Religious Struggle Research Articles

Religiosity, Spirituality, Meaning-Making, and Suicidality in Psychiatric Patients and Suicide Attempters: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

After participating in this CME activity, the psychiatrist should be better able to:• Explain current understanding of how religiosity, spirituality, and meaning-making (R/S/M) affect patients with psychiatric diagnoses. R/S/M generally protect against suicidality and suicide. Thus far, reviews on the topic have largely been descriptive, and there are no meta-analyses focused on psychiatric patients. This study systematically evaluates all empirical evidence on R/S/M's potential influences on suicidality for psychiatric patients and recent suicide attempters. A systematic PROSPERO preregistered search following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol was performed in MEDLINE and PsycInfo. Quantitative studies until 31 December 2022 on R/S/M and suicidality in psychiatric populations and recent suicide attempters were selected; psychological autopsy studies were excluded. The search identified 4,374 studies for screening. This resulted in 108 eligible studies for the systematic review and 75 studies for the meta-analysis, including 231 effect sizes (ES) and 17,561 subjects. Research focused mainly on the emotional, moral, and ritual aspects of R/S/M. Most research was cross-sectional; repeated R/S/M assessments were rarely reported. A combined significant and negative ES (Fisher Z = -0.13, p = .006, equivalent to Cohen's d = -0.26) was found for all good- and fair-quality studies. Overall, R/S/M was associated with lowering suicidality. Maladaptive-distressing dimensions of R/S/M correlated with higher rates of suicidality (e.g., religious struggles). The explanatory value was limited by the predominantly cross-sectional nature of ESs. PROSPERO registration 2023 CRD42023398692; there was no funding involved.

Hamka and the Rise of Kaum Muda (the Modernist) in Indonesia

The paper aims to study the historical background of the Islamic reform movement in West Sumatra with particular reference to the idea of Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah or his pseudonym Hamka (1908-1981). His religious ideal was instrumental in driving the new consciousness and unprecedented religious struggle that erupted in the late 20th century in the Malay Archipelago, which reflected the force of modern ideas of Shaykh Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) that had brought decisive and greatest influence in the region. The reform movement he inaugurated was carried out by Kaum Muda (the young faction) in the Malay Archipelago, who disseminated his dynamics ideas and aspirations through journals and newspapers such as Al-Imam, Al-Munir, and Saudara. One of the leading figures and pioneers in the struggle of Kaum Muda was Haji Rasul dan Kiyai Ahmad Dahlan, whose legacy was continued by Hamka, who was hailed as the foremost advocate of Abduh’s reformist ideas through his influential writing and activity. To highlight this significant work and idealism, this research presents and analyzes Hamka’s struggle to lead this unprecedented religious movement for reform (islah) and renewal (tajdid) in the Malay world. This research aims to develop his legacy and monumental contribution to the history and tradition of reform in the Malay world.

The Role of Religious Comfort and Strain on Social Well-Being among Emerging Adults in Poland: Serial Mediation by Meaning Making Processes.

Religious struggles tend noticeably to influence the sphere of social well-being in emerging adulthood as individuals modify their religious beliefs and practices, form personal identity patterns, and rediscover new life purpose and values. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether meaning-making and meaning in life (presence and search) can serially mediate the hypothesized links between religious comfort vs. strain and social well-being. Self-report measures of religious struggles, meaning-making, meaning in life, and social well-being were completed by 368 emerging adults (aged 18 to 29, 52.2% female). The serial mediation analysis showed that the relationship between religious comfort vs. strain and social well-being was mediated by meaning-making and presence of meaning, but not by a search for meaning. These results suggest that religious struggles may represent unique aspects of developmental spiritual processes in emerging adulthood with implications for social well-being.

Establishing the temporal relationship between religious commitment, sexual identity struggles, and religious struggles among sexual minorities.

Establishing the temporal relationship between religious commitment, sexual identity struggles, and religious struggles among sexual minorities.

Constitutionalism as Peaceful “Site” of Religious Struggles

Constitutionalism as Peaceful “Site” of Religious Struggles

The pragmalinguistic aspect of the choice of speech units in the author's strategies of literary monuments of the XV – XVI centuries.

