Religious and Spiritual Struggles and Their Implications for Health and Well-Being A Concise Review of an Emerging and Promising Line of Inquiry

Emerging from the theoretical framework and extensive research conducted on the convergence of religion, spirituality, and coping mechanisms, the psychological literature has recently directed considerable focus toward the exploration of religious and spiritual struggles (r/s struggles). R/s struggles arise when some facet of religious and spiritual belief, practice, or experience becomes a focal point or a source of tension or inner conflict. Research has delineated six types of r/s struggles: Divine, demonic, interpersonal, moral, ultimate meaning-related, and doubt-related. This chapter constitutes a concise review of this emerging and promising line of inquiry. Specifically, this review: alludes to the conceptual framework that offers the most comprehensive comprehension of r/s struggles, namely Pargament’s religious/spiritual coping theory; elucidates the essence of the phenomenon and accentuates its diverse manifestations; examines the prevalence of r/s struggles and some of the factors that forecast their occurrence; and scrutinizes the empirical evidence pertaining to the associations between r/s struggles and health and well-being. The chapter concludes by discussing promising directions for future research within this field.