Pargament K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. Theory, research, practice. New York: The Guilford Press, pp. 34-68. Chapter Three RELIGIOUS PATHWAYS AND RELIGIOUS DESTINATIONS We find religion at the crossroads of the sacred and significance. This is the starting point for our exploration of the religious labyrinth. It is, however, only a beginning. In the previous chapter we considered the meaning of the sacred and significance, the two key elements of religion. But the definition of religion says something more as well. Religion is also a process, a search for significance in ways related to the sacred. Although it can take many forms, every search involves two things: a destination and a path to reach it. As we venture further into the religious labyrinth, we will see that religion is vitally concerned with both the destinations pursued in life and the pathways taken to reach them. In this chapter, we examine some of these religious pathways and destinations and consider some of the ways they come together to form comprehensive religious orientations to the search for significance. RELIGIOUS MEANS: PATHWAYS TO SIGNIFICANCE All of the world's religions offer their members a pathway to follow in the search for significance. Far from smooth and undemanding, these routes are often portrayed as arduous. The Hindu hears that the path Religions Pathways and Religious Destinations 35 is: "Like the sharp edge of a razor. . . . Narrow it is, and difficult to tread" (Upanishads, 1975, p. 20). The Christian is told: "Narrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life" (Matthew 7:14). The Buddhist hears the path to salvation likened to the difficulty of fording a roiling stream (Burtt, 1982). But the ultimate rewards awaiting the dedicated traveler, the religions say, are well worth the trek. The faithsjof the world may agree that the way is demanding, but they do not agree on the way itself. Perhaps no one put it more strikingly tnarTJohnson (1959):........ For the sake of religion men have earnestly affirmed and contradicted almost every idea and form of conduct. In the long history of religion appear chastity and sacred prostitution, feasting and fasting, intoxication and prohibition, dancing and sobriety, human sacrifice and the saving of life in orphanages and hospitals, superstition and education, poverty and wealthy endowments, prayer wheels and silent worship, gods and demons, one God and many gods, attempts to escape and to reform the world, (pp. 47-48) The diversity of religious pathways makes it impossible to focus on any single religious approach without ignoring or oversimplifying the nature of others (Streng, 1976). Neither, however, can we review religious pathways in all of their variety. Here we will simply illustrate some of the paths people take, following the lead of Pruyser (1968), who argued that religion is to be found in every psychological dimension. Emotions, thoughts, actions, and relationships are all parts of the paths people take in their search„ f ox significance.. It must be stressed that these paths are not devoid of their own sacred value. "Let us beware," Jewish philosopher and scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel (1986) said, "lest we reduce the Bible to literature, Jewish observance to good manners, the Talmud to Emily Post" (p. 231). As means to valued destinations, religious pathways can develop a spiritual significance of their own. Ways of Feeling, Thinking, Acting, ana Relating Feeling For many people, the cornerstone of rdigicm is feeling. Theologian fiudolf Otto (1928]7"in a highlyTnfTuentTal book. The Idea of the Holy, described the power of religious feeling in dramatic fashion. The essence of religious experience, he said, is a "creature-feeling," an "emotion of a creature, abased and overwhelmed by its own nothingness in contrast to that which is supreme above all creatures" (p. 10). This emotion, the mystérium tremendum, also has the qualities of a magnet: "something 36 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION that captivates and transports [the person] with a strange ravishment, rising often enough to the pitch of dizzy intoxication" (p. 31). For Otto, this feeling cannot be reduced to any other. It flows directly out of an absolutely convincing experience with the "Wholly Other." The kind of personal encounter with God described by Otto may not be all that unusual. McReady_ and Greeley (1976) surveyed a representative sample of American adults and found that 37-50% of different^ religious groups had had an experience in which they felt as though they were very close to a powerful spiritual Force. Many people, however,~expěríěncé the sacred in less emotionally powerful ways. The transcendent may be approached through a more subtle, contemplative process, or as a personal friend or confidante the individual can rely on. The love for God growing out of human reason, knowledge, and comprehension described by Maimonides (Minkin, 1987) and Spinoza (1957) has a flavor to it different from Otto'spgssionate, into, xjc^ting feelings for God. Religion is certainly a way~of theneart, but the heart is simply one of the ways of religion. Thinking Religion, to many people, is first and foremost a way of thinking. Few cultures have not incorporated religious perspectives, of one sort or another, into their Schemas (cf. Mcintosh, 1995) for viewing the world. These perspectives connect a conception of the sacred to the nature of people, the way that life should be lived, and the character of this world and whatever may lie beyond it. These are not simply matters for theologians and intellectuals, as even the briefest review of world history will reveal. Whether salvation is earned or predetermined, whether God's nature is singular or tripartite, or whether one has follp^eSľox strayed from the true reTigious path are questions that have had profound implications for* individuals, communities, and cultures wjthinthe~West-ern world. Yet we cannot stop here either, for religion is more than a way of thinking. Acting Joseph Campbell (1988) reported overhearing an American philosopher talking to a Shinto priest in Japan: "We've been now to a good many ceremonies and have seen quite a few of your shrines. But I don't get your ideology. I don't get your theology." The priest responded: "We don't have theology. We dance" (p, xix). Now the priest may have overstated his point. Clearly, he does have a way of thinking about life, the world, and the nature of transcendence. But his "theology" stresses Reli gious Pathways and Religious Destinations 37 being and action more than thought. Among some groups, religion is less a way of thinking than it is a way of acting. Actions_j^eapart of all_religions^.&Y^^ are. more doctrinally oneňtedľPruyser (1968) put it this way: "Millions of people stanä7Eeňd, stretch, fold their hands, move rosary beads, finger books, suppress coughs and sneezes, look their best, and act most solemnly for at least one hour per week, with the feeling that these are appropriate, necessary, or prescribed activities of religious value and relevance" (p. 175). But as Pruyser goes on to note, it is a mistake to view religious practices as simply "behaviors." Religious acts have power by virtue of their connection to the sacred. Careful attention to form and detail is requir^djj^j^ljgj^us,. practice. r because mistakes or irregularities, can reducT_their sacred vajue. Injthis sense, religious.practices have-ta.do wTtrľlríore thap simpleaction, but with how one acts. They can become, asPruyser describes them, a "craft," another way of religious life. Relating The focus on feelings, thoughts, and actions could lead to the conclusion that religion is simply a personal way of life. Indeed, in our pluralistic culture that values individual freedom and choice, religion is often seen as more a personal matter than a social experience. Bellah and his colleagues (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1985) underscore the powerful current of individualism that has run historically through the stream of religious life in the United States from its founders, such as Thomas Paine who wrote "My mind is my church," to the majority of the population today who agree that religious beliefs should be independent of any religious institution. In their interviews with white, middle class Americans, they find that, for jpiany^jhe .heart of religion lies in the individual's personal relationship with God, a relationships jhat is ultimately self-centered. To illustrate their point, they cite a nurse who named her faith after herself: "I believe in God. I'm not a religious fanatic. I can't remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It's Sheilaism. Just my own little voice" (p. 221). Recalling a stressful period in caring for a dying woman, Sheila felt that "if she looked in the mirror [she] would see Jesus Christ" (p. 235). The_religious individualism reflected in Western culture is also j^p^^JjL_WrStern, psychology Psychologists have generally defined religion as an individual phenomenon. The primary religious force for William James (1902) was personal^ emotional experience. Social and institutional religious experiences were relegated to secondary status and excluded from his text. With some important exceptions, other psychol- 38 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION ogists have also tended to see social expressions as poorly developed forms of religion or roadblocks to individual growth. Allport (1954), for example, initially labeled mature and immature forms of religion as interiorized and institutionalized orientations, respectively. Similarly, jin__ developmental models of religiousness, social forms of religion have .been Čfefinea as ^syčKoIbgTcalíy primitive"" and personal forms of religion, autonomous from religious institutions, have been denned as most advanced (Meadow & Kahoe, 1984). Individualism in religious study has taken a different form in recent years. The term "religion" is being used by scholars in an increasingly narrow sense; its meaning is restricted to institutionally based dogma, rituals, and traditions. In contrast, the term "spiritual" is reserved for an inner, more personal process. Although it is a "fuzzy" concept (cf. Spilka, 1993), spirituality is generally described as a highly individuaj^e^jearch J0£_iJbe_jien_se