Religion, well-being, and therapeutic landscape

Religious communities and institutions have been pivotal in the growth of cities and urban communities in the world, usually as cradles around which large cities emerge. This chapter addresses the role of religion in the maintenance and promotion of populations’ well-being through the case of Ghanaian and Somali immigrants in Canada. Through an empirical study of religious groups and by the application of the therapeutic landscapes concept, this chapter shows how religious places help to nurture newcomers/immigrants into Canadian society. Attention is paid to whether religious places contain elements of the physical, social, emotional, symbolic and spiritual sense of well-being, and also how these help form and sustain community. The study revealed that religion is important as a factor in understanding the well-being of populations, but rather than viewing religion in narrow spiritual terms as a call to a Supreme Being, a wider view is warranted. In fact, the chapter advocates reframing the spiritual component of religion to combine the physical, social, symbolic, emotional and other factors that characterize religious place making, and to consider vulnerable religious places that jeopardize populations’ well-being.