Religious and spiritual struggles
Case Western Reserve University. May 5, 2021
Religion and spirituality can be powerful resources for people. You may see your spiritual beliefs as sources of answers to life’s deepest existential questions: What happens after you die? What choices should you make in life? Which cultural values and identities should you uphold, defend, and spread? What is the truth about ultimate reality? What is the purpose of your life? You may turn to organized religious groups for moral guidance and social support in these areas. But regardless of whether you’re part of a religious community, you may find that spiritual beliefs and practices can provide a way to connect with God, others, or your own deepest self.
At the same time, religion and spirituality can also be a source of tremendous stress and conflict. Many people experience doubts and questions about their beliefs. They might become angry at God, at others in their religious communities, or at organized religion in general—citing atrocities and abuses that have been committed in the name of religion. Those who believe in the devil, or evil spirits, might see those forces acting in their lives—tormenting them, attacking them, and/or disrupting their life plans.
Where might religious/spiritual struggles come up in daily life? Consider the Covid-19 crisis, as just one example. If you believe in God, you might get angry if you see God as responsible for allowing the pandemic to begin—or for failing to stop it. Your struggle with the existence of evil and suffering in the world, juxtaposed against the idea of God being omnipotent and benevolent, may sound strikingly similar to the struggles of the ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus, nearly 2300 years ago:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence come evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
At another level, losses associated with Covid-19 might have hit you hard: You might have suffered extended social isolation, Covid symptoms, loss of income, or even the death of a loved one. In response to such losses, you might struggle to understand God’s role in the pandemic, or you might wonder if the devil was responsible. You might get angry at members of religious communities for flaunting mask restrictions, refusing to engage in social distancing, and choosing not to get vaccinated. If you are a member of a congregation that is downplaying Covid risks and promising divine protection for the faithful, you might start to have doubts about whether religious communities and their teachings are correct—and you could become frustrated with others in your religious group who are promoting such ideas. You might struggle morally as you balance concerns about freedom (“I want to go to Church!”) with concerns about communal responsibility and basic human decency (“What if I accidentally spread Covid to someone?”).
Developing a method to measure religious/spiritual struggles
For about the last 20 years, my colleagues, students, and I have been doing research on these strains and conflicts that many people have around religion and spirituality, which we call religious/spiritual struggles (Pargament & Exline, in press). To better study the phenomena, my colleagues Ken Pargament, Josh Grubbs, Ann Yali, and I developed a measure called the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale (2014). Of course, we knew that we couldn’t tap all of the possible struggles in one measure. But as a starting point, we designed a variety of items to assess six types of struggle. Thousands of adults in the U.S. (some college students, some not) have now completed this measure, and it’s done well in assessing each of them, as follows:
Divine. These are struggles that focus on beliefs about God—especially one’s relationship with God. As people grapple with deep questions about the existence of suffering, and a god supposedly in charge of the universe, they might ask: Can we actually trust in God’s power and love? If not, what does this mean about the world we live in and the security of our place in it? Items measuring people’s struggle with the divine ask people to rate (1 = not at all, to 5 = extremely) the extent to which they might feel God let them down, abandoned them, or is punishing them; whether they feel angry at God; and whether they question God’s love for them. Interestingly, even some people who don’t currently believe in God can report divine struggles, often based on past belief in God or ideas about what God would be like if God existed. For example (Bradley et al., 2017; Exline et al., 2011), they might conclude that an all-powerful God would be responsible for allowing suffering and evil in the world; so, if God existed, they would be angry at God.
Demonic. Items measuring demonic struggles—those focused on beliefs about supernatural evil—ask people to rate the extent to which they see the devil, demons, or evil spirits as being involved in their lives—causing negative events or trying to tempt, attack, or torment them. Because these struggles require belief in supernatural evil, they are more common among people who hold strong religious beliefs (at least in the U.S., which remains predominantly Christian). For such believers, the idea that the devil, or some other evil spirits, is intervening in the world might answer Epicurus’s question “Whence come evil?” But it hardly lets God off the hook—is God either unable or unwilling to stop evil spirits? If so, then we’re in both mortal and spiritual danger. Further, as with divine struggles, demonic struggles are often wrapped up in other existential concerns, such as freedom and responsibility: Feeling abandoned or punished by God (divine struggle) or feeling tormented by demons (demonic struggles) could be attributed, in some religious circles, to the choices and moral failings of the victim. Nevertheless, as fascinating as they are (Exline et al., in press), demonic struggles have been studied less than the other struggles mentioned here and are less well understood.