The subject of the study is the texts of literary monuments of the XV – XVI centuries. The object of the research is the author's strategies, which are studied from the perspective of two modern areas of science: cognitive and pragmatic linguistics.The audience's reaction to the author's conviction is determined by the communicative factors of the impact of speech on the reader's consciousness and is determined by the vital connection of language and thinking. Therefore, the issues of speech impact (a pragmatic problem) and cognition in natural language (a problem of cognitive linguistics) should be considered in synthesis. This approach, according to the authors, makes it possible to study the subject side of the study most fully and achieve the goals set.The purpose of the study is to consider the possibility of classifying the speech units of texts of literary monuments of the XV – XVI centuries from the standpoint of the synthesis of cognitive and functional-pragmatic ways of studying the text.The tasks are to substantiate the possibility of synthesizing linguistic-cognitive and functional-pragmatic methods of studying author's strategies, as well as the classification of speech units of the text of monuments of the XIV – XVI centuries according to the author's strategies. The research methods are conceptual analysis and functional diagnostic method of pragmalinguistics. The ability to categorize concepts allows you to cluster them based on certain similarities and present them as units (clusters) based on the main feature. The functional nature of the choice of units acting as influencing tools that form the reader's attitude to the text, the author, the ideas of a particular author or a group as a whole. The novelty of this work lies in the possibility of combining the approaches of cognitive linguistics and functional pragmalinguistics to the study of author's strategies, which has not been widely practiced by researchers before. The achieved results allow us to conclude that this synthetic approach can be applied to research in the field of textual psychology, author's strategies, the author's speech image, and speech portraiture. The strategies identified in the texts act as clusters of concepts, which in turn constitute the main functional and pragmalinguistic tools that implement the author's intentions and ensure the perlocative effect of the text. The cognitive-pragmatic component of the author's impact strategies is structured mainly around the ideological and religious struggle. In second place are public– and private-business relations, which often mix into a single conceptual and pragmatic space.

Many facets of religiosity and regulatory virtues: Exploring the links between multiple dimensions of religiosity with self-control and patience among Muslim-American adolescents

A growing body of literature suggests that religiosity is linked to regulatory virtues, such as self-control and patience, but most of this literature has been on Christian populations and has only focused on a single and more adaptive dimensions of religiosity, such as religious practices and beliefs. The current study sought to expand this literature by examining how the belief (e.g., religious struggles with doubts), belonging (e.g., religious identity), and bonding (e.g., anxious and avoidant attachment to Allah) dimensions of religion are uniquely associated with the behaving (e.g., inhibitory control, initiatory control, and patience) dimension of religion among a sample of Muslim American adolescents. Two-hundred forty-eight 13-18-year-old Muslims living across the United States filled out a cross-sectional survey online. Path analyses revealed that religious commitment and avoidant attachment to Allah were linked to initiatory self-control and patience, but not inhibitory self-control. In contrast, religious struggles and anxious attachment to Allah were linked to inhibitory self-control, but not initiatory self-control and patience. Finally, religious identity was not linked to self-control or patience when accounting for these other dimensions of religiosity. Our findings suggested that some dimensions of religiosity might indeed promote regulatory virtues, but other dimensions may undermine self-control and patience, which have important implications for theory and interventions targeted to promote regulatory virtues among youth.

Mapping personality traits to religious coping styles and struggle: Evidence from Malay Muslim undergraduates in Brunei

The current research explores religious struggle, aiming to assess personality traits as predictors and testing the mediating effects of religious coping styles. Using existing cross-sectional data, we used structural equation modeling to analyze data of 277 Malay Muslim undergraduates. The six-factor personality model HEXACO explained 14.2 % and 6.6 % of the variances for positive and negative religious coping styles respectively, with the addition of the two styles in the same model further explaining 19.5 % of the variances in religious struggle. Findings suggest significant relationships between various personality traits and religious coping styles, predictive of the level of religious struggle experienced by them. Extraversion and agreeableness positively predicted the use of positive religious coping style. Additionally, the same two traits with honesty-humility inversely predicted the use of negative religious coping style. Toward religious struggle, honesty-humility had a negative relation, contrasting with openness to experience having a positive relationship. Between the two religious coping styles, only positive style was observed to negatively predict religious struggle. Four mediation effects were observed. Findings provide valuable insights into the complex dynamics of religious struggle. These insights could inform future research and the development of targeted interventions to mitigate religious struggle.

