A Theology of Human Flourishing for Positive Psychology Pedagogy

Research interest in human flourishing continues to grow across multiple disciplines. In this article, we suggest means by which Christian theology can inform teaching positive psychology. We survey the field of positive psychology by characterizing and distinguishing theories regarding eudaimonic and hedonic accounts of flourishing. Christian theological approaches diverge from the emphases of psychology by grounding flourishing outside of the self. Love, properly understood, links various Christian proposals regarding the nature of flourishing and circumscribes the relationships in need of flourishing: with God, with each other, with ourselves, and with the rest of creation. From this follow several pedagogical implications: 1) grounding positive psychology in love, 2) linking love of God to psychology of religion and spirituality, 3) using love to unify the study of traits, 4) including emic versions of positive traits, 5) incorporating discussion of positive institutions, 6) tempering positive psychology with a theology of suffering, and 7) using cross-cultural perspectives

Vocatio as Regeneration: John Owen’s Concept of Effectual Calling

This chapter assesses the extant in which John Owen’s soteriology can be called ‘modern’ by relating it to the thesis of Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), that Protestantism’s most striking influence on modernity lies in the domain of religious thought and feeling. An analysis of Owens understanding of the divine calling, mainly from his Pneumatologia, reveals that for him the vocatio is basically the effectual calling or regeneration of the elect by the renewalof their will. He does not make clear how this calling relates to the preaching of the gospel, though he does not restrict that to the elect. Although Owen’s views and terminology connect him strongly to the catholic Reformed traditional theology of Troeltsch’s Old Protestantism, some aspects of his thought, such as his ecclesiology and the voluntarism of his soteriology show that Owen also can be seen as ‘modern theologian’ or a representative of Troeltsch’s ‘New Protestantism’. Owen’s soteriology seems to be typical for a broader shift within the Reformed tradition towards a focus on the internal work of the Spirit in individual believers

Testimony and Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Black Women with Cancer Diagnoses

Objectives: Research has established religion and spirituality as important resources for Black people in the US coping with adversity. Most research has been from an etic perspective, examining religious variables that are valid across multiple religions. In the present study, we asked what emic aspects of the Black church’s practices and theological emphases women with cancer drew on in constructing meaning-making narratives from their cancer experience. Methods: In this consensual qualitative research study, we interviewed 30 Black women with cancer histories with an average age of 64.5. Results: The religious practice of testimony emerged as the predominant theme. Testimony (a) provided a meaningful purpose to the cancer experience; (b) had a specific content of describing what God had done in their lives as well as some common theological emphases; (c) had dual desired outcomes of helping others and bringing glory to God; and (d) had an associated practice of giving testimony. Conclusions: We discuss testimony as a narrative structure and highlight its importance in informing culturally-sensitive interventions aimed at supporting Black women with cancer

Spiritual Surrender

Suffering is part of the human condition, and people often turn to their faith to make sense of this experience. Active religious coping has been related to positive psychological outcomes in individuals facing adversity. However, not all sources of suffering can be resolved. Spiritual surrender is one form of religious coping relevant in these unresolvable situations and has been studied in the areas of addiction, grief and loss, and illness related trauma. Despite the importance of this religious coping practice and its positive impact on wellbeing, spiritual surrender is rarely examined and has been quantified with mixed results. We propose an emic, Christian, conceptualization of spiritual surrender that integrates theological perspectives with religious coping scholarship; then we present three studies describing the development of a new measure. With these studies, we establish and confirm the factor structure of the Christian Spiritual Surrender Scale and evaluate its construct validity in online samples of Christians who indicated they experienced suffering. Moderation analyses indicated that spiritual surrender ameliorated the negative relationship between severity of the negative life event and one’s satisfaction with life, but not the relationship to one’s positive or negative feelings. We conclude that Christian spiritual surrender represents a unique and distinct religious coping practice that has not been robustly captured in previous measures and is associated with well-being in the face of adversity