Page - 215 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

215 design, measurement  – of biodiversity, of spiritual well-being  – mediating path- ways and moderating variables. We undertook a thematic, narrative analysis of the literature. Findings were interpreted through the lens of four spiritual well-being domains identified through our examination of definitions of spiritual well-being (see Sect. 10.2). 10.1.2 Our Biases Our approach to such a task has several biases that we think are important to delin- eate up front. First, the authors’ different ways of knowing  – academic researchers; disciplinary training in environmental psychology (KNI, RB-W), sociology and religious studies (DH); integrative family medicine (SLW); and Western worldview (USA, UK)  – bring a certain perspective to the selection and interpretation of the literature. Second, while we recognise that aspects of religious traditions can have negative effects on biodiversity (e.g. White 1967) and that not all experiences of biodiversity or nature foster well-being (e.g. Dallimer et  al. 2012, see pp.  52–53; Heintzman 2016, see pp.  394–395), this chapter focuses on beneficial aspects of the biodiversity/spiritual well-being nexus. Third, although this is a chapter about the relationship between biodiversity and spiritual well-being, our author team does not include an ecologist, which limits our interpretation of the biodiversity component within the selected literature. 10.1.3 Chapter Structure In Sect. 10.2 we provide a contextualised understanding of the concept of spiritual well-being that is taken forward throughout the chapter. We discuss four themes from our assessment of the literature in Sect. 10.3: (i) influence of spiritual Box 10.1: Definitions of Biodiversity, Health, Spiritual Well-Being • Biodiversity is “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems” (United Nations 1992, p.  3). • Health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 1948). • Spiritual well-being is “concerned with meaning, connection to some- thing greater than oneself and, in some cases, a faith in a higher power” (Linton et  al. 2016, p.  12). 10 Biodiversity and  Spiritual Well-being