclesiology, the sacraments, eschatology and also anthropology.

Well, by heart, I don’t remember any manual or specialized text that has addressed the issue of quality of life, well-being or happiness. There is a feeling of strangeness or strangeness before those subjects: it does not seem that they touch us theologians, if anything psychologists and sociologists. In my Theological Anthropology course notes, I notice that this chapter is missing: If we can’t talk about Christian faith and salvation helping to live better, then what are we talking about? (…)

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