Religious Meaning In Life Research Articles

Conversation or non-versation? Physicians’ communication about existential, spiritual and religious needs with chronically ill patients - protocol for a qualitative study

Background: Facing a severe, chronic disease can be experienced as an existential crisis that may lead to a lower quality of life and even risk of suicide. Existential, spiritual and religious ways of meaning-making are in many cases positively related to health and can be important in times of crises. This project aims to study a gap in the current knowledge with a specific focus on patient-centeredness as an attention to the whole person. How do physicians experience their patients’ existential, spiritual and religious needs in relation to chronic disease? How do they address these needs and are patients satisfied with this communication? Methods / Design: Two chronic diseases with severe illness in common were chosen: Chronic Pain and Multiple Sclerosis. For each disease, an in-depth study of 12 patients and 4 physicians will precede the comparison of the cases resulting in 24 patient interviews and 8 physician interviews. Further, we will compare the existential, spiritual and religious needs of these 2 patient groups. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is applied as methodology and semi-structured interviews and observations are used as data generation methods. Discussion: Investigating and addressing existential, spiritual and religious meaning in life in exchange with patients may enhance quality of care and improve efficacy of and satisfaction with treatment. The results of this project will hopefully provide a substantial contribution to the knowledge about existential, spiritual and religious needs of patients living with a chronic disease. The knowledge may be used in clinical practice as well as for educational purposes.

Humility, compassion, and gratitude to God: Assessing the relationships among key religious virtues.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between religion and gratitude to God. A special emphasis is placed on key virtues that are promoted in the church. A conceptual model is developed that contains the following core hypotheses: (a) more frequent attendance at religious services will bolster feelings of religious commitment, (b) people who are more committed to their faith will be more likely to adopt religious teachings that extol the virtue of humility, (c) people who are more humble will be more compassionate, (d) individuals who are more compassionate are more likely to provide support to others, (e) providing support to others helps people derive a deeper sense of religious meaning in life, and (f) individuals who have found a deeper sense of meaning through their faith will feel more grateful to God. Data from a recent nationwide survey provide support for each of these relationships.

Awe of God, Congregational Embeddedness, and Religious Meaning in Life

Researchers have argued for some time that emotions play a significant role in religious life. The purpose of this study is to focus on a religious emotion—awe of God—that has received relatively little attention in the literature. A latent variable model was developed to assess the following core relationships: (1) people who attend worship services more often will be more likely to experience awe of God; (2) greater awe of God will promote a greater sense of congregational cohesiveness (i.e., the belief that fellow church members share common values and beliefs); (3) individuals who participate in cohesive congregations will be more likely to feel they belong in the place where they worship; and (4) a greater sense of belonging in a congregation will be associated with a stronger sense of religious meaning in life. Analysis of data provided by a nationwide sample of middle-aged and older adults provides support for each of these relationships.

Feelings of Gratitude Toward God Among Older Whites, Older African Americans, and Older Mexican Americans

The first goal of this study is to see if social relationships in the church influence feelings of gratitude toward God. The second goal is to assess the impact of race and ethnicity on this relationship. The data support the following hypotheses: (1) older people who go to church more often tend to receive more spiritual support from fellow church members; (2) older adults who receive more spiritual support at church will derive a deeper understanding of themselves and others; (3) older people who develop greater insight into themselves and others will derive a greater sense of religious meaning in life; and (4) older adults who develop a deeper sense of religious meaning in life will feel more grateful to God. The results also indicate that the study model explains how feelings of gratitude toward God arise among older blacks and whites, but not older Mexican Americans.

The Social Foundation of Religious Meaning in Life

The purpose of this study was to see whether informal social support from fellow church members sustains an older person's sense of religious meaning in life over time. Two types of church-based social support were evaluated: spiritual support and emotional support. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older adults suggested that both emotional and spiritual support tend to sustain a sense of religious meaning in life, but of the two, spiritual support appeared to exert the greatest effect. The findings further revealed that older African Americans are more likely than older European Americans to derive a sense of meaning in life through religion. This race difference is largely explained by the fact that older African Americans tend to receive more church-based social support than older European Americans.