of connectedness with a transcendent force (e.g., Emblen, 1992; Legere, 1984). Comparisons of religion and spirituality are not made dispassionately. The preference of many writers for a personal spirituality over an organized religion is clear. For example, one author asserts "we must free the soul from organized religion and give it back in all its passion and fullness to the men and women of our time" (Elkins, 1995, p. 83). ,...'" Tiu^^^r^^jii^gjiß^bias.. j§. unfortunate for two rea£oa&jgksj^of all, m^^stinction^ between spirituality-as-good-arid religion-as-baddoes not stanjd Jewell to empirical scrutiny. There are many counterexanv j5lešľwe will^see^ln"^ not all personal-spiritual expressions are helpful and not all institutional-religious expressions are .arrrlítil. ^_ <£econc]/trie tension between the individual and the instit-nítonaLcan be overdrawn. WulŕT(Í997) notes that virtually every element of the "new spirituality" is familiar to traditional organized religions. He goes on to observe that much of the language commonly associated with the "spiritual" (e.g., journey, yearning, doubt, authority, rebirth, maturity) is just as applicable to the "religious." Lay people themselves do not generally appear to have trouble integrating the individual and institutional aspects of religious and spiritual life. In a recent study of diverse groups (e.g., mental health professionals, New Age church members, hospice nurses, nursing home residents, conservative and mainline Christians), Zinnbauer and colleagues asked the participants to select one of four options that best describes them: spiritual and religious, spiritual and not religious, religious and not spiritual, or neither spiritual nor religious (Zinnbauer, Pargament, Cowell, Rye, & Scott, 1996). Seventy-four percent of the participants labeled themselves spiritual and religious. Signs of tension between the individual and the institutionaTwere not Reli gious Pathways anil Religious Destinations 39 .apparent for the clear majority of jhis_sample. (Interestingly, the sub-sample of mental health professionals were more likely to label themselves "spiritual and not religious" than almost all of the other groups; another indication perhaps of an institutional religious alienation among mental health professionals, an attitude that sets them apart from those jhey serve). __ --, A smaller proportion of our sample tl9%J/Mid label themselves "spiritual and not religious." However, even though this group was less 'InvolveS than others in congregation-based beliefs and practices, they were ^^^j^Řk* fk.aix others to participate in nontraditional group activities, such as meditation^healin^or voga group_s. In a similar vein, over 400 new spiritual associations have developed in just the late 1980s (see Hood, Spilka, Hunsberger, & Gorsuch, 1996). Clearly, a number pJLgeople are searching fo£^gnificajnce_j9Jits.ide of traditional institutions. Far from seáTcíung aTone, however, they are coming together to form new groups, groups that are supportive of individualized, subjective, and nontraditional experiences related to the sacred. Although it is easy to overlook, the individualj^aňorLofreligious experience ^occurring within a social context that encourages a pnva-tizaúon o£ fg_ith (Berber, 1967), Religion continues to be experienced and expressed not only intrapersonally, but interpersonally as well, by dyads, families, groups, congregations, communities, and cultures. In this book, I have chosen to rely on the term "religion" in its broadest sense to encompass personal and social, traditional and nontraditional, and helpful and harmful forms of the religious search. When speaking about religion in its institutional sense, I will refer to religious organizations, denominations, and traditions. The term * f "spirituality" will bejj^e^Js^fcscrjbe the central function of religion— I the searcV for„^hg,,„sacred. Spirituality and religion are not polar opposites or competitors from this perspective. They are, instead, intimately connected. Many Shapes, Many Sizes The ways of emotion, cognition, behavior, and relationship are not independent of each other. They come together to form different kinds of religious pathways. It is somewhat misleading then to speak of religion as a way of feeling, thinking, acting, and relating. There are a variety of religious pathways, too many to consider here. But we can examine some of the features that make them so distinctive. .^rs^religjous paths vary in their connectedness to the sacred. Through the practice of prayer, the individual attempts to experience the divine directly. Protestant historian Friedrich Heiler (1932) defined 40 Ä PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION prayer in its essence as a "living communion of man with God, bringing man into direct touch with God into a personal relation with Him" (p. 362). Other religious practices, however, center around symbols and rituals that link the individual to God. In similar fashion, religious feelings may be attached directly to the deity, as in Otto's mystérium tremendum, or to the beliefs, rituals, practices, symbols, and communities built around God. Reading a passage from the Bible, seeking spiritual counseling, genuflecting before an altar, caring for the homeless, visiting a shrine, chanting a mantra—each-o£-th£se^xperiences may be one step removed from^God, but each can take on a sacred connotation by virtue of itsJQivjne associatioi^r^ici each has the potehtíaTto elicit a wideP raňgeoFTeelTngs, "tröhi sorrow, hatred, and fear to surprise, joy, and compassion. (^£S2S^^^ÍÍSJ5HL£^^-^a^X ÍH ^h^Íř.