Contending with Spiritual Reductionism: Demons, Shame, and Dividualising Experiences Among Evangelical Christians with Mental Distress

Christopher E. M. Lloyd

doi:10.1007/s10943-021-01268-9

Abstract

The belief that mental distress is caused by demons, sin, or generational curses is commonplace among many evangelical Christian communities. These beliefs may have positive or negative effects for individuals and groups. Phenomenological descriptions of these experiences and the subjective meanings associated with them, however, remain somewhat neglected in the literature. The current study employed semi-structured interviews with eight evangelical Christians in order to idiographically explore their experiences of mental distress in relation to their faith and wider communities. Through an interpretative phenomenological analysis, two superordinate themes were constructed: negative spiritualisation and negotiating the dialectic between faith and the lived experience of mental distress. Participants variously experienced a climate of negative spiritualisation, whereby their mental distress was demonised and dismissed, and they were further discouraged from seeking help in secular institutions and environments. Participants often considered such dismissals of their mental distress as unhelpful and stigmatising and experienced heightened feelings of shame and suffering as a result. Such discouragement also contributed to the process of othering and relational disconnection. Alongside a rejection of church teachings, which exclusively spiritualised psychological distress, participants negotiated a nuanced personal synthesis of faith, theology, and distress, which assumed a localised and idiographic significance. This synthesis included advocating for the uptake of aetiological accounts, which contextualised mental distress in terms of the whole person and resisted de-politicised, dichotomised, and individualistic narratives. Results are discussed in relation to a broad range of literature in the field, while further research suggestions are provided.

Highlights

Long before modern psychotherapy was developed, the “curing of souls” had been central to the church’s mission (Bergin, 1991)
Eight participants referred to situations when they had directly experienced negative interactions in relation to their mental distress from within their Evangelical Christian communities
The prosperity gospel is defined as a religious belief system prominent among evangelicals, which argues that well-being and economic success are unilaterally the will of God and that faith, self-affirmation, and financial endowments to religious communities will manifest individual health and wealth. Such teachings have been critiqued by theological scholars (Fortner, 2016) owing to its denial of the present and unavoidable reality of suffering all humans face. None of these results are necessarily unexpected in view of how Evangelical Christian healing practices tend to emphasise the role of supernatural agents (God versus the demonic) in causing suffering (Leavey, 2010); the present study does highlight some important psychological processes worth consideration

Summary

Introduction

Long before modern psychotherapy was developed, the “curing of souls” had been central to the church’s mission (Bergin, 1991). As Lloyd and Waller (2020) suggest, this has resulted in a historically hostile relationship between Christianity and psychotherapeutic care, often characterised by reciprocal distrust (Harley, 2007; Kay and Parry, 2011; Poole and Cook, 2011).1 This conflictual dynamic has culminated in a false split between spiritual intervention and secular care (Webb et al, 2008). Christian communities commonly view emotional and mental health as reflective of the soul and spirit’s internal workings (Cook and Hamley, 2020; Scrutton, 2020; Webb, 2017) This is especially true for evangelical Christianity, which is defined as a transdenominational movement, emphasising personal conversion, the absolute authority of the Bible, a dual focus on the doctrinal implication of Jesus’s death and resurrection, and the importance of Evangelism for all individuals (Bebbington, 2003). In addition to an emphasis on Jesus’s death and his resurrection, adherence to a pneumatological soteriology (salvation as the result of both Christ and Holy Spirt) is central (Ngong, 2010), whereby the Holy Spirit (one of the three divine persons within the Holy Trinity) is understood to facilitate discernment of the spiritual kingdom, speaking in tongues (glossolalia), and healing (Tidball, 1994)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion