The prospect and purpose of locating community research and action in religious settings

Although the importance of working with people within their natural settings has been advocated since the 1965 conference at Swampscott, community psychologists have had relatively little discourse about religious settings when compared to the vast number of studies undertaken in other settings—schools, family environments, workplaces, and hospitals, to name a few. Only in recent years have some community psychologists begun to explore the potential benefits of working within religious and spiritual settings. We assert that this omission has resulted in little work centered in the context of religious settings, and consequently may limit the scope of our theories and the effectiveness of our interventions. In this article we argue that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that locating research and intervention projects in religious contexts can enrich the study and practice in the field. We consider first the history of the relationship between religion and psychology in research and practice, and review community psychology's discussion of religious settings over the past 25 years. We then discuss the relevance of these settings for community psychology by reviewing empirical findings within a conceptual framework of key constructs of community psychology. We argue that work in many religious settings is consistent with the priorities associated with these constructs. Furthermore, collaboration with religious organizations which share priorities with community psychology can help both community psychologists and participants of these religious settings achieve their goals.