Buildings and Bibles Between Profanization and Sacralization: Semiotic Ambivalence in the Protestant Dutch Bible Belt

Based on an ethnographic case study of three recently erected church buildings in the Dutch Bible Belt, this article demonstrates how orthodox Reformed congregations in the Netherlands define church buildings—especially the auditoria—and bibles as simultaneously profane and mediating the sacred. These at first glance ambivalent discourses are informed by a particular semiotic ideology, which maintains that material spaces and objects like these are sacralized if, and only if, individual believers can meaningfully relate them to their personal spiritual experiences. This ideology makes a primary attitude of profanization of material forms indispensable, because any preexistent sacredness of matter would precisely rule out these personal spiritual experiences.     

Contributions from ethics and research that guide integrating religion into psychotherapy.

Historically ignored or “treated,” clients' religious beliefs are being incorporated into psychotherapy because they influence client and therapist thinking and have potential to heal and harm. This paper examines how professional codes of ethics and research on religion-friendly therapeutic interventions and on helpful and harmful religious beliefs and practices provide direction in dealing with religious matters in psychotherapy. Ethical codes emphasize self-determination, beneficence, and nonmaleficence, which lead to different treatment decisions depending on how they are prioritized. The informed consent process and motivational interviewing have potential to ethically reduce harm and maximize benefits from the client's religious beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spiritual struggle related to plasma interleukin-6 prior to cardiac surgery.

Spiritual struggle appeared consistently to predict poor health outcomes, including mortality. Despite surging interest in the health benefits of religion and spirituality, the health hassle of existential conflicts and proinflammatory cytokines as a potential physiological mechanism has been overlooked. Based on psychological and theological assumptions, we argue for the universal nature of spiritual struggle, a crisis-related existential conflict, and for investigating its physiological influence as essential to understanding human nature. Increased levels of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) have been linked with adverse health outcomes and negative emotions. This study thus examined spiritual struggle related to plasma IL-6 in 235 adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery, along with positive religious coping, general coping, and optimism, controlling for standardized clinical medical indicators. Multiple regression analysis, following a preplanned sequence, showed that spiritual struggle (p = .011), behavioral coping (p = .013) were positively associated with excess plasma IL-6, controlling for medical correlates (e.g., left ventricular ejection fraction). We conclude that spiritual struggle, indicating the crisis in an existential relation, and behavioral coping strategies are associated with elevated pre-operative plasma IL-6. The interdisciplinary implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generativity and spiritual disclosure in close relationships.

This exploratory study examines the link between generativity and an interpersonal aspect of religion and spirituality, spiritual disclosure, in close relationships. Three hundred seventy-eight adults aged 18 to 85 years were asked about their use of spiritual disclosure with close friends, views on their own generativity, questions related to personality characteristics, and level of general self-disclosure. This community sample’s reports on higher levels of spiritual disclosure were tied to higher levels of generativity and general self-disclosure. Spiritual disclosure also predicted unique variance in generativity beyond general self-disclosure, personality, and intrapersonal aspects of religion and spirituality. These findings suggest spiritual disclosure in close relationships is an important part of the religious/spiritual landscape, which merits further study in relation to generativity and other prosocial indices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of cult in the teaching of psychology of religion and spirituality.

The word cult has many conflicting definitions across scholarly fields, yet instructors commonly use it in the teaching of psychology. Distinctions between cults and other groups are differences of degree and often rest on a group’s size, the unusualness of its beliefs, the outcomes of its actions, and the perceived role of its leader. Use of cult by teachers of psychology suggests that cults are categorically distinct from other groups and brings negative connotations to cults, their members, and former members. Teachers of psychology should explicitly address these issues and avoid the term cult. Additionally, teachers, researchers, and practitioners of psychology should evaluate the behavior of groups, the degree of social influence, the presence of deception, and potential abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does devoutness delay death? Psychological investment in religion and its association with longevity in the Terman sample.

Religious people tend to live slightly longer lives (M. E. McCullough, W. T. Hoyt, D. B. Larson, H. G. Koenig, & C. E. Thoresen, 2000). On the basis of the principle of social investment (J. Lodi-Smith & B. W. Roberts, 2007), the authors sought to clarify this phenomenon with a study of religion and longevity that (a) incorporated measures of psychological religious commitment; (b) considered religious change over the life course; and (c) examined 19 measures of personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health that might help to explain the religion–longevity association. Discrete-time survival growth mixture models revealed that women (but not men) with the lowest degrees of religiousness through adulthood had shorter lives than did women who were more religious. Survival differences were largely attributable to cross-sectional and prospective between-class differences in personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

the controversial history of the crystal skulls: a case study in interpretive drift

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, several skulls carved from rock crystal appeared in the holdings of European collectors. The provenance of the skulls was unknown and experts regarded them as pre-Columbian artifacts. In the twentieth century, two very different histories formed about these objects. Through testing and archival research, forensic experts and curators concluded that the skulls were created in the nineteenth century using European technology. Conversely, a community of skull enthusiasts believes the skulls are thousands of years old and function as a sort of esoteric computer. They believe that by communing with crystal skulls, it is possible to access records of ancient civilizations. The skull enthusiasts have strongly resisted the findings of experts. This article applies Tanya Luhrmann’s theory of “interpretive drift” to examine how the skull enthusiasts were able to construct and invest in a mythology surrounding these objects in only a few decades. This case study suggests that material objects can serve an important role in forming the types of magical worldviews outlined by Luhrmann.     

Comparing spiritual transformations and experiences of profound beauty.

Certain highly emotional experiences have the potential to produce long-lasting and meaningful changes in personality. Two such experiences are spiritual transformations and experiences of profound beauty. However, little is known about the cognitive appraisals or narrative elements involved in such experiences, how they are similar, and how they differ. In a study of emotion-related narratives, these experiences were found to share many features but also differ in their valence. Experiences of profound beauty are almost always positive, but spiritual transformations are both positive and negative. Moreover, spiritual transformations seem to produce long-lasting change, but experiences of profound beauty, although evocative, do not seem to produce long-lasting change. An emotion approach helps to elucidate two understudied but important emotional experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accommodating the discarnate: thai spirit houses and the phenomenology of place

ABSTRACT

In Thailand, many homes possess small shrines for locality and guardian spirits. In Thai the shrines are known by various names denoting the ethereal occupants and their various spheres of influence. In English they are referred to collectively as “spirit houses.” By exploring the ways in which these shrines are used by Thai people through two case studies, this article addresses the prevalence of spirit houses in contemporary urban locations, an area which scholarship on Thai popular religion has largely neglected. Based upon eighteen months of fieldwork in three Thai cities, the article argues that the ornate shrines which adorn many house compounds in contemporary urban Thailand tie into local understandings of the social character of places. It is suggested that the persistence of spirit houses can be partly understood through their roles as mediators of the phenomenological experience of certain places. Spirit houses are one part of a gathering process that imbues places with significant meaning. The shrines exemplify that culturally specific interactions and engagements with spirits associated with certain places influence how the phenomenological qualities of these places are constructed and experienced.     

Response to Al-Khanji, Budesheim, and Soucar's letter.

F. A. DiBlasio responds to K. Al-Khanji's comments (see record 2000-00240-005) on decision-based forgiveness treatment in cases of marital infidelity. The original author states that the primary concern of making therapy culturally sensitive is an important issue and a worthy endeavor of all clinicians. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)