Illusion in Spiritual Experience and the Quest for Resilience: Phenomenology in Conversation with Ignatian Discernment

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to examine an African American ‘faith advantage’ in life satisfaction. Specifically, we sought to test the hypothesis that the positive relationship between spiritual experiences and life satisfaction is stronger among older African Americans than among older Whites. Method: The data came from 6864 community-dwelling persons aged 65+ (66% African American) who participated in the Chicago Health and Aging Project. Life satisfaction was measured using a five-item composite and we used a five-item version of the Daily Spiritual Experiences scale. Results: In a regression model adjusting for age, sex, marital status, education, income and worship attendance, we found that African American race was associated with lower life satisfaction. We also found a positive association between spiritual experiences and life satisfaction. In an additional model, a significant race by spiritual experiences interaction term indicates that spiritual experiences are more positively associated with life satisfaction among African Americans. Conclusion: The data suggest that at higher levels of spiritual experiences, racial differences in life satisfaction are virtually non-existent. However, at lower levels of spiritual experiences, older African Americans show modestly lower levels of life satisfaction than do older Whites. This pattern suggests that spiritual experiences are a positive resource – distinct from worship attendance – that enable older African Americans to overcome decrements in life satisfaction and, in fact, that lower spiritual experiences may be especially harmful for older African American's life satisfaction.

Supporting Religion and Spirituality to Enhance Quality of Life of People With Intellectual Disability: A Jewish Perspective

Reviewed by: Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing religious awakenings in eighteenth-century New England by Douglas L. Winiarski Shelby M. Balik Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing religious awakenings in eighteenth-century New England By Douglas L. Winiarski. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. If ever there were a topic that has received more than enough scholarly attention, the Great Awakening should be it. The story of Old Lights and New Lights, of Edwards and Whitefield, is so familiar, and has been examined from so many angles, that it cannot possibly merit new attention and a fresh look—or can it? In this epic study of the Great Awakening in New England, Douglas Winiarski reinterprets the revivals and reframes them as a popular insurgency: one in which the people, inspired by new religious styles and experiences, seized control of a region's religious culture and refashioned it to suit their own sensibilities. In doing so, he shows that there is much more to these well-studied revivals than historians have thus far appreciated. By telling the story from the bottom up, Winiarski argues forcefully and convincingly that the Great Awakening was more disruptive, more revolutionary and more cataclysmic than we have fully understood. To tell how revivalism transformed New England, Winiarski explores the region's spiritual life through the eyes and words of its laity. He sets the stage by examining the region prior to revival, when "godly walkers" adhered to a culture structured by Reformed theology, mutual duty and the desire for individual salvation—all of which convinced New Englanders to exert themselves spiritually to avoid sin and corruption (29). Churchgoers used a "vocabulary of Christian obligation" to express their commitments to each other, but there were fissures beneath this tidy landscape of well-ordered congregations and households (40). Believers' anxiety over their spiritual states permeated their religious professions, and theological conflicts began to wear down the safe perimeters of churched towns. Before long, waves of revivalism stirred up dissent and eroded the theological foundations on which New Englanders had built their communities. Jonathan Edwards' Northampton revivals preceded George Whitefield's New England tours, and many historians have argued that Edwards' style was better-suited to New England's town-church heritage, but Winiarski shows that it was really Whitefield who caused an irreparable break with the puritan past. By introducing new preaching styles and theologies, Whitefield set fire to the region; he and others in his vein led hearers to criticize their churches, demand emotional fulfillment from their faith and even question the validity of conversions that they no longer took to be authentic. The people who were attracted to this new religious sensibility increasingly embraced the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, which had faded in importance in Congregational worship but now came to define revivalism. The Holy Spirit imbued believers with mysticism and catalyzed individualistic religious experiences, far different from the religion of communal ties that had prevailed before. Under the Holy Spirit's influence, believers saw visions, responded to conversions with bodily spasms, and divined their own interpretations of the Bible and other sacred books. Ministers like Jonathan Edwards, who had promoted the revivals, now cautioned that with no guiding authority, it would be impossible to know what was God's work and what was Satan's. But the awakened laity seemed to know the difference. Increasingly confident in their convictions, this "radicalized cohort of new converts" asserted the authenticity of their miraculous experiences and shouted down ministers (in person and in print) who cautioned against error (281). Increasingly, the laity claimed independence from religious authority, and their idiosyncratic spiritual impulses destroyed the foundations of puritan communalism. They did not do so without inspiration. First Whitefield, and then charismatic leaders like James Davenport and Daniel Rogers, along with small armies of itinerants, encouraged ordinary men and women to upend religious authority and disrupt peaceful (and complacent) congregations. But then the laity took the lead. In Winiarski's telling, ordinary believers declared war on the old order by confronting opponents of revivalism, claiming the authority to judge the authenticity of others' religious experiences, and insisting on the right to exhort...

