Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project

Introduction: Spirituality and Catastrophe

Authors: Harold G. Koenig, MD

Abstract

In this issue, the focus of the Southern Medical Journal’s Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project is on what physicians need to know about spirituality and mass catastrophe. As used here, spirituality involves religious beliefs, practices, and traditions, but also more broadly includes a search for the sacred,1 ultimate truth, or ultimate reality. Spirituality is closely related to but distinct from concepts such as meaning and purpose in life, connectedness to others, and sense of peacefulness to which spiritual strivings may eventually lead but are not part of the definition itself.2 Mass catastrophes include natural disasters (eg, hurricanes) and acts of human terrorism (eg, bombings) that affect entire communities; these contrast with personal catastrophes (eg, murder, infidelity, torture, disfigurement). Catastrophe as discussed here will be limited to disaster on a community-wide scale.

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