Religion-specific resources for meaning-making from suffering: defining the territory

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this review paper is to present a case for more proximal and emic approaches to the study of religious meaning-making in suffering. Meaning-making is an important way in which religion and spirituality contribute to adjustment in the context of encountering difficult life events. However, much of the available research on religious meaning-making ignores the contributions of specific religions to the meaning-making process. We begin by presenting a rationale for more sustained attention to religion-specific resources for meaning-making in suffering. Using Park’s meaning-making model as the organising framework, we then articulate how religions contribute unique global beliefs, situational beliefs, meaning-making processes, and valued outcomes to meaning-making. We illustrate these using existing research. Next, we suggest a refinement to Park’s model, offering a preliminary recursive model involving these identified components. We conclude with a brief prospectus informed by our model for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Meaning
• diversity
• suffering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by John Templeton Foundation [grant number 44040]; CCCU Networking Grant.