IntroductionDeath anxiety is a concept with greater importance among the elderly as they approach inevitability of death. Identifying the correlates of death anxiety among old people is important in order to reduce the burden of this problem. Therefore, the present study was performed with the aim to examine the association between spiritual experiences and life satisfaction with death anxiety in this stage of life.MethodThis cross-sectional study with descriptive-analytical design included 190 elderly people visiting the health and medical centers of Neyshabur city, Iran, during fall and winter, 2016. Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires including a 16-item spiritual experiences scale, life satisfaction index proposed by Wood and Shifor with 13 items, and a 27-item death anxiety scale developed by Aminpour. Analytical statistics (Spearman’s correlation coefficient, Pearson’s correlation coefficient) were conducted using SPSS software version 22.ResultsFifty-eight percent of participants were in younger elderly age group with mean age of 68.18±7.13 years and the number of men and women was the same (95). A significant positive association between spiritual experiences and life satisfaction (r=0.2, p<0.05), a significant negative association between spiritual experiences and death anxiety (r=−0.184, p< 0.05) and a significant negative relationship between life satisfaction and death anxiety (r=−0.2, p<0.05) was found.ConclusionBased on results, it seems that reducing stressors in this stage of life including reduction of death anxiety, is possible through use of spiritual experiences and increasing life satisfaction.

Rereading Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism Kathleen Henderson Staudt (bio) For the past twenty years, an annual Quiet Day retreat has been held at Washington National Cathedral in honor of Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941), best known to scholars of Christian Spirituality as the author of Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s [sic] Spiritual Consciousness.1 Underhill is on the calendar of saints in the Episcopal Church, and the event is traditionally held near June 15, the date of her death in 1941. The gathering always draws some people for whom Underhill is a new discovery, along with long-time devotees. Usually one or two have read Mysticism, but more have come to Underhill’s work through the retreat addresses she gave in the 1920’s and 30’s or through a number of popular anthologies of her work. People comment especially on Underhill’s capacity to convey a profound conviction about the reality of the spiritual/mystical life, in a voice that validates the religious experience of “ordinary people.” For someone familiar with the scholarship of Christian mysticism, the participants’ responses to Underhill’s work might seem to blur and blend categories that scholars have wanted to keep distinct. Some at the Quiet Days have admired Underhill’s account of mysticism as a universal human experience, transcending theology and religious traditions; but they share the day of prayer with others who celebrate the distinctively Anglican and “catholic” cultural and theological context that frames Underhill’s most vivid accounts of the mystics of the Church. The complementary views expressed by these readers point to the richness and complexity of Underhill’s engagement with the mystics, an engagement that has much to offer contemporary scholars of mysticism and the spiritual life. What can the mystics teach us, she asks—and we are still asking—about the spiritual life and the experience of ordinary people? More particularly, should we view mysticism as a universal human experience of the Absolute, beyond religious traditions, as a Romantic or a modern psychological approach might suggest? Or should mysticism be understood as a particular, textually mediated experience shaped by religious and cultural context and language—a view more congenial to our postmodern age? And what is the theology, the understanding of God that underlies the mystics’ “reports”? Underhill navigates these kinds of questions for an audience of seekers and [End Page 113] scholars alike, and this may be what has kept Mysticism one of the most widely read works on Christian mysticism in the twentieth century, continuously in print since its first publication in 1911.2 I would like to suggest that Mysticism as well as Underhill’s work as a whole invites a rereading in our time, one that takes into account and considers specificity of the original context in which she wrote and also considers questions important to recent scholarship on Christian mysticism and spirituality. I believe scholars and practitioners in these fields are uniquely positioned to appreciate the surprising contemporaneity of this voice from the Edwardian era, and to discover in Underhill’s work a lively, complex and creative framing of questions that continue to engage serious students of Christian mysticism and the spiritual life. Click for larger view View full resolution Evelyn Underhill, Courtesy of Retreat House, Pleshey [End Page 114] Scholars have often expressed ambivalence toward Underhill’s work in Mysticism, expressing both an appreciation for the breadth of her account of the mystics, but also noting a lack of rigor in the scholarly analysis she offers. She is usually classified with her contemporary William James among twentieth-century scholars focused primarily on religious experience, and particularly among those who see the mystical experience as expressing a “common core” in human religious experience, transcending particular religious and cultural expressions. Underhill’s orientation to this discussion can be seen in her preface to the first edition of Mysticism, where she writes: “All mystics . . . . speak the same language and come from the same country. As against that fact, the place which they happen to occupy in the kingdom of this world matters little.”3 A statement like this—and one could cite many others—would indeed seem to put her...

