Grief Care: Religion and Spiritual Support in Times of Loss

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit your work for consideration to this Special Issue exploring how grief care integrates religion and spiritual identities. Grief is an experience intricately woven into people’s lives and religion/spirituality often offer an added dimension of significance to the meaning making when someone is grieving.

Understanding the complexities of grief within the contexts of care and religion/spirituality is paramount for several reasons. First, the field of caregiving, whether in healthcare or end of life care settings or informal networks, recognising the manifestations of grief is crucial for providing effective support to those who are grieving. Moreover, delving into the religious and spiritual aspects of grief unveils unique coping mechanisms, rituals and belief systems that influence individual’s experiences of loss and healing.

Research in this area advances our knowledge and understanding about the intersections of grief, care, religion and spirituality, while it supports the advancement of knowledge and skills in relation to practical implications in the field. Such work often sheds light on culturally sensitive approaches to grief support, informs interventions that respect diverse belief systmes, and underscores the significance of holistic care that addresses religion and spiritual dimensions.

Furthermore, exploring the interface between religion/spirituality and grief care enriches our understanding of human resilience, existential meaning-making, and the ways individuals navigates life’s most profound challenges. By fostering of an interdisciplinary dialogue this Special Issue aims to advance knowledge, stimulate critical reflection, and contribute to the development of innovative practices that honor the complexity of grief within diverse religious and spiritual landscapes.

We invite scholars from diverse disciplines to contribute original research articles, or theretical pieces that explore grief care and the place of religion/spirituality. We encourage early career researchers, practitioners and/or people with lived experience to pursue this opportunity as well. 

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Religious copying mechanisms;
• Meaning-making and existential beliefs;
• Rituals and bereavement practices;
• Spiritual support and grief care;
• Technology and grief care;
• Religion and spirituality in different contexts of grief care;
• Interfaith perspectives of grief care;
• Healthcare, end of life care and religion/spirituality.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Panagiotis Pentaris
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• grief care
• spiritual support
• religious copying