Fight, flight or faith: A pastoral model for spiritual coping

Steve Le Roux,George Lotter

doi:10.4102/ids.v55i2.2700

Abstract

This article is dedicated to Professor Gert Breed who had an indelible influence in the expansion of Pastoral Theology in South Africa: first as minister, and second as Professor in Practical Theology. In line with Professor Breed’s keen interest in the interdisciplinary approach between Theology and, for instance, Physiology and Psychology, the main aim of this article is to show how utilising spiritual coping strategies could help the Christian to cope with stress from a faith perspective. Spiritual coping was defined as an individual’s ability to utilise faith in God and Judeo-Christian religious beliefs, as well as active practices to appraise, understand and effectively cope with stressful life events. A literature study was conducted on human defence response and spiritual coping to demonstrate the adverse effects of chronic defensiveness and stress. Spiritual coping was assessed from a scriptural approach to determine what biblical perspectives regarding coping, defensiveness and spirituality may be revealed. Effective coping strategies were explored to indicate how positive spiritual coping skills could be utilised as an alternative to chronic defensives. The Believe-Belong-Behave pastoral model was proposed for the utilisation of spiritual coping methods and skills that could improve psychophysiological well-being. The Believe-Belong-Behave model consists of three categories that each highlight different individual skills, corporate practices, and practical action steps, which, when applied consistently, could all function in harmony to promote psychophysiological well-being. The components of the proposed pastoral model could offer a harmonious contribution towards spiritual coping and the Christian’s spiritual formation within the local church.Contribution: This article assessed theological perspectives and biblical practices within the basic tenets of Reformed theology to identify resemblances to stress appraisal and human defensiveness throughout the historical course of Scripture. This study in Practical Theology highlighted the importance of combining a strong scriptural or theological foundation with certain practical skills to respond to stressors from a faith-in-action perspective. The proposed pastoral model showed the modern-day Christian how faith in God could be used to cope with stress more effectively.

Highlights

This article addresses the question of whether faith practices and religious beliefs could show the Christian how to effectively assess and handle stress
A literature study was conducted on spiritual coping and the human defence response to highlight the adverse effects of chronic defensiveness and stress
This study on spiritual coping revealed that innate defensiveness during stress appraisal activates an automatic fight-or-flight response

Summary

Introduction

This article addresses the question of whether faith practices and religious beliefs could show the Christian how to effectively assess and handle stress. A pastoral model will be proposed to indicate how the Christian could apply positive spiritual coping skills, practices and action steps to handle stressful life events from a faith perspective. Findings from a recent study on stress-coping and the defence response (Le Roux 2020:287) will be used to propose a pastoral spiritual coping model that shows how certain religious beliefs and practices could be used to handle stressful life events. Le Roux (2020) showed the correlation between stress appraisal and Adam and Eve’s reaction to sin: Because of a distorted perspective caused by sin and disobedience, Adam and Eve perceived both their nakedness and God’s presence as threats (stress appraisal) They swiftly tried to avoid both perceived threats; first, by covering themselves with fig leaves (avoidance coping), and second, by hiding from God (avoidance coping / DefS [defence strategy] – flight response). This article shows the Christian that utilising certain positive spiritual coping skills will encourage a faith response to stress that promotes psychophysiological well-being.

Pastoral care

Conclusion