Spirituality has been described as one of the most important components of end-of-life care, yet there is limited research on the description of spirituality from those experiencing it at end of life. The aims of this study were to describe and interpret the lived experience of spirituality at the end of life among adults receiving hospice care and describe and interpret how these individuals’ remembered experiences of spirituality across the life span shape the meaning and experience of spirituality at the end of life. In this qualitative, phenomenological study, participants completed lifelines of their spiritual journeys throughout their lifetimes at study entry. One to 2 days later, they participated in a taped, unstructured interview, where they discussed their spirituality lifelines and described their current experiences of spirituality. Additional interviews were requested from participants. Eleven Midwest hospice patients participated. The lived experience of spirituality at the end of life was described within the context of spirituality lived throughout one’s life, as particularly manifested through themes of Connectedness, Spiritual Life Moments, Pick Up the Pieces and Move On, and Religion “Matters.” Spirituality remains a highly individualized concept and needs individualized assessment and interventions at end of life.

This paper examines the transformation of the spiritual life of the Rubiah Pasionis-Malang sisters through the practice of liturgical catechesis, highlighting their contribution and role in the life of the Catholic church. A qualitative approach was used with a focus on spiritual experiences and daily changes influenced by liturgical catechesis. Data were collected through in-depth interview (April 25-28, 2024), highlighting the role of liturgical catechesis in shaping spiritual perceptions, values and actions. The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of the influence of liturgical catechesis on the transformation of the spiritual life of the Rubiah Pasionis and its relationship with their contemplative life in the Catholic church. The findings show that liturgical catechesis strengthens faith, deepens understanding of doctrine, and motivates engagement in spiritual practices. These findings are important in understanding the contribution of Rubiah Pasionis sisters in maintaining the spiritual life of the Catholic community they live in. This research also aims to explore the impact of liturgical catechesis on the transformation of Rubiah Pasionis' spiritual life, highlighting their vital role in the Catholic church. By highlighting the role of liturgical catechesis, this research provides insights into how Rubiahs enrich and deepen their spiritual experience in the church. By emphasizing a deep understanding of religious teachings, the Rubiahs are able to maintain their spiritual commitment in a simple and dedicated lifestyle. This gives a fuller picture of how liturgical catechesis not only affects the spiritual aspect, but also shapes daily behavior and attitudes towards life as a whole.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessEncountering the Sacred in Psychotherapy: How to Talk With People About Their Spiritual LivesRoger D. Fallot, Ph.D.Roger D. FallotSearch for more papers by this author, Ph.D.Published Online:1 Sep 2002https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.53.9.1187AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Spirituality has become a hot topic in recent years, even in the historically skeptical arena of mental health practice. James L. Griffith and Melissa Elliott Griffith have written a thoughtful, balanced, and often creative work describing not only how to talk about spirituality but also, perhaps more importantly, how to think about and listen to the spiritual dimension of people's lives.Drawing on a wide range of case studies, clustered mostly in psychiatric consultations and in individual and family psychotherapy, they outline a conceptually and technically eclectic approach to spiritual and religious experiences. Unlike works based in the literature of the psychology of religion or of spirituality and health, this book draws on narrative and solution-oriented models within a framework informed by cultural anthropology and postmodern philosophy. While the authors are not apologists for a specific religion or for religion in general, they are acutely attuned to the possibilities for human life that are uniquely expressed in the spiritual realm. Their goals are to describe helpful modes of engagement with people in exploring spirituality and to offer corresponding guidelines for therapists.Throughout the book, the authors recommend addressing spiritual issues from a stance of curiosity, attentive listening, and gentle responsiveness. They do not urge the adoption of a unique set of interventions related to spirituality. Rather, they seek to foster openness to the possibility of change through collaborative and empathic dialogue about clients' spiritual lives. Notably, the authors avoid premature judgments about the meaning and implications of spiritual or religious language in therapy. The detailed conversations they report offer models for how to listen carefully, to question sensitively, and to respond helpfully even when the therapist's knowledge of a client's religious or spiritual background is minimal.The book is organized around genres of spiritual expression that the authors have found most relevant in therapy—metaphor, narrative, conversation, rituals and practices, and community, among others. In each chapter, they examine a particular genre, present case studies illustrating its potential importance in therapy, and discuss change processes related to that mode of spiritual expression. Especially valuable are pragmatic sets of questions the authors pose. Some invite the therapist to think more clearly about the place or function of spirituality in a client's life; others invite the client to do the same. The conceptual material about the various genres is in many places less focused and compelling than the clinical conversations, and it is sometimes difficult to make connections between the many theoretical constructs and their therapeutic expressions. Yet the authors' carefully probing voices are clear throughout, emphasizing the primacy of shared understanding in therapy relationships.The authors clearly acknowledge many ways that spirituality and religion may become destructive, at both individual and systemic levels. But their emphasis on spirituality's capacity to sustain such values as hope, joy, community, and gratitude in the midst of their polar opposites is a reminder of why spirituality is often so central to the experience of people suffering with mental or physical illnesses and why therapists do well to take seriously spirituality's importance.Dr. Fallot is codirector of Community Connections in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct faculty member in pastoral counseling at Loyola College in Maryland in Baltimore.by James L. Griffith and Melissa Elliott Griffith; New York, Guilford Press, 2002, 320 pages, $35 FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 53Issue 9 September 2002Pages 1187-1188 Metrics History Published online 1 September 2002 Published in print 1 September 2002

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the relationships among spiritual flow experiences, leisure satisfaction, life satisfaction and loyalty of residents in health care institutes. Methods: Twenty sampled residents each from 25 health care institutes around Tai-Chung area were surveyed. 500 questionnaires were distributed in total, and 402 were collected. Valid responses reach 350 questionnaires and the valid response rate amounts to 70%. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and SEM. Results: (1) The spiritual flow experiences was significantly influences leisure satisfaction. (2) The spiritual flow experiences was significantly influences loyalty. (3) The leisure satisfaction was not significantly influences loyalty. (4) The leisure satisfaction was significantly influences life satisfaction. And (5) life satisfaction was significantly influences loyalty. Conclusions: There was high correlation between leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction in residents of health care institutes. The spiritual flow experiences and life satisfaction will be influences loyalty of residents.

