Harold G. Koenig

Harold G. Koenig is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Associate Professor of Medicine, on the faculty of Duke University. A central theme of Koenig's work is the relationship between religious and spiritual involvement and health outcomes, finding that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes.

Education and academic career Koenig graduated with a B.S. in biology from Stanford University (1974). He trained as a registered nurse (R.N.) at San Joaquin Delta College, before receiving his M.D. (1982) from the University of California, San Francisco. He later completed his geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University Medical Center, where he also received his Master of Health Sciences degree.

He became clinical assistant professor in psychiatry (1992) and has been Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (2004–present) and Associate Professor of Medicine (1999–present) at Duke University Medical Center. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development (1986–present).

He is the director of Duke University's Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health (formerly the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, which he founded). The Center hosts an annual Spirituality & Health Research Workshop at Duke, now in its 22nd year in 2026.

Research Koenig has published over 700 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, scholarly professional journal articles and 100 chapters in professional books. In his 2012 review of quantitative peer-reviewed research published between 1872 and 2010, Koenig examined religion and spirituality in relation to both positive mental health outcomes, including wellbeing, happiness, hope, and optimism, and negative ones such as depression, suicide, anxiety, psychosis, and substance abuse.

In a cooperation with Raphael M. Bonelli from Sigmund Freud University Vienna he undertook the first systematic evidence based analysis on the connection between mental disorders and religion. The researchers conclude that there is good evidence that religious involvement is correlated with better mental health in the areas of depression, substance abuse, and suicide; some evidence in Stress-related disorders and dementia; insufficient evidence in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and no data in many other mental disorders.

Among his investigations into specific populations, he has studied religious involvement and telomere length in women family caregivers, and has developed spiritually oriented therapeutic approaches, including a spiritually oriented cognitive processing therapy for moral injury in active duty military personnel and veterans with PTSD.

Awards and recognition Koenig is the recipient of the 2012 Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the 2013 Gary Collins Award from the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) , and the 2021 Frank Minirth Award for Excellence in Christian Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine from AACC.

Media coverage Koenig's ideas have been covered in a wide variety of news media, ranging from BBC radio to the Vatican Radio. In February 2025, Koenig was featured in the New York Times discussing moral injury, and appeared on National Public Radio's Open to Debate program on the question "Can religion cure the loneliness epidemic?".

Publications

Books Koenig has authored or edited more than 71 books that include:

Is Religion Good for Your Health? The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health. Harold G. Koenig (1997, New York: Haworth Pastoral Press) Handbook of Religion and Mental Health. Harold G. Koenig (1998, New York: Academic Press) Handbook of Religion and Health. Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, & David B. Larson. (2001, New York: Oxford University Press) Faith and Mental Health: Religious Resources for Healing. Harold G. Koenig (2005, Templeton Foundation Press) Chapter 8 in Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to Practice, edited by Michael J. Balboni and John R. Peteet (2017, Oxford University Press) Handbook of Religion and Health, 3rd edition. Harold G. Koenig, Tyler VanderWeele (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), and John Raymond Peteet (Harvard Medical School) (2024, Oxford University Press) Duke

Research articles The main papers: