{"title":"Ecological Grief, Religious Coping, and Spiritual Crises: Exploring Eco-Spiritual Grief","authors":"Panu Pihkala","doi":"10.1007/s11089-024-01158-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecological grief results from human-caused environmental changes. While it is a growing subject of study, research on the relationship between it and spirituality/religion remains scarce. This article explores the topic by focusing on the frameworks of religious coping and (complicated) spiritual grief. Religion and spirituality can be resources for coping with ecological grief, but there can also be difficulties which cause spiritual grief: crises about beliefs, estrangement from one’s spiritual community, and disruption in spiritual practice. The author proposes a new term for the combinations of ecological and spiritual grief: eco-spiritual grief. Frameworks of religious coping (the RCOPE) and spiritual grief (the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief, ICSG) are analyzed in relation to ecological grief and eco-spiritual grief. The author argues that elements in these frameworks can be useful in relation to ecological grief and spirituality, but modifications should be made for this particular topic. Research about ecological grief should avoid individualizing tendencies, strong anthropocentrism, and a narrow focus on monotheism. Some items in the RCOPE and ICSG are especially relevant for monotheism, but they could be broadened to include other forms of spirituality. Themes for nuanced research about the matter are charted. The results are relevant for anyone who wants to explore the intersections of spirituality/religion and ecological grief, as well as theology and psychology, and they have special relevance for researchers and (pastoral) psychologists.</p>","PeriodicalId":19961,"journal":{"name":"Pastoral Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Pastoral Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-024-01158-3","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Ecological grief results from human-caused environmental changes. While it is a growing subject of study, research on the relationship between it and spirituality/religion remains scarce. This article explores the topic by focusing on the frameworks of religious coping and (complicated) spiritual grief. Religion and spirituality can be resources for coping with ecological grief, but there can also be difficulties which cause spiritual grief: crises about beliefs, estrangement from one’s spiritual community, and disruption in spiritual practice. The author proposes a new term for the combinations of ecological and spiritual grief: eco-spiritual grief. Frameworks of religious coping (the RCOPE) and spiritual grief (the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief, ICSG) are analyzed in relation to ecological grief and eco-spiritual grief. The author argues that elements in these frameworks can be useful in relation to ecological grief and spirituality, but modifications should be made for this particular topic. Research about ecological grief should avoid individualizing tendencies, strong anthropocentrism, and a narrow focus on monotheism. Some items in the RCOPE and ICSG are especially relevant for monotheism, but they could be broadened to include other forms of spirituality. Themes for nuanced research about the matter are charted. The results are relevant for anyone who wants to explore the intersections of spirituality/religion and ecological grief, as well as theology and psychology, and they have special relevance for researchers and (pastoral) psychologists.
期刊介绍:
Pastoral Psychology, founded in 1950, is one of the most well-established and respected journals in the field of psychology and religion/spirituality. Pastoral Psychology is an international forum that publishes scholarly, peer-reviewed original articles that address varied aspects of religion and spirituality from physical, human science, and interfaith perspectives.
Historically, the word “pastoral” has referred to the care of individuals, families, and communities. Today, we additionally consider “pastoral” in terms of lived experience as it relates to embodiment, the social-political, economic, spiritual, and environmental dimensions of life.
All theoretical perspectives are welcome, as Pastoral Psychology regularly publishes articles from a variety of schools of thought, including, but not limited to, psychoanalytic and other dynamic psychologies, cognitive psychologies, experimental and empirical psychologies, humanistic psychology, transpersonal psychology, and cultural psychology. Insights from existential perspectives, intersectional theories, philosophical and theological theories, gender and queer studies, sociology, anthropology, public mental health, and cultural and empirical studies are welcome. Theoretical contributions that have direct or indirect relevance for practice, broadly construed, are especially desirable, as our intended audience includes not only academics and scholars in religion and science, but also religious and spiritual leaders, as well as caregivers, chaplains, social workers, counselors/therapists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and persons interested in matters of religion/spirituality and psychology.
Pastoral Psychology welcomes scholarship and reflection from all religious and spiritual traditions. In addition to scholarly research papers, the journal welcomes thoughtful essays on a wide range of issues and various genres of writing, including book reviews and film reviews. The community of scholars represented in its pages has demonstrated that the life challenges the journal seeks to address are universally shared, yet also reflect individual social, cultural, and religious locations. The journal, therefore, welcomes submissions from scholars from around the world.