Christian nationalism, religious struggles, and the structural amplification of emotional distress

AbstractObjectiveAlthough studies have linked Christian nationalist beliefs with greater emotional distress, little is known about the potential underlying mechanisms or subgroup variations. Informed by the strain‐struggles‐distress model and the concept of structural amplification, we tested whether religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles mediate and moderate the association between Christian nationalist beliefs and emotional distress.MethodsRegression models were conducted on national survey data collected in 2021 (n = 1704).ResultsResults suggested that respondents who reported stronger Christian nationalist beliefs also tended to report higher levels of R/S struggles, anger, and psychological distress. Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of Christian nationalist beliefs on emotional distress through R/S struggles. Moderation analyses also indicated that the effects of Christian nationalist beliefs on emotional distress were amplified at higher levels of R/S struggles.ConclusionIn support of the strain‐struggles‐distress and structural amplification models, we find that the adverse emotional impacts Christian nationalism are explained and intensified by the cognitive vulnerabilities of R/S struggles.

Tacit Narratives in the Manuscript Collections of Matthew Parker and Robert Cotton

Over the past two decades, the history of early modern archives has been a topic of considerable interest among historians, and their research has drawn attention to the complex motives and commitments that inspired individuals, communities, and institutions to create, collect, preserve, and use archives in the early modern period. Their research also offers insights into what Eric Ketelaar has called the “tacit narratives of power and knowledge” woven into the formation, preservation, and use of archives and opens up new avenues for exploring the social history of archives. The English Protestant Reformation has provided the backdrop for some of this work, highlighting the ways in which post-Reformation libraries functioned as “polemical weapons” in political and religious struggles to control the historical narrative about the roots of the Reformation. The libraries built by the antiquarian collectors Matthew Parker and Robert Cotton in the 16th and 17th centuries furnish useful examples of the kinds of tacit narratives embedded in the selection, preservation, and use of post-Reformation manuscript collections. This article draws on the research undertaken by early modern historians into the collecting and compiling practices underpinning the formation and use of the Parker and Cotton manuscript collections to demonstrate how their work is helping to illuminate the tacit narratives embedded in early modern archives as well as broadening and deepening the social history of archives.

The mediating role of resilience in the relationship between religious struggles and health behaviours in a group of polish young adults

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to examine more thoroughly the relationship between religious struggles and health behaviours. In this study were examined the role of resilience as a potential mediator in the relationship between these variables of interest and it was focused on the polish young adult generation. Participants were 616 people aged 18–33 years (M = 25.33; SD = 7.27). The respondents indicated their gender and age, and then completed The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSSS), The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and Health Behaviour Inventory (HBI). In all models, resilience was evaluated as a potential mediator between types of religious struggle and health behaviour. The mediation analysis showed that including resilience as part of the overall model weakened the negative association between the dimensions of religious struggle – divine, ultimate meaning, and doubt ¬– and health behaviour. The presented negative impact of religious struggles on health behaviour points to the need to build or strengthen resilience among individuals, with resilience as a potential buffer to both reduce the negative effect of R/S struggles and strengthen pro-health behaviour.

Spiritual well-being among patients newly diagnosed with cancer in Jordan: thematic analysis.

Patients newly diagnosed with cancer experience a grief process that disturbs their spiritual well-being. The purpose of this study was to explore the spiritual well-being among patients with cancer within the first 3 months of diagnosis. The study used a qualitative approach using thematic analysis. In-depth interviews were conducted with sixteen participants diagnosed with cancer within the first 3 months prior to data collection using a purposive sampling method. The interviews took place in oncology outpatient clinics at three selected hospitals in Jordan. Four main themes emerged from the texts of the participants' stories. These themes were "Hopeful yet uncertain expectation of achieving future goals," "A wake-up call for self-transcendence," "Religious struggle," and "Facing Reality provoke questions about meaning of life." To conclude, analysis of texts from the Jordanian patients who are newly diagnosed with cancer has revealed rich and meaningful evidence of the effect of this diagnosis on disturbing patients' beliefs and meaning of life. Those patients may experience uncertainty; however, they become more connected with others and God. Health care providers need to understand patients' sources of hope and adjustment that may influence management goals before and during starting treatment.

Religiosity and death anxiety among cancer patients: the mediating role of religious comfort and struggle.

