Evolutionary Perspectives on the Association Between Religiosity and Mental Health: Organizing Theoretical Frameworks

This article summarizes and connects evolutionary perspectives on the relationship between religiosity and mental health. Part I describes the challenges of defining religion and mental health for evolutionary analysis. It summarizes how these concepts have developed across academic disciplines and identifies a three-feature (belongings, beliefs, and behaviors) theoretical framework for religion and a theoretical distinction between mental health as functioning and mental disorder as dysfunction. Part II summarizes the literature on contemporary associations between religiosity and mental health, and describes the key proximate mechanisms proposed to mediate their relationship. Part III outlines theoretical approaches to the evolution of religion and the evolution of the cognitive and emotional underpinnings of mental health. Part IV reviews recent research that applies evolutionary analytics to explain the contemporary associations between religion and mental health. It proposes a new way to connect and organize key theoretical frameworks across religion, mental health and disorder, and evolutionary inquiry to aid in the interpretation of existing scholarship and highlight opportunities for future work. Identifying key theoretical frameworks and connecting these frameworks in an organized way clarifies how evolutionary analysis has contributed to understanding the contemporary association between religion and mental health and promotes continued scholarship in this important endeavor.