Religious and spiritual struggles.

Abstract

The idea of religious and spiritual strain is certainly not new to theologians, clergy, spiritual directors, and religious counselors, who have a long history of expertise in these areas. Although empirically oriented psychologists are relative newcomers to this interdisciplinary conversation, their interest seems to be growing. During the past decade, scholars have turned attention to topics such as religious conflict, negative religious coping, spiritual struggles and concerns, religious strain, spiritual risk, and spiritual injury. This chapter highlights a few specific struggles and discuss some key challenges that each one presents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved) (from the chapter)