According to Ronan and Johnston (2005) the number of people who will experience a disaster will double by 2050 from one billion people to two billion people. Since 1985 there has been an almost 400% increase in global natural disasters (Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, 2007). Researchers managing the global terrorism database report a similar increase in terrorist events over the last decade, with almost 5,000 events annually. Some of the worst disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, Haiti Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, and Philippines Typhoon occurred in the past decade alone. Disasters are becoming more complex, with primary disasters (e.g., earthquake) often triggering secondary disasters (e.g., nuclear meltdown). Research shows that disasters often leave a significant psychological and spiritual “footprint” on affected communities. Thus, the purpose of this article is to introduce readers to empirical research on the psychology of religion/spirituality and disasters as well as to introduce a framework for spiritually oriented disaster psychology.

According to Ronan and Johnston (2005), the number of people who will experience a disaster will double by 2050 from 1 billion to 2 billon people. Since 1985, there has been an almost 400% increase in global natural disasters (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, 2007). Researchers managing the Global Terrorism Database have reported a similar increase in terrorist events over the past decade, with almost 5,000 events annually. Some of the worst disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and the Japan tsunami, occurred in the past decade alone. Disasters are becoming more complex, with primary ones (e.g., earthquake) often triggering secondary disasters (e.g., nuclear meltdown). Research has shown that disasters often leave a significant psychological "footprint" on affected communities (Norris, Friedman, & Watson, 2002). As a result, there is often a surge in disaster survivors seeking mental health services in the wake of catastrophe.

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