The relationship between body and mind plays an important role in many spiritual and religious experiences. Previous studies that looked into embodiment in the psychology of religion have mainly focused on the motoric system or embodied cognition phenomena. Despite interoceptive sensibility (IS) playing an important role in cognition, emotion, and well-being, a systematic investigation of the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and IS has not yet been conducted. In this preregistered report, we performed such an investigation. We used established measures and collected data from a large sample to guarantee sufficient statistical power. We contrasted groups with different religious backgrounds (Christians n = 271, Buddhists n = 236, and Muslims, n = 229) to explore possible religious differences in the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and IS. As expected, the results showed that adaptive forms of IS were linked to spirituality. Significant correlations between IS and spirituality were observed across all religious groups. However, contrary to our hypothesis, these associations were strongest among Christians rather than Buddhists. While spirituality showed significant correlations with IS, the correlations between religiosity and IS were mostly non-significant when accounting for the shared variance between spirituality and IS. Our results indicate that IS, as the inner dimension of embodiment, may be a fundamental factor in shaping spiritual experiences across diverse faiths and denominations. The preregistered analysis plan, materials, raw data, and the analysis code are publicly available.

This qualitative study sought to identify and describe themes related to how the Latter-day Saint community coped with the COVID-19 pandemic with particular emphasis on divine grace and meaning/purpose (M/P). It illuminates ways in which an understudied religious community accessed their faith beliefs to make sense of an unparalleled (in modern times) worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Applying a hybrid deductive-inductive approach to qualitative thematic analysis and a limited grounded theory framework, researchers conducted, transcribed, and coded semi-structured interviews with members of the Latter-day Saint community. Several themes emerged from the data including (1) faith, religion, and religious beliefs during challenges and hardships, including relying on one’s faith to get through challenges, the focus of grace and blessings through trials, and the belief in God bringing peace; (2) role of God and God’s plan during the COVID-19 pandemic; (3) benefits of the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities related to the COVID-19 pandemic; (4) religious/spiritual practices during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (5) global characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unique themes appeared related to God’s grace and M/P that are discussed in further detail. Overall, participants framed their responses in ways that portrayed the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to practice faith and experience growth. Participants’ foundational beliefs of a loving, omnipotent God were not challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, the COVID-19 pandemic was viewed as a method God uses to teach lessons and increase faith. Unique cultural components related to the Latter-day Saint community are discussed.

This study reports a multidimensional approach to assessing religious leadership, combining leadership assessments made by 22 church leaders with 2819 vitality ratings from members of the associated Protestant churches in the Netherlands who participated in the National Church Life Survey. The multilevel analyses indicated leaders’ personality as the single predictor of church vitality, with lower leader scores on neuroticism resulting in more positive member evaluations. No significant associations were found between leaders’ transformational leadership, servant leadership, emotional intelligence, and member ratings of church vitality in the multilevel statistical model. Furthermore, a discrepancy was observed between the self-assessments of religious leaders and the evaluations made by their congregants, suggesting that self-perceived leadership effectiveness may not align with members’ perceptions. We elaborate on the lessons these findings teach us regarding assessing and mapping religious leadership effectiveness and highlight the importance of a multidimensional approach utilizing multi-source data and multilevel statistical modeling.

Religious experiences are important for many human traditions. A predictive processing-based approach to religious experiences previously identified sensory deprivation and the influence of authority as probable means of their induction. To observe the effects of these factors on human perception and psychology, this qualitative study focuses on the alternative-spiritual practice called Dark therapy, which combines days alone in complete darkness with the influence of authority—a guide consulting clients daily. Qualitative data were obtained via interviews and engaged field observations; interview data from 12 participants were analyzed using open and hypothesis coding. Findings demonstrate that Dark therapy induces psychologically challenging experiences and unusual perceptual phenomena. Participants who can gain a feeling of control could actively exploit the Dark by gaining perceptually active experiences related to their expectations, beliefs, and previous cultural learning. Guides could influence clients’ experiences, but clients only chose to learn from them when perceiving guides as prestigious. Combining sensory deprivation with social seclusion and the influence of authority thus seems to be a potent practice for the induction of spiritual and other special experiences. The predictive processing framework and theories on human ethology can provide a useful explanatory framework for the observed effects of these factors and point to interesting future directions in research on religious experiences.

Care for persons with severe dementia in highly specialised healthcare in Norway is guided by person-centred care. However, little research has explored healthcare professionals’ perspectives on meaning in life in this patient group. This qualitative study investigated how healthcare professionals recognise experiences of meaning in life among patients with severe dementia. The research question was: How do healthcare professionals, working in a dementia unit in highly specialised healthcare, recognise experiences of meaning in life in patients with severe dementia? An exploratory design was used, drawing on data from focus group interviews with professionals trained and experienced in dementia care. An inductive approach was used to analyse the data, guided by Schnell’s theory of meaning in life as an analytical lens. The findings show that meaning was recognised and responded to in several ways: through bodily activities that created meaning and reinforced identity, underscoring the importance of embodied expressions and interactions; by supporting what mattered to each individual patient, highlighting the value of personalised and attuned care; and during moments of crisis, which were interpreted as signs of ongoing struggles for identity and meaning. By incorporating professionals’ perspectives and experience-based knowledge, the psychology of meaning helped deepen the understanding of person-centred care and how it can be practised with this patient group. More research is needed to develop scholarly knowledge that enables professionals to distinguish more precisely between different aspects of meaning in life and intervene effectively in diverse care situations.

Meaning in life is a key aspect of our well-being and is a central issue within the field of existential health. Knowledge is scarce on the experience of meaning in life of people living with dementia. Dementia is defined as loss of memory and other cognitive abilities, reducing the person’s ability to perform activities of daily living. This poses challenges to interviewing and including persons with dementia in qualitative research. In this study we explore how nursing home residents with dementia experience meaning in life, and how they can reflect on this existential question. We used an exploratory qualitative design with semi-structured interviews of ten people with mild to severe dementia living in one nursing home and found that conversations about meaning in life with persons with dementia were feasible. Some memories of the past were told as if they were happening here and now, and some topics were repeated several times throughout the interview. This study highlights the importance of awareness of existential themes and interventions facilitating meaning in life for this population, despite certain challenges to be overcome. The past and present merge, giving their stories a unique character. This holds significance for the moment by providing insight into how cognitive impairment might affect the perception of time. It is important to acknowledge this perspective and understand that meaning in life may be connected to memories and experiences from the past, and that this might be more prominent for this group than others.

Global emergencies, such as pandemics, have historically inflamed racism and xenophobia against minority groups. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception, as it has been associated with an increase in xenophobia, racial conflict, and hate crimes targeting Asian Americans. While research has identified empirical predictors of xenophobia, including Christian nationalism, group threat, and intergroup attitudes, little research has explored these relationships longitudinally among religious leaders. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to examine direct and indirect pathways between theological conservatism, authoritarianism, xenophobia, and Christian nationalism in a national sample of seminary students preparing for religious leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical analyses revealed two significant mediation effects: (1) authoritarianism mediated the relationship between theological conservatism and Christian nationalism, and (2) authoritarianism also mediated the relationship between theological conservatism and xenophobia. These findings hold important implications not only for research but also for clinical and religious education contexts. They underscore the need for targeted interventions within religious education programs to address the potential for authoritarian and xenophobic attitudes among future religious leaders. By understanding these relationships, religious institutions can better equip their students to challenge racism and promote inclusivity in their future roles as community leaders.

This article examines the relationship between religiosity and response to traumatic life events in a UK longitudinal birth cohort study. Previous literature on coping focuses on how individuals use religion to cope with such events, whereas this article looks more broadly at whether aspects of religiosity are associated with how individuals are affected by life events. Four religiosity measures were used: religious belief, religious affiliation, religious attendance and latent classes of religion. Life events were measured by asking participants whether a range of 43 events (including events related to death, illness/health, relationships and work/finances) had happened to them in the previous 8 months and how much it affected them. While the aim of this study was predominantly descriptive, we adjusted for a range of covariates to rule out some common sources of confounding (including maternal age at birth, parity and measures of socioeconomic position). In all models, there was little association between religiosity and response to these events. These results indicate that, in this UK population at least, religion does not appear to impact individuals’ short-term responses to traumatic life events. While further research is needed to confirm the extent to which these findings are both generalisable and warrant a causal interpretation, they do suggest that factors other than religion may be more important in shaping peoples’ coping responses to traumatic events.

Using a sample of 403 current or former Latter-day Saint (LDS) sexual and gender minorities (SGMs), we found that LDS SGMs are most commonly counseled to increase in their faith, whereas they find it most helpful when clergy use empathic listening skills and vocalize support. We further found that current LDS SGMs reported higher levels of supportive and validating counsel than former LDS SGMs. LDS SGMs reported that they experienced adverse mental health outcomes and decreased or nuanced their faith as a result of the counsel they receive from clergy, with counsel focusing on restricting or suppressing one’s sexuality or avoiding gender expression relating to more depression for both current and former LDS SGMs.