Are Growth and Conversion Being Confused in the Spiritual Life? Is Conversion Really Continuing? Mark Slatter (bio) An eighty-seven year old learned Benedictine monk in the course of his presentation at a conference on spirituality calls out a thin but consistent thematic strand in Christian mystical tradition emblematized as “God and I are one.” At that moment and in that place his meaning is worlds away from the New Age novice who professes the same, a Christian neophyte who is confident she has witnessed pantheism first hand, some theologians whose ire is raised with the critique his position lacks alterity, one or two who leave the room because they are scandalized by the monk’s apparent pretension at diluting divinity with humanity, some for whom his message seems to contradict the astonishment of their first experience of God as Living Other, a handful who confess their unfamiliarity with mystical epistemology but grant the monk the benefit of the doubt, and one person for whom the monk’s remark is corroborated with the Holy Spirit. True to form the workshop finishes with loose ends, pressing questions, and even some back room accusations. The monk might remind the attendees of Saint Catherine of Genoa’s words, “my self is God, nor is any other self known to me except my God,”1 or of Jesus’ prayer to his Father “that they may be one as we are one” (Jn. 17:22b) that accommodates the quasi-alterity of God. These might otherwise give pause, or at the very least lend analogous support to his statement, but this would only quiet the objections without addressing their underlying cause. There is no reasoning that can align these distinct interpretive worlds orbiting the singular contentious point, and no brilliant logic can thaw their respective intractable judgments. Accusations to the contrary, the disagreements do not stem from someone departing from a core doctrine or being doctrinaire, that she is morally relativist or classicist, or because he is mistaken with the facts, and no intuitive leap can make up for the communication shortfall. Granted, clashes routinely occur among rival versions of truth and morality because the underlying premises are incommensurate, conflicts do erupt from rattling ideological attachments, and disagreements always arise because a position has been poorly framed, but all things being equal no wordsmithing or oratorical nuance can bend these sorts of conflict back into shape. No qualification will help. The disagreements at the fictitious conference cannot be [End Page 41] mediated by a theological Esperanto that speaks to a common religious experience because it does not exist within the discussion’s parameters. The phrase “religious experience” rings familiar but the assertion “God and I are one” does not. Click for larger view View full resolution Spring Growth Sepia. Courtesy of Gary Williams These divergences reflect the order of intelligibility of meaning, its controls, its contexts, and its pedigree. One statement has manifold interpretations, and to understand the scenarios that fall under this regime one must look to the polymorphic symbolic nature of language that mediates worlds of meaning, as the Canadian theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan describes it: If one is to understand this enormous diversity, one must, I believe, advert to the sundry differentiations of human consciousness. A first differentiation arises in the process of growing up. The infant lives in a world of immediacy. The child moves towards a world mediated by meaning. For the adult the real world is the world mediated by meaning, and his philosophic doubts about the reality of that world arise from the fact that he has failed to advert to the difference between the criteria for a world of immediacy and, on the other hand, the criteria for the world mediated by meaning.2 If this fundamental distinction of the worlds of immediacy and meaning can be trusted, it appears that the conference attendees were unwittingly [End Page 42] caught in a web of undifferentiated meanings. In the final analysis their reactions were emissaries from different states of religious consciousness and maturity. In striking corroboration with Lonergan’s statement, the great twentieth-century Thomist and mystical theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange describes how these differentiation of meaning function...

Historically, many Blacks deployed religion as a subversive ideological tool, such as within the struggle against the dehumanizing, yet constitutionally authorized system of slavery as well as the state-sponsored and -sanctioned violence of lynching, voting restrictions and segregation. Even contemporarily, a growing body of empirical evidence shows that religion and spirituality matter in the lives of Black undergraduate students, informing their vocational choices, coping capacities, and styles and enhancing psychological resistance to racial stress. Though higher education researchers are becoming increasingly attentive to American college students’ spiritual lives, fewer scholars have invested equitable energies in better understanding Black students’ spiritual and religious experiences as well as exploring the form and content of Black undergraduates’ spiritual identities. Thus, the research questions that guided our study were the following: (a) What factors influence students’ spiritual identities prior to and during college? and (b) How are students’ spiritual identities raced and gendered and interact with their sexual identities? We report findings focused specifically on the social mechanisms—and their attendant ideologies—that coproduce students’ spiritual identities as well as students’ agentive negotiations.

