A university professor, who was once priest, has been awarded more than $760,000 of public money to study Kiwis’ spirituality and religion.
Professor Joseph Bulbulia of Victoria University in Wellington New Zealand, say religion was “intensely important” to him, but “as for an afterlife, or God, I have no idea”.
He migrated to Wellington from the United States in 2000, having left the priesthood after one year, and later marrying.
Bulbulia, says he hasn’t been to church for 20 years, other than to please his mother, but said research showed that some events, such as the Christchurch earthquakes, renewed people’s religious beliefs.
He is one of 109 researchers who will receive a total of $59 million from the Marsden Fund over the next three years.
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