Two impact pathways from religious belief to public disaster response: Findings from a literature review

This study aims to understand the ways in which religious belief impacts public disaster response and to evaluate the current knowledge regarding this topic. By reviewing the literature related to the “religion-hazard/disaster nexus”, this paper identifies two important impact pathways. First, religious belief impacts how religious persons interpret natural hazards and perceive risks (disaster awareness) while also governing their behaviours and affecting public emotions in a disaster situation. Second, religious belief and religious identity link individual believers with God(s) and create bonds among different adherents, which can become important resources (religious support) for survivors when coping with physical and emotional wounds. As an important contextual and identity factor in the two pathways to response, religious belief has both constructive and harmful impacts. In certain contexts, religious belief and the associated religious interpretation of natural hazards constrain people's initiative to cope with disaster, but in terms of a psychological response, religious attributes can foster and promote individual and social disaster resilience. In the face of a disaster, people can obtain vital spiritual support from the God(s) in whom they believe and can also have access to and rely on important support and resources that are generated or mobilized by their belief-based social network. Regarding disaster risk reduction, it is important for policymakers and practitioners to value and capitalize on the constructive impacts of religious belief and to make an effort to moderate those impacts where they may be obstacles.