[…]mysticism is quite different from religious experiences in ordinary faith, where the relationship with the Divine is mediated through normal categories of experience given in a person's culture and history. This difference raises the question of the relationship of mysticism to ordinary religious experiences. What is the role and status of mystical experience in the spiritual life? What, if anything, does the mystic teach us about spiritual reality and the spiritual ideal? What are the appropriate terms of a theology of mystical experience? I will begin to explore these questions by comparing Rahner's view of mystical experiences with what he calls ordinary "experiences of the spirit" or "everyday mysticism." I will then outline the transpersonal theory of Michael Washburn, in briefly exploring a question Rahner poses regarding the possible relevance of a psychology of mystical transformation in the development of a Christian theology of mystical experience. Finally, I will conclude with some qualifying reflections about mysticism that I believe to be pertinent to the development of a contemporary theology of mystical experience.

Spiritual Care in Psychological Suffering: How a Research Collaboration Informs Integrative Practice highlights spiritually integrative research and demonstrates the evolution of a national partnership of psychologists and chaplains collaborating for optimal results. Interdisciplinary teams are the gold standard in spiritual care provision, and this book orients the purpose and promise of such collaboration for research and practice. Recent work in the psychology of religion and spirituality has emphasized the importance of relational spirituality, distinctions between harmful and helpful effects of religion and spirituality on mental health, and the relevance of spiritual struggles for psychological well-being; however, these dimensions have not been examined in the context of a collaborative and culturally diverse partnership, nor have they been comprehensively examined in psychologically distressed populations. This volume seeks to make an important contribution to the psychology of religion by providing an in-depth look at translating integrative research into integrative practice in a population that has experienced significant psychological suffering. It is hoped that insights from this volume will contribute the following: foster more rewarding chaplain-researcher partnerships; offer a deeper understanding of the intersections among spiritual experience, virtues, and psychological distress; and demonstrate approaches for inquiring about individuals’ spiritual lives in the midst of psychological suffering.

The spiritual correspondence of St. Theophan with O. S. Burachok, E. A. Arnoldi, N. V. Elagin, and the Kugushevs family gives us extraordinary examples of pastoral ascetics. St. Theophan, from the standpoint of Hesy­chast spiritual practice, mentors the laymen, gradually introducing them to spiritual practice, each in his own measure. Another example of St. Theophan’s pastoral ascetics is demonstrated by his “Letters on Spiritual Life”. Relying on the descriptions of M. M. Speransky’s spiritual experience, St. Theophan analyzes it in the light of the Hesychast tradition and refuses to consider Speransky’s experience as a type of contemplative quietism. In this case, St. Theophan pays attention to the middle stages of the Hesychast experience (spiritual enlightenment) associated with the inner-being of the mind and the ascent through the stages of prayer (active mental-heart prayer, the incessant Jesus prayer), and he designates contemplative prayer as the highest stage. The article reveals for the first time the concept of ascetic practices adjacent to Hesychasm. This is done on the examples of correspondence with O. S. Burachok and on the “Letters on Spiritual Life” in order to more clearly represent what tasks were solved in each case by St. Theophane. A similar approach can be used in the study of the ascetic writings of St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite and other Hesychast ascetics.

It is crucial for nurses to understand the meaning of spirituality, which can become more pronounced during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and to take a supportive approach to breastfeeding attitudes during pregnancy. This study aimed to explore pregnant women's attitudes and spiritual experiences in Türkiye regarding breastfeeding. A qualitative inductive content analysis design was employed. Seventeen pregnant women (36-39-week gestation) were admitted to a maternity hospital in Zonguldak, Türkiye. They were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured, face-to-face, in-depth interviews and analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. The mean age of the participants was 27.41years, and ten participants were primiparous. Multiparous participants had previously breastfed for a mean duration of 19.1months. Three main themes emerged: "Breastfeeding and life," "Spiritual life and breastfeeding," and "Cultural synthesis." Considering the impact of spirituality on breastfeeding during pregnancy, these findings may help nurses recognize pregnant women's spiritual needs and value the protective role of spirituality. Understanding these dimensions could improve the quality of support provided by healthcare professionals and potentially enhance breastfeeding outcomes.