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The concept of forgiveness received little systematic study in the last two centuries. In 1998, there were only 58 scientific studies of forgiveness. By 2005, over 950 had been published. The rate has continued to grow with many research teams and laboratories seeking to identify the personal and social health benefits of forgiveness.
The scientific study of forgiveness has complemented millennia of thought and practice by religious communities, philosophers, and people living their daily lives. People are frequently hurt, injured, and broken by loved ones and strangers. It is a universal drive to heal from such interpersonal harms, and forgiveness is one important way that people move from brokenness to wholeness. To forgive is human. The theme of the fourth biennial conference on Spirituality & Health is Forgiveness, Spirituality & Health: From Brokenness to Wholeness.
The conference will be multidisciplinary, drawing on distinctive perspectives and practices of social scientists, health professionals, chaplains and clergy. The conference will take a balanced view of spirituality, focusing on ways that practitioners can integrate spirituality broadly defined into treatment of mental and physical health problems and on ways that basic researchers can study forgiveness scientifically.
Papers and presentations will deal with diverse people and problems, such as forgiveness of hard-to-forgive transgressions, self-forgiveness, forgiveness in close relationships and of strangers who harm. Communicating forgiveness and responding to offers of forgiveness, societal and community reconciliation, and forgiveness and reconciliation in religious communities and secular society will be topics of discussion. You’re invited to participate in this landmark event in the study of spirituality & health.
» Medical and health professionals
» Psychologists, nurses & allied health practitioners
» Chaplains, clergy and ethicists
» Health care administrators
» Community carers
» Academics, researchers and students
Files Available
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Download the 2011 Conference Leaflet
