ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ways in which the contemporary debate about spirituality can enhance an understanding of resilience, especially when dealing with issues of human vulnerability, meaning and purpose. It recognizes from the outset that this is “mysterious territory.” How people respond to the overwhelming experience of grief and loss varies enormously, and no one really knows, until it happens, how they will respond when their vulnerabilities are remorselessly exposed. The contemporary debate around spirituality has both a secular and a religious dimension to it, but a common theme explores ways in which meaning and purpose have an impact upon human well-being. It seeks to explore and expand what it means to be fully human and invites a reflection upon the ontological challenges (the big “why” questions that challenge our capacity to be resilient). This inevitably raises questions about people’s chosen worldviews and what sustains them in moments of crisis or despair. Resilience has more than an individual aspect to it, however. The chapter also explores the contribution that corporate or shared resilience has upon human well-being and how a shared sense of community is also an aspect of spirituality. The chapter ends with some moral and ethical questions about people’s chosen worldviews and spirituality, and the extent to which they foster, or undermine, the well-being of others.
