The Spirituality of Christian Suffering

Current measures of religious coping are generally etic in nature, measuring constructs across religions. Emic variables (i.e., those specific to particular religions) are often left out, which limits our ability to assess religious/spiritual coping during times of stress and adversity. Here we provide findings from three studies we conducted to develop and test an emic Christian meaning-making coping method: identifying with Christ in his suffering. We ground this construct in Christian theology, the psychology of religious/spiritual coping literature, and existing qualitative research. In the first study, we developed items and tested the items for clarity and generalizability to diverse Christian groups using expert review and cognitive interviewing with participants from five distinct Christian groups. In the second study, we conducted exploratory factor analysis using data from MTurk (N = 335), which revealed a two-factor structure consistent with our theoretical formulation. I...

Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Well-Being (forthcoming), edited by Guy Fletcher

This paper discusses well-being in the Christian tradition.

South African Baptist Journal of Theology, 2009

The intention of this article is not to give an answer to the problem of theodicy which arises because of suffering in this world, but to move beyond the polemic and to give attention to how a person can worship God by finding meaning and hope in suffering. In giving a pastoral response this paper argues that the appropriate use of God images in suffering will help a person find meaning in suffering thus enabling him\her to become more positive in his/her faith and worship of God. Usually, when we reflect on worship, we do not put suffering and worship together. Yet suffering and worship are connected. Because the process of suffering enables us to become purer and humbler people, if we cooperate with God. It is the pure and humble who have truly learned to love God for who he is and to worship him most deeply.

International Philosophical Quarterly, 2018

If the desire to see God in Himself belongs to human nature, but the attainment of that vision can be affected only by supernatural grace, how is it that this desire remaining unfulfilled is not a frustration of the nature? How is it that nature is aiming at a good in vain, at an object that it cannot achieve? Even though the elicited natural desire to see God is not fulfilled in this life, and even though there is no demonstrative proof that can be provided by natural reason alone of its being fulfilled after death, the natural human desire is nevertheless not frustrated by a natural deficiency. Rather than being contrary to human nature, this lack of fulfillment exists because of that nature, inasmuch as every human is by nature a limited intellector of being.

Asia journal of theology, 2024

The Philippines is known to be the only predominantly Christian country in Asia. Christianity in both Catholic and Protestant forms came with the Western colonizers. However, despite its identification with the colonizers, Christianity became the faith of the ordinary Filipinos. Western Christianity, the religion of the colonizer, became Filipino Christianity, the religion of the struggling people for independence and self-determination. Philippine Christianity developed an anti-West and anti-colonial character. It became part of the Filipino postcolonial national identity. However, neocolonialism and globalization are undermining and eroding Philippine Christianity's anti-colonial tradition. Philippine Christianity continues to emulate Western spirituality, such as the prosperity gospel and the health and wellness movement. The paper argues for a spirituality using the perspective of the Theology of Struggle (ToS) developed by Filipino Christian activists. The paper claims that ToS can foster a spirituality of resistance, repentance, solidarity, and renewal in the struggle against globalization and neocolonialism.

Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2021

The loss of lament in the modern church has had serious consequences, including a lack of compassion for pain-bearers, the failure to challenge injustice, and essentially the loss of the church's mission: bringing hope into pain. This article suggests five ways to restore lament to the life of a church, to facilitate a healthy, caring community. First, "hard texts" must be included in the preaching and teaching calendar; second, the church must learn to stand with pain-bearers in corporate lament; third, worship songs must include opportunity for sustained lament; fourth, biblical laments should be read regularly and used by individuals to compose their own laments; and fifth, lament rituals (for regular and special situations) must be built into the rhythm of church life. If such practices can be restored, those who carry pain will once again receive the gift of hope and communal bonds will be strengthened.

Elsevier, 2025

When individuals suffer, they suffer as a whole human being. They suffer from more than only physical ailments and discomfort, as well as a lack of enough chances to meet their basic physiological, social, and emotional needs. They also suffer when they are unable to feel and comprehend any purpose in life, even though this suffering is not as visible as other types of physical, social, and emotional pain. Pain from a loss of a sense of purpose in life is a distinct type of emotional, cognitive, and spiritual suffering. Although all humans have the same basic human desire for some purpose in life, how that need is met is very individual and individualized. But human pain may be gleaned differently. A naturalist individual or non-believer would only look at suffering as nothing but a natural human condition. Arthur Schopenhauer suggested his dictum that the more intense you desire, the more intense will be your suffering. He proposes as well that the happiness of a given course of life is not evaluated according to its joys and pleasures, but instead according to the absence of suffering. On the other hand, a believer, in particular, a Christian, considers suffering with religious significance. He views suffering as a way of being in solidarity with Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Christian discipleship is an imitation of Christ's life of suffering. It is in a way a vicarious suffering by which a follower "empathizes" with Christ's own suffering. A true follower of Christ must, therefore, be firm and determined to "take up his cross and follow Him." Such is the challenge to Christian discipleship. The heart of this paper lies on arguing on human suffering not just an existential fact of human condition but as an existential condition towards one's solidarity with Christ Himself.

A Christan Approach To Suffering and Death

This paper examines a Christian response to suffering, and examines the relevance of the model of the Church as Body of Christ in this response (as distinct from the rivalling model of Church as People of God).

2017

There are many books on leadership and noble servitude in the church, and Hill is not shy to admit it; indeed, his work shows a deep appreciation of the insights of others on the subject of Christian leadership and community dynamics. Servant of All certainly takes its place among them as a sincere account of the New Testament's vision for Christian communities. As Hill explains, this is not a vision of a required structure or an eternally ordained hierarchy, but of an ethosa 'countercultural community' that exhibits 'a distinctive, even radical character … that challenges problematic social norms', a place where 'an alternative reality' preached and practiced by Jesus 'is not only conceptualized' but 'demonstrated' (pp. 176-78). Indeed, Hill's book not only teaches Christians about the relevance of the New Testament for questions about status and ambition; his writing will excite them to live out the New Testament's answers as 'ministers of reconciliation' in the pulpit and in the pew, in the board room and in the soup kitchen, and anywhere in between.