-ý#P_°/ř^ce and embeddedness in JJeojAes' lives. Religion can become an overarching way of life, one that connects the sacred to the daily episodes of living, the past to the present, the present to the future, and the person asleep to the person awake {Wuthnow, 1976). Religion can also be restricted to particular points of transition, times of the year, or situations. It may focus on "only the things that seem orderly or pleasant: lovely woods, vales with sheep grazing, but not storms at sea or a forest fire" or "birth, marriage, childbearing, and death, but not the events in between" (Pruyser, 1968, pp. 7^8). (Ťhířa^ religious paths vary_in the way tbeyareformed. Brown (1987) concludes KisHbook on the psychology oř religious belief by noting that in one sense people seem "to create their own religion and in another they react to what is made available to them" (p. 218). For some, religion grows out of active searching and questioning. Practices are designed and redesigned, old congregations are left behind and new congregations joined, and beliefs are tested and reformed in the laboratory of life experience. For others, religious beliefs, rituals, and affiliations are passively accepted, handed down from generation to generation like other values, traditions, and assumptions about the worldv„_:--v /Fourth rel^ipus. paths, vary in.the way. they'are heldx For some, religious rituals and conceptions, once formed, become more a way of knowing the world than thinking about the world. This is the point Geertz (1966) makes when he describes religious beliefs as "really real," Fol^öfTier^however,"religion is not as compelling. It is held more loosely and uncertainly. Consider the ambivalence voiced by an articulate adolescent from Nicaragua: Reli gioue Pathways ana Religious Destinations 41 [I] sometimes doubt whether God really exists or cares. I don't understand why he lets little children in Third World countries die of starvation, of diseases that could have been cured if they would have had the right medicines or doctors. I believe in God and I love him, but sometimes I just don't see the connection between loving God and a suffering hurting world. Why doesn't he help us—if he truly loves us. It seems like he just doesn't care. Does he? (Kooistra, 1990, pp. 86, 88) Although we may be capturing this adolescent in the midst of religious change, questions and uncertainty can become enduring hallmarks of religion (Batson et al., 1993). /fínallyyreligious paths vary in their content. We could illustrate this poirn^ThfT5ugnt^e^nTangIy "different religious conceptions and practices of the world. But in a culture as religiously diverse as ours, most of us have some appreciation for the fact that the sacred is viewed and worshipped in many ways. On the other hand, few of us are aware of the rich and varied forms of social life to be found in religious systems. Because we rarely step outside of our own religious communities (apart from the brief excursion into another congregation for a wedding, confirmation, or funeral), we may fail to appreciate that religious congregations adopt as many different personalities as individuals do. Some congregations develop complex hierarchical bureaucratic structures that would rival those of the government. Others are simple and communal. Some congregations set themselves apart from the larger community. Others are more a part of the larger society, supporting secular institutions and tolerating different religious perspectives. Some congregations encourage members to share their deepest problems with their fellow members. In other congregations, personal problems are kept to oneself or shared in a private meeting with the pastor. What congregation a jperson belongs to does make a difference for the mental health, perjSonaJityjjaríďTéT^ members (Maton 8c Rappaport, 1984; Pargament, Ťyler, ŠÍ Steele, 1979a; Pargament, Echemendia, et al., 1987; Pargament, Silverman, Johnson, Echemendia, &C Snyder, 1983). Religious paths come in many shapes and sizes. Having stressed their differences, though, it may be easy to lose sight of what these diverse religious pathways have in common. Pathways as Functional Mechanisms AlLreligious pathways are methods ofseeking significance. The thoughts, actions, relationships and feelings"that make up these pathways are 42 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION purposeful mechanisms for achieving valued ends. Let us consider a few examples. The_3gyjiL_sacrament_s_jjf the Roman Cathohc„Chujrdijoi£er_a_a^ t(^cojm^ectj^€U>ej:soja..t.Q.the spiritual realm throughout the lifesrjan. Each sacrament serves a specific end tailored to trie evolving needs of the individual. Through baptism we are spiritually reborn; through confirmation we grow