Interpersonal. Many people struggle with the role of religion/spirituality in feelings of interpersonal isolation, feeling socially valued, and maintaining connection to cultural meaning systems. Non-religious people are often openly and harshly stigmatized by religious groups, and even religious/spiritual people can feel judged or persecuted for their religious beliefs and actions either within their own religious communities or by outside groups. Items measuring interpersonal struggle ask people to rate (e.g., 1 = not at all, to 5 = extremely) whether they feel hurt, mistreated, or offended by religious/spiritual people; rejected, misunderstood, or looked-down-upon by them; whether they’ve had conflicts with other people about spiritual matters; and whether they feel angry at organized religion. Indeed, religious differences have a long history of being a major source of conflict at so many levels, from close relationships to international wars; so, it’s little wonder that many people report interpersonal struggles around religion.
Moral. Many people struggle with their freedom to make good choices in life. They might even struggle with the very uncertainty about the nature of moral truth and what the right and wrong choices might be in the first place! Thus, at the existential level, being unsure of whether we can trust our own moral compass could be profoundly confusing. Further, religions often advance the idea (which Dutch primatologist Franz de Waal calls “veneer theory”) that we humans are fundamentally evil or sinful creatures, and thus that our free will is fundamentally a spiritual struggle for righteousness that requires God’s moral guidance, our constant vigilance, and confession and penance when we fall short and cause harm to ourselves or others. Items measuring moral struggles ask people to rate (e.g., 1 = not at all, to 5 = extremely) the extent to which they wrestle with attempts to follow moral principles, worry their actions might be spiritually wrong, feel torn between what they want and what they feel is morally right, and feel guilty for not living up to those standards. One interesting data pattern finds that people who struggle with morality tend to be more strongly religious, whereas less religious people don’t struggle as much with right and wrong.
Doubt. Religious/spiritual ideas and concepts can serve as frameworks for existential meaning, helping to provide a coherent understanding of the nature of reality, a feeling of cosmic significance, and a sense of purpose in life. But that key function may be jeopardized by doubts, questions, or confusion around the validity of those religious beliefs. Items measuring struggles with doubt ask people to rate (1 = not at all, to 5 = extremely) the extent to which they struggle to figure out what they really believe about religion/spirituality, and feel confused about or worried about the veracity of those beliefs. Data patterns suggest struggles with doubt about religious/spiritual beliefs are very common.
Ultimate meaning. Many people struggle to find a sense of deep meaning or purpose in their lives. Items measuring struggle with ultimate meaning ask people to rate (1 = not at all, to 5 = extremely) the extent to which they question whether life really matters, feel as though it had no deeper meaning, question whether their life would make a difference in the world, and whether there’s an ultimate purpose to life or existence. Given that many people turn to religion to provide a sense of ultimate meaning, these struggles are a little more common among people who are not religious. Out of the six struggles assessed in the RSS, ultimate meaning struggles are the ones that are most closely tied to mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness, and low levels of life satisfaction and self-esteem.
Spiritual struggles, health, and meaning in life
All six of these religious/spiritual struggles are linked with lower levels of self-esteem and self-compassion (Grubbs et al., 2016) and impaired emotional well-being, such as depression, anxiety, and stress (e.g., Abu-Raiya et al., 2015; Stauner et al., 2016; Zarzycka et al., 2018). They’ve also been linked with physical health problems such as alcohol abuse and eating disorders (e.g., Stauner et al., 2019). But you might wonder: Which comes first, the religious/spiritual struggles or the mental health challenges? Might a person who is depressed be more likely to feel punished by God? Or is it that feeling punished by God leads to depression? Longitudinal studies, where we look at how these factors change over time, support both pathways: Stressful life events (natural disasters, divorce) and mental health challenges (e.g., depression) predict the subsequent increase in all six dimensions of religious/spiritual struggles (Davis et al., 2019; McElroy-Heltzel et al., 2018; Stauner et al., 2018), and religious/spiritual struggles can also lead to increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety (Bockrath et al., 2021).