Religiosity may serve as a personal source of support when people face a life-threatening illness, but it can also elicit stress. The main aim of this study is to show how various religious dimensions interplay in predicting death anxiety in patients diagnosed as having cancer. In the cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical research, 141 Polish patients who were hospitalized due to cancer were selected using sequential convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, Religious Comfort and Strain Scale, and the Death Anxiety and Dying Distress Scale. The authors' results show that the effect of the centrality of religiosity on death anxiety is non-linear. We can also confirm the mediating role of religious comfort and struggles in the relationship between the centrality of religiosity and death anxiety. Thus, religious struggles appear to weaken the effect of religion on death anxiety, whereas religious comfort (contrary to expectation) does not enhance it. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2023;36(4):450-64.

Anonymity, Piracy and Counterfeiting in the Polish Language Publications in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 2nd Half of the 16th Century

On the grounds of the bibliographic analysis of the publications in the Polish language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the second half of the 16th century, this article reconstructs the phenomena of anonymity, counterfeiting and piracy. In this country, the life of the printed media was fairly liberal and hardly restricted at all. In the course of political and religious struggles, authors, translators, publishers and compilers frequently preferred to conceal the data on the real authorship and typography in their publications. Political and religious factions had to consider the opinion of the ruler and their seniority; therefore, only anonymous impact on the public opinion allowed ensuring the defense of one’s attitudes and the desired impact on the society. This strategy of anonymity was protecting the stakeholders from getting into trouble, while also expanding the scope of commercial activity for the typographers. The phenomenon of piracy was also being promoted by the different legal regulation of the printed media in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, and, due to the physically vast distances, the feeling of impunity developed. The authors and typographers were acting honestly in such cases when the published literature contained no controversial materials, or when they had the solid backing of the powers, and also in the cases when legal protection of the printed media was ensured.

Sexuality, Religiousness, and Mental Health among Sexual Minority Latter-day Saints in Other-Gender Relationships

To guide therapists working with sexual minority individuals considering entering in an other-gender relationship, we present data from 82 sexual minority, current Latter-day Saints in other-gender relationships, 155 sexual minority, former Latter-day Saints in same-gender relationships, and 123 cisgender/heterosexual, current Latter-day Saints in other-gender relationships. Results suggest that relative to cisgender/heterosexual individuals, sexual minority individuals (both in same- and other-gender relationships), report being less happy in their relationship, viewing porn and masturbating more often, and experiencing greater religious struggles. Sexual minority individuals in both same- and other-gender relationships reported happiness in their relationships and lives; however, the two groups differed in a variety of ways. We found that, on average, sexual minority individuals in other-gender relationships (a) have less satisfying sex lives, (b) somewhat follow church teachings about sexual practices, (c) experience conflict about their life choices, (d) nuance their religious views to distinguish between affirming and nonaffirming beliefs, (e) have difficult faith journeys, and (f) do not appear to experience mental health difficulties because of their relationship status. We encourage therapists to explore sexual, relational, and religious domains with their clients in helping each determine whether an other-gender relationship is possible for them.

Pandemic Job Separation and Psychological Distress: Modeling Chains of Adversity

Although recent studies have linked pandemic unemployment with poorer mental health, the mechanisms underlying this association remain understudied. In this paper, we develop a mediation model to explain why pandemic job separation might undermine mental health. Using national data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (n = 1,258), we test the indirect effects of pandemic job separation on psychological distress through several mechanisms. Mediation analyses reveal compound indirect effects of pandemic job separation on psychological distress through the primary pathway of financial strain and the secondary pathways of social support, self-esteem, mastery, religious struggles, and sleep disturbance. Absent the indirect effect of pandemic job separation through financial strain, we would have failed to observe any simple indirect effects through the other proposed mechanisms. Formal moderated mediation analyses also indicate that our observed indirect effects are invariant to subgroup differences in current employment status, education, and household income. In short, our indirect effects are observed for those respondents who were able to regain employment, those with college degrees, and those with the most financial resources. Our results suggest that the temporary expansion of public assistance has been insufficient to offset widespread unemployment and financial hardship during a global pandemic.

People's Perceptions and Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological-Longitudinal Study in Bangladesh.

By emphasizing the Terror Management Theory, this study investigated the participants' perceptions, psychological experiences, coping strategies, and behavioral changes during the pandemic in Bangladesh in two phases: first, after the pandemic's immediate outbreak, and second, after 3months of the pandemic (daily infection cases were very high). To perform the research, an empirical-phenomenological method was used. Findings indicate that at the first stage, participants' death phobia was extremely high, and poor medical facilities, religious struggles, imprudent behavior of others, concerns for family members, and a tendency to compare the socioeconomic status with other developed countries affected participants' emotions severely. Later on, participants' perceptions of the disease changed significantly. This study highlights that people's behavior varies depending on whether the thought of death is in the center or on the periphery of their attention. In both stages, religious faith and rituals played a crucial role in coping with the crisis situation.

