Studies on the Psychology of Religion: Christian Spirituality and Personal/Social Well-Being

Dear Colleagues,

The psychology of religion does not study ‘religion in general’ but the way people relate to given culturally contextualized religious tokens (Vergote 1993).

This Special Issue focuses on the relations of Christian spirituality with both individual and social well-being, bearing in mind the multi-component nature of human well-being of which religious spirituality is only a part. The issue is expected to refer to Western society, which is largely steeped in Christian spiritual culture, but it may also deal with what happens when Christian spirituality encounters other non-Western cultures and—religious or non-religious—contexts. In many empirical studies, religious commitment was positively related to personal well-being. According to some, it promotes not only mental well-being, meaning in life and the afterlife, positive emotion, a sense of coherence and coping with situations of stress, anxiety or depression (Pargament 1997), but also physical health, e.g., minor morbidity and mortality, greater longevity, and less drug, tobacco and alcohol abuse (VanderWeele 2021). On the other hand, some report negative effects on the psyche such as dogmatism, superstition, obsession, guilt, delusion, etc.

Some questions on the results and methodology may naturally arise. What does ‘Christian spirituality’ for religious versus non-religious people mean? Are there any specific ways or conditions for positive vs. negative influences on well-being? Are there significant variations between different Christian confessions (Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy)? Could an individual religious orientation—intrinsic versus extrinsic—affect Christian spirituality? To what extent the correlation studies are reliable in this field? Is Christian coping different from non-religious personal coping?

According to some, religious spirituality influences pro-sociality and acts as a brake on prejudice and fundamentalism. Others highlight the danger of religious extremism and all its negative consequences. This contrast leads to the formulation of several questions: what constitutes ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ religion and spirituality? Specifically, how does Christian spirituality influence social and political democracy? And how does religion contribute to or counteract prejudice and discrimination? How effective is religion in social change? What is its contribution to education, healthcare, the workplace, etc?

Concerning methodological issues, besides the most widely used correlational research, different and diverse psycho-logical theories, perspectives and models are welcome, for example, those derived from clinical psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, attachment theory, etc.

References

Pargament, K. I. 1997. The psychology of religion and coping. New York: Guilford.

VanderWeele, T. J. 2021. Effects of religious service attendance and religious importance on depression: examining the meta-analytic evidence. The Inter-national Journal for the Psychology of Religion 31: 21–26.

Vergote, A. 1993. What the psychology of religion is and what it is not. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 3: 73–86

We are pleased to invite you to submit original research articles and reviews alike. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following topics:

• Christian spirituality and mental well-being;
• Christian spirituality and physical well-being;
• Christian spirituality in a changing society;
• Christian spirituality in non-Western society

Interested authors, before submitting a full manuscript, are requested to send a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, Prof. Dr. Mario Aletti ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

Tentative completion schedule:

Deadline for abstract submission: 15 April 2024

Deadline for full manuscript submission: 15 December 2024

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Mario Aletti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Christian spirituality
• subjective well-being
• positive emotions
• health-promoting
• pro-sociality

Title: Evangelical Patients’ religiosity in perceptions of Brazilian psychologists

Abstract: This work aimed to investigate the perceptions of Brazilian psychologists on the Protestant and Evangelical Religiosity (PER) of patient/users as the way they refer to dealing with such religious manifestations in clinical contexts. The empirical-phenomenological descriptive method proposed by Amedeu Giorgi was used in the analysis of interviews, recorded and transcribed, with 15 psychologists: seven of them working in Psychosocial Attention Centre (CAPS) and eight working in a hospital context. These interviews were exhaustively and sorely analysed, in order to access the psychotherapists’ lived experience in relation to the studied phenomenon. The results show how much PER is present in both contexts of psychologists' performance, manifested by CAPS users and hospital inpatient services, as well as by their families and by the health professionals themselves. The professionals shared the implications of PER, both propulsive and cross-over to their work of health care, in both contexts, with a predominance sense it gives meanings to peoples’ life and suffering. But also PER can be an obstacle to the promotion of health, through doctrines and dogmas, sometimes strict and oppressive. They were unanimous in affirming their tendency to respect and accept such religious manifestations, but they also shared their difficulties in dealing with them, mainly due to their failure to approach the theme throughout their professional training. KEY WORDS: Religiosity. Mental Health. Psychologists. Protestants. Evangelicals

Title: Religion and coping with trauma in trauma therapy clients

Abstract: This study involved traumatised adults in the UK from three different groups – those reporting no religious affiliation or activity, those reporting Christian upbringing and or activity, and members of the London strictly religious Jewish community. All had experienced trauma. During trauma therapy, participants were invited to report memories, ideas, or images, if they wished to do so. Participants also reported their level of distress before, during and after therapy. Comparison was made with regard to the reporting of religious memories, ideas and images between the three groups of participants, and possible reasons for group differences were discused. Interest was focussed on the better mood outcomes, and improvements in religious feelings and activities reported by both religious groups accompanying and following successfully trauma therapy.

Title: Mapping the Religiosity of the Maltese People: redefining the contours and charting the waters

Abstract: In a country where almost the totality of the native population is baptized and raised in the Catholic Church recent surveys have shown several inconsistencies especially among the young with 81% identifying themselves as Catholics and 43% saying they do not believe in God or embrace no religion at all. This study is a follow up of another conducted during the Covid-19 lockdown to assess whether religion helped to cope with the pandemic crisis. The results showed marked differences between the younger generation and the other age brackets especially about the importance of religion in their life. Based on the results of other studies and using specifically designed questions, this study addresses the issue of the correct definition of constructs used, such as Religion, Spirituality, Atheism, Agnosticism and Humanism and tries to sift them out from a sample from this population. A process approach is adopted in that these positions show to be somewhat fluid and people can move back and forth along this spectrum in different phases of their lives. The application of the Deconversion theory was particularly useful in this research especially in investigating and understanding the splits and shifts among the young people. Keywords: Religion, Spirituality, Atheism, Agnosticism, Meaning-making, Deconversion.