God-Concepts and Spiritual Wellbeing: Support for the Nolloth Professorship at Oxford

Using various God-concepts, and associated theological narratives, drawn from a range of religious and philosophical contexts, the project team will address these two questions: [Q1] In what ways can God-concepts deepen or otherwise inform our conception of the nature of spiritual wellbeing? [Q2] To what extent can God-concepts be assessed as more or less appropriate or adequate by reference to their implications for spiritual wellbeing? The project will involve both theoretical and empirical strands of enquiry, and our two core questions will be addressed from both points of view. The theoretical strand of the study will consider the conceptual connections between various God-concepts and accounts of the nature of the well-lived life, and will identify the different forms that such connections may take. On this basis, we shall examine the ways in which a given God-concept may be assessed, not simply in evidential or abstractly metaphysical terms, but on account of its capacity to deepen the spiritual significance of human lives. The empirical strand of the study will engage with the social scientific literature on the relationship between God-concepts and wellbeing, and discuss the relationship between empirically informed and theologically grounded accounts of wellbeing. In this phase of the enquiry, we shall use interviews and also the written work of figures of recognised spiritual authority to develop a new appreciation of the ways in which God-concepts can in practice guide processes of spiritual discernment, and thereby shape the everyday experience of those who use them. The empirical and theoretical phases of the study will be mutually informing: for instance, the empirical phase will enable us to test the fruitfulness of various God-concepts in situations of practical choice, and in this way to consider the productiveness of a given God-concept from both theoretical and applied points of view.