IMAGES OF JIHAD AND PROBLEMS OF LEGITIMATION OF RELIGIOUS PROTEST AS A FORM OF CLASS CONFLICT AND SOCIAL LIBERATION

Background. The author analyzes the texts of the Dune cycle in contexts of modern historiography, including its universal methods that allow analyzing “oriental” images in literature through the prism of constructing and deconstructing narratives that form the image of Jihad as a form of political, social and religious struggle of oppressed communities and minorities.
 Purpose. The purpose of the article is an “orientalist” reinterpretation of the images of Jihad in the novels belonging to the Dune cycle including the prequel text presented by Dune. Butlerian Jihad and Dune. Paul.
 Materials and methods. The author uses the methodological tools of intellectual history and studies of nationalism, including the concept of the invention of traditions, which allows to analyze the images of Jihad in science fiction as one of the invented traditions of mass US science fiction literature using the texts of the Dune cycle. Orientalism as a method is used to analyze Muslim motifs in the prose of F. Herbert, B. Herbert and K. Anderson, which, as the author of the article presumes, were inspired by political, ideological and religious stimuli. The author states that the orientalist approach can be an effective interpretative model for an interdisciplinary analysis of American science fiction as a cultural landscape for the development of Jihad images in the Western intellectual tradition of the consumer society.
 Results. The ideological and political foundations for the development of images of Jihad as a social concept of American science fiction are studied in the article. The article analyzes the ideological origins, as well as the political prototypes and archetypes of the Muslim radicals of the Dune cycle. The author analyzes the ideological discourse of radical Islamism, presented in American mass culture through the prism of religious war images as attempts to implement the doctrine and social liberation. The article analyzes the attempts of American writers to form a positive and attractive image of a radical political protest under religious Muslim slogans. Therefore, it is shown that American science fiction prose actualized the mobilization potential of Islamism, imagining and inventing it as a form of legitimate social and economic protest of the oppressed masses against discrimination. The author presumes that some American authors revised the images of Jihad, offering its interpretation as a radical social and class protest based on religious legitimation.

Do Religious Struggles Mediate the Association Between Neighborhood Disorder and Health in the United States?

Over the past two decades, numerous studies have linked the subjective experience of neighborhood disorder (perceptions of crime, dilapidation and ambient strains) with poorer health. We test whether religious struggles (religious doubts and feeling abandoned or punished by God) mediate this association. Our counterfactual mediation analyses of data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS) (n = 1741) revealed consistent indirect effects of neighborhood disorder through religious struggles for anger, psychological distress, sleep disturbance, poorer self-rated health, and shorter subjective life expectancy. This study contributes to previous work by integrating the study of neighborhood context and religion.

ЖИВОТНЫЙ МИР В КАРТИНЕ МИРА ФИЛОСТОРГИЯ

The article examines the place of the animal world in the picture of the world by Philostorgius. Being a prominent representative of the Alexandrian school and the heretical church historiography of the IV-V cent. AD, he approached this issue much more seriously, paying attention to the symbolism due to the appearance and relationship of a person with one or another biological species. All this correlates with the methods of biological descriptions in antiquity, some of which are also used by modern biologists. Careful handling of the biological terminology of Aristotle and Pliny is noticeable in the use of such a key concept of the Philostorgian worldview as φύσις.Regarding animals, he uses this word in the sense of gender, which successfully correlates with Aristotle's “History of Animals”. It is concluded that the descriptions of animals in the “Ecclesiastical History” is an imitation of “Natural History” by Pliny the Elder and “History of Animals” by Aristotle. Trying to follow, on the one hand, Polybius in covering the political events of the Roman Empire; on the other hand, Eusebius of Caesarea in a story about the religious struggle between currents in Christianity, Judaism and pagan cults; Aristotle and Pliny the Elder, in an effort to represent the entire cosmos from Paradise and heaven, to the depths of the earth and Hell, Philostorgius created a religious and political work with elements of scientific descriptions, intended for an educated reader and aiming to educate a citizen of Rome, a diversified Eunomian.