This September, Kraków will become a meeting place for researchers examining how spirituality and religiousness intersect with health, resilience, meaning and modern life.
From 24 to 26 September 2026, researchers from Poland and abroad will gather at Ignatianum University in Kraków for the 7th International Conference of the Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Titled Spirituality and/or Religiousness: A Remedy for Existential Emptiness and Health or a Modern Excess?, the conference will examine the place of spirituality and religiousness in contemporary life.
The questions are deliberately broad. Researchers will consider whether spirituality and religiousness can contribute to mental health, social connectedness and resilience, while also looking at how these concepts are changing as societies and cultures evolve.
The conference is being organised by the Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, known in Polish as Polskie Towarzystwo Psychologii Religii i Duchowości, together with Ignatianum University in Kraków.
An Academic Conversation Crossing Disciplines
The Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality was established as an interdisciplinary platform for examining religion and spirituality through different academic perspectives.
Its work brings together researchers from areas including psychology, psychiatry and neurology alongside scholars working in philosophy, theology and the philosophy of religion.
That interdisciplinary character is reflected in the conference programme, which will include keynote lectures, thematic sessions, poster presentations, symposia, discussion panels and workshops. The organisers say the event will provide space to consider spirituality and religiousness not only as matters of belief, but also as phenomena that can be examined through empirical research and broader academic inquiry.
More than 120 participants and authors from 14 countries are expected to take part, with more than 100 presentations and other forms of scholarly contribution planned.
The conference will primarily operate in English, with selected sessions in Polish, and a hybrid format will allow some participation online.
Ignatianum's Role in Kraków's Academic Landscape
The choice of Ignatianum University gives the conference a natural academic setting.
The university is a Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus. Its roots in Kraków's Jesuit academic tradition reach back to the 19th century, while the institution that became the Philosophical Faculty of the Society of Jesus in Kraków was established in 1932. The university adopted its present name, Uniwersytet Ignatianum w Krakowie, in October 2023.
Today, Ignatianum comprises the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Education, with psychology among the disciplines taught and researched at the university.
That connection makes Kraków more than simply a venue for the conference. The city provides an academic environment in which questions about psychology, philosophy, religion, spirituality and human experience can be discussed across disciplinary boundaries.
Researchers Looking at Spirituality Through Psychology
One of the academics involved in the conference is Associate Professor Sebastian Binyamin Skalski-Bednarz, a psychologist and researcher affiliated with Ignatianum University and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany.
His research examines areas including forgiveness, spirituality, well-being and environmental psychology, with particular attention to how spiritual resources can relate to resilience in situations such as trauma, chronic illness and psychological distress.
Skalski-Bednarz is serving as Conference Secretary for the 2026 PSPRS conference, bringing together interests that reflect the broader themes of the event.
The conference will also feature invited speakers from international universities, including Prof. Doug Oman of the University of California, Berkeley, Prof. Vassilis Saroglou of UCLouvain in Belgium and Prof. Stefania Palmisano of the University of Turin in Italy.
A Kraków Meeting With an International Perspective
For Kraków, the conference adds another international academic event to the city's calendar, bringing researchers and authors from a range of countries into contact with the local university community.
For the participants, meanwhile, the three-day programme provides an opportunity to examine a subject that sits between personal experience, social life and academic research.
Rather than approaching spirituality and religiousness from a single perspective, the conference is designed around the tensions contained in its own title. Are these experiences connected with health, meaning, community and resilience, or are some contemporary expressions of spirituality becoming excessive? Those are questions for the researchers and participants to explore.
In Kraków this September, the conversation will take place across lectures, research presentations, workshops and discussions, creating a meeting point between international scholarship and the city's own academic community.
Visitor Information
Event: 7th International Conference of the Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
Official title: Spirituality and/or Religiousness: A Remedy for Existential Emptiness and Health or a Modern Excess?
Dates: 24 to 26 September 2026
Venue: Ignatianum University in Kraków
Address: ul. Kopernika 26, Kraków
