Experience of Spiritual Dryness and Acedia Symptoms in Seventh-Day Adventists

Arndt Büssing,Klaus Van Treeck,Lorethy Starck

doi:10.1007/s10943-020-01092-7

Arndt Büssing, Klaus Van Treeck + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01092-7

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Abstract

In a cross-sectional survey among 626 Adventists, we investigated their perception of spiritual dryness, and its association with indicators of Acedia, well-being and emotional exhaustion. Women, younger persons and those without a specific duty within the church had significantly higher spiritual dryness scores. Spiritual dryness was predicted best by perceived Excessive Spiritual Demands (indicating spiritual exhaustion) and low perception of the sacred. Further predictors are Acedia’s Difficulties in Prayer Life, reduced well-being and emotional exhaustion. The underlying causes might be complex and thus to support persons experiencing these phases, a thorough differentiation of the underlying ‘spirits’ is required.

Highlights

Religious persons may experience spiritual struggles, either related to the religious community, the doctrine or with God, and these struggles may affect their well-being (Exline and Rose 2013; Büssing et al 2013; Exline et al 2015; Stauner et al 2016)
The participants in the study describe themselves as Adventists who go to church often, pray privately several times per day and hold the Sabbath at least somewhat strict; they live from their faith and they have a deep longing for God
Predictor analyses revealed that spiritual dryness was predicted best by Acedia’s Excessive Spiritual Demands and low perception of the sacred in life

Summary

Introduction

Religious persons may experience spiritual struggles, either related to the religious community, the doctrine or with God, and these struggles may affect their well-being (Exline and Rose 2013; Büssing et al 2013; Exline et al 2015; Stauner et al 2016). The specific perception of ‘spiritual dryness’ was measured in Catholic priests (Büssing et al 2017a, b), non-ordained Catholic pastoral workers (Büssing et al 2016), religious brothers and sisters (Büssing 2019) and Catholic laypersons working as volunteers for disabled persons (Büssing et al 2018a). In these groups, phases of spiritual dryness were perceived often to regularly in 12% to 14% and sometimes in 36% to 55%, a bit more often in religious brothers and sisters. Regression analyses revealed that low perception of the sacred in life and low sense of coherence, and depressive symptoms and emotional exhaustion were the best predictors of spiritual dryness (Büssing et al 2017a, b)

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