All six religious/spiritual struggles are also related to meaning in life (Exline et al., 2014). Religious believers tend to experience reduced meaning in life if they struggle with the divine, if they struggle interpersonally, if they experience religious doubts, and if they have difficulty discerning the ultimate coherence, significance, and purpose in life. In contrast, a strong sense of meaning in life tends to be associated with more reports of moral struggles, potentially because the perception of a strongly meaningful system of spiritual morality can cast even mundane daily activities as part of a cosmic struggle for righteousness. Likewise, the perception of evil spirits in one’s life is weakly positively related to meaning in life, perhaps because it can help explain why someone might be experiencing temptations and suffering.
For non-religious people, such as atheists, however, the story is a bit different. Because they don’t believe in God, demons, or other relevant religious concepts, data patterns show their ratings of potential struggles with the divine, demonic spirits, and religious doubt are unrelated to meaning in life (Sedlar et al., 2018). However, they do still report lower meaning in life if they experience interpersonal struggles with religious/spiritual people, if they struggle to identify and do the morally right things in life, and if they struggle to see an ultimate coherence, significance, and purpose in life.
Spiritual struggles and personal growth
Finally, research findings indicate that, despite being deeply troubling, religious/spiritual struggles can sometimes be a key contributor to personal growth. Struggling with questions about God’s love and protections (divine struggle), evil in the world (demonic struggles), conflict with certain religious/spiritual people (interpersonal struggle), challenges navigating one’s personal freedoms and moral responsibilities (moral struggles), doubts about certain religious/spiritual beliefs (doubt struggles), and dissatisfaction about religious/spiritual understandings of reality and one’s spiritual significance or purpose (ultimate meaning struggles) can each prepare us to shed old ideas and grow into new and better ways of understanding the world, other people, and ourselves.
However, the data suggest that personal and spiritual growth is not simply a function of whether or not a person has spiritual struggles. Studies show that religious/spiritual turmoil can be linked to spiritual growth, spiritual decline (e.g., despair, loss of faith), or both (Desai & Pargament, 2015; Wilt, Pargament, & Exline, 2019; Wilt, Pargament, Exline, Barrera, & Teng, 2019). Research (e.g., Pargament & Exline, in press) on the distinguishing factors suggests that growth depends on how people respond to their struggles once they come up.
For example, people do better when they accept struggles as a normal part of life, and lean into them, rather than running away from them. Research shows that when people search for and find reasons for their struggles that make sense, and situate their experience in a coherent narrative, they tend to have more success working through the struggles—achieving higher levels of personal growth (Desai & Pargament, 2015) and maintaining or recovering emotional well-being (Wilt et al., 2016). It can also help to have a safe person to talk to about your struggles, or to have an acceptable way to voice and experience your struggles. For those who believe in God, talking “with God” openly about your struggles can also help (Wilt, Stauner, et al., 2019).
The humanity of spiritual struggles
Of course, some struggles with religion or spirituality are never fully resolved. But, even then, it’s clear that it’s still possible to learn and grow as we continue to navigate these challenging issues. Perhaps what this research suggests, most of all, is that part of the human experience is to grapple with existential concerns and to struggle with religious beliefs and spiritual ideas. Indeed, religious and spiritual struggles may often come up in daily life, as you may have experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, instead of seeking to avoid such struggles, chastising yourself for experiencing them, and seeking to be rescued from them, perhaps the healthiest approach is to compassionately embrace the humanity of these experiences and open-mindedly explore the potential for these struggles to create new opportunities to flourish and grow.
Additional Reading
Pargament, K. I., & Exline, J. J. (in press). Working with spiritual struggles in psychotherapy: From research to practice. Guilford.
Julie Exline, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Her research centers primarily on the interface of clinical, social, and personality psychology, with a special focus on topics involving spirituality, religion, and existential concerns. She has a special interest in the struggles and challenges that people often experience around religion and spirituality, and she also studies the causes and consequences of supernatural attributions for events. She has served as Principal Investigator on two large projects funded by the John Templeton Foundation: one on religious/spiritual struggles and another on supernatural attributions. Julie is a licensed clinical psychologist in Ohio and has served as the Director of Clinical Training for the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Case Western Reserve University. She has also been certified as a spiritual director through the Ignatian Spirituality Institute at John Carroll University. She is a Past President of the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (American Psychological Association’s Division 36) and has received the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award, the Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award, and the William James Award.