in grace and are strengthened in faith. Having been regenerated and strengthened, we are sustained by the divine food of the eucharist. But if we become sick in soul through sin, we are healed spiritually through penance, and healed spiritually as well as physically, in proportion as it benefits with soul, through extreme unction. Through orders the Church is governed and grows spiritually, while through marriage it grows physically. (Denzinger, 1957, cited by Oden, 1983, p. 112) Relationships are another set of mechanisms in the search for significance. Take the example of pastoral counseling. Although the process may lead in many directions, it is the relationship between the individual and the pastor and between the individual and God that is often central to change. Christian counselor David Carlson (1988) illustrates this point. Building on a biblical story, he asks his clients to imagine that Jesus has come to their house for lunch and that they have the following experience: "You are amazed at how gentle the voice sounds and his face looks. . . . You take this opportunity to tell Jesus how lonely and guilty you feel. He listens and offers encouragement to face who you are and what you have done that makes you feel that way. . .. Jesus, God's son, offers you his love and forgiveness" (p. 208). The purpose in Carlson's story is clear. He is encouraging his clients to experience Jesus Christ as a nurturant, forgiving parent. Religious feelings, too, can serve as means toward significant ends. Eighteenth-century theologian and preacher Jonathan Edwards does his best to induce fear in his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God": "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked" (Faust & Johnson, 1935, p. 164). Once again, there is purpose in the use of religious feeling here. By bringing God's presence frighteningly close to the members, Jonathan Edwards tries to move them to Christian life. Even the mystérium tremendum of Otto, this sine qua non of religious experience, can serve important purposes. Heschel (1986) writes: "Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite Religious Pathways and Religious Destinations 43 significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal" (p. 135). These are only a few of the many ways in which religion reaches out to the significant in life. Other ways religion conserves and transforms significance in times of stress will be detailed later in the book. Some Final Thoughts about Religious Path-ways The metaphor of a pathway is almost universal in the world's religions. There are many different kinds of paths and ways to approach them. While some people will never take a religious road, others will cross one at different points in time. Still others will never leave it. Some people will follow a religious course that rarely intersects with other paths, while the religious journey of others will converge with other paths in life. The paths themselves are far from uniform. Neither are they necessarily straightforward. Made up of feelings, thoughts, actions, and relations that^ combine in*many dirterěnFways; religious paths ate rnulťídimén-jsional and diverse. Many of them are well established, providing identifiable markers for people to follow. Nevertheless, some people prefer to branch off the more heavily traveled trails and go their own way individually or collectively. This process is not easy. It takes time to build religious paths. They grow out of a dynamic meeting of individual, situational, and larger social forces. Diverse as they are, all religious pathways are functional, designed to reach significance, to hold on tort once it is round, and to discover new lorms or significance when old ones are lost. But as we will see later, some paths are better designed than others; thus, it is jje^ssaxy^jiot only to describe and understand jreligious,paths, fout to evaluate them as well. """"' ~" Important as the religious pathways are, they are not the full story. The search for significance in ways related to the sacred involves not only pathways but ^tinations, In fact, destinations ju~e_built J^nto religious^rjathways. After all, every path must lead somewhere. As yet, Tíowever, we have only alluded to some of these destinations. An exploration of the religious labyrinth would not be complete without a discussion of the ends people seek through religion. RELIGIOUS ENDS: DESTINATIONS OF SIGNIFICANCE When we talk about significance, we speak the language of value, worth, and motivation. Religious communities throughout the world are well versed in this vocabulary. Every organized religious system provides its 44 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION members with its own words to describe the ultimate ends of life. In spite of their differences, however, all of the world's great religions^ describe the sacred as their common entT poTňTr~'Csrit*T:r~a spiritual presence, Nirvana, everlasting~pařa3ise, the Kingdom of God, or eternal life, the spiritual realm lies at jhe heart of the search for significances the world's religions. Those who hold to these teachings look to the sa^reaTôTsig^nTícance in life. As Johnson (1959) wrote: "It is the ultimate Thou whom the religious person seeks most of all" (p. 70). Developing, maintaining, and fostering the relationship of the individual to the sacred is the essence of religious life. The Place of tlie Human, Tne Place or the Spiritual If that were all there were to it, then we could stop here. But religions have as much to do with people as they do gods. Where do human aspirations fit in this schema? Psychologists give one answer to this question, and the religions of the world give another. From the traditional psychological point of view, spiritual pursuits are not what they appear to be; the search for the sacred is, in reality, a reflection of more basic psychological and social motives. "Communion,with God," Leuba (1912) wrote in one of the first texts in the psychology of religion, "is a way of dismissing the .^worrying complications of this world, "oí^ escaping a^dreaded^ sense of isolation* of entering into a circle of solacing "and elevating.thoughts and feelings, of forgetting and of surnmmxting evil" (p. 8). There are, from this psychological perspective, no unique religious motives, only rejjgious.jnearis_.fpr gratifying human needs. At its very heart then, religion is a matter of psychology. To t\\e rejjg^pus mind, this kind of analysis iswjqng, plain and simple. In the effort to decipher religion, tne social scientist has neglected^ or distorted what is the essence of the religious world. By shaping religious phenomena to fit beneath a secular umbrella, the most impojv^ tajit -el©ment-oL religion—-the. spiritual—has been left out in the rain. Bloom (1987) makes the same point more cuttingly: "These sociologists who talk so facilely about the sacred are like a man who keeps a toothless old circus lion around the house in order to experience the thrills of the jungle" (p. 216). The religions of the world give a different answer to the question of the place of the sacred and the profane. Building on the firm belief that the sacred is real and that spiritual desire is a motive that can be reduced to no other, the world's faiths insist the search for the sacred takes priority over temporal concerns. The word "Islam" means submission jcithejwü]j>^ "Muslim" means one who submits. Hindus and Buddhists are encouraged to look beyond physical desires, psychol- Religious Pathways and Religious Destinations 45 ogical_j^antr_and worldly goods and to find the transcendent. The covenant of the JewlsrTp^opTé"with God is founded on His primacy^ a point firmly,established in the first prohibition of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). The ultimate priorities in living are made just as clear in the Gospels. Salvation is won not through oneself, others, or matters of this world but througrTTesus Christ. We have two very different answers to the same question. Tradi- i tioj^j£s^hology_^says_ the rejigious quest is illusory; spirituaiity--js ] actually an expression of more fundamental psychosocial motives and ; desires. The religious tradition argues back that psychology has replaced the transceridentSvith the self and, in this sense, elevated the human to lhe~ level of the göds. Not only is the sacred real, the religious tradition counters, it rnu^talso^^recede the profane as the directing force in life. Small wonder that psychological and religious worlds can find themselves at such loggerheads. Fortunately, there are grounds for reconciliation within each tradition. On the psychological side, a few empirical studies have begun to provide a rationale for treating spirituality as a motivation in its own i right. Factor analytic studies have identified spirituality as a distinctive \ motivation. For example, Gorlow and Schroeder (1968) identified eight types of religiously motivated people: Humble Servants, Self-Improvers, Family-Guidance Seekers, Moralists, God Seekers, Socially Oriented Servants, and Intellectuals. Welch and Barrish (1982) found that these different types of motivation were also associated with a distinctive set of religious and nonreligious behaviors. Other studies suggest that spiritual motivation is not inconsistent with other psychological and social purposes. In the Project on Religion and Coping, we presented our \ "^partTcfpants witna number of possible significant ends they might seek '. through religion, such as spirituality, meaning, self-esteem, comfort, and i intimacy (Pargament, Ensing, et al. 19?0}.„Scores on th^ipiritual purpose y <^|cäle5were correlated with scores for each of the other purposes. Our sample did not appear to have difficulty integrating the spirit with the flesh. The search for God seemed quite compatible with the search for other personal and social ends. On the religious side, most faiths offer a way to reconcile the spiritual with the human. According to many traditions, humankind contains a spark of the divineTTJod resides in the hearts of all beings as the innermost Self, it is said in Hinduism. People are precious, it is said in the Western tradition, because they have been made in God's image, and since human needs and aspirations are an inherent part of the divine creation, they too are worthwhile. From this vantage point there is nothing contradictory about the sacred and the profane. Caring for 46 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION oneself, justice, love, altruism, meaning, and self-actualization—each of tl^s£~j^i^JHHttaa-£aa]s..eaji Jjecome "spiritualized" tfooujjü^tsjasj^qj^-tion witJ^íhťL$äcred. ~™~" ^^^yS^ÚQJXl^y^Ttli^ious traditions, there is nothing inherently wrong with human desires or contradictory aBoutTuiman ancí sp^rjj^AaJ eriHšTmract, the two can Be difficult to disentangle. Muhammad says: He who honours the learned, honours me" (Gaer, 1958, p. 238). In Christ's Sermon on the Mount, we hear: "Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called God's children" (Matthew 5:9). In the Book of Psalms, the search for God is interwoven with the attempt to satisfy the most basic of human longings. Deep-felt expressions of love and thanksgiving for the Lord are accompanied by pleas for wisdom, for forgiveness, and for comfort and safety. The sacred, the ultimate end of the world's major religions, is not disconnected from the workings of the world. Most religious traditions are^fundamentally concerned about earthly matters, espéciaTIyTiunian-Iffiai» f^J^ xhere^is .,^pm.etJiing of the divine in humanity. And fust as the advance of the spiritual kingdom advances Humankind, the advance of humanity can advance the spiritual kingdom. Human desires, needs, and . values of many sorts then can become spiritually significant. Once they * do, they take on a different meaning: "Thereligious maiij' Viktr^rJIj^mJd * (i2Miwriies> experiences life "not. simply as a task, but as amission" (p. xv). We conclude then that there is room for both spiritual and human destinations in the religious search for significance. It is true that the sacred can be sought to the exclusion of the profane. It is just as true that the profane can be sought to the exclusion of the sacred. But the two can be pursued together as well. As we consider some of the psychological and social ends people seek through religion, we will see that the search for personal and social enrichment is not necessarily inconsistent with the search for God. Tne Variety or Personal ana Social Ends or Religion William James (1902) was a strong believer in the multiplicity of religious motives. He asked: Ought all men to have the same religion? Ought they to approve the same fruits and follow the same leadings? Are they so like in their inner needs that, for hard and soft, for proud and humble, for strenuous and lazy, for healthy-minded and despairing, exactly the same religious incentives are required? Or are different functions in the organism of humanity allotted to different types of man, so that Religious Pathways anil Religious Destinations 47 some may really be the better for a religion of consolation and reassurance, whilst others are better for one of terror and reproof? It might conceivably be so. ... (pp. 326-327) Although James had a tremendous impact on the scientific study of religion, the notion that different people seek different things from religion remains surprisingly radical. Typically, theorists in this area have identified a few monolithic functions of religion that they assume to be true for all people (Paden, 1988). In fact, how the ends of religion are conceived is oftentimes one of the most definitive characteristics of the theory. There is a problem, however, in positing singular, universal religious ends: Religious phenomena of all sorts must be twisted to fit within one particular mold. We run less risk of distorting religious experience if we make a different assumption—that religion serves different purposes for different people. Consider, for example, the responses of our participants in the Project on Religion and Coping to the questions we asked them about the ends they sought from religion. The average scores on the religious purpose scales are shown in Figure 3.1. As can be seen, people looked jo religion for more than one thing in .„life. They did not focus solely on the spiritual purpose. Neither did.theyjook exdusiyely to any particuTaF personal or social end. Of course, we can raise serious questions about how accurately people are able to identify and report on their own religious motivations. But if there is any merit to these self-reports, then they suggest that there is no single universal religious end. A comprehensive review of the many possible ends of religion would go well beyond the scope of this book. Having already defined the centrality of the spiritual end of religion, I will now briefly describe some of the significant personal and social destinations commonly, but not universally, associated with religion. Religion ana the Search jor Meaning From the earliest of times, people have tried to find orderliness, beauty, and reason in the world (Boorstin, 1983). The ancient Egyptians visual-ized Hie "earth as an egg, protected at night by the moon. The ancient Peruvians described the world as a square with a ridge-like roof inhabited by God. The early inhabitants of India believed the earth rested on four elephants standing atop the shell of a great tortoise. Today we see the world in very different ways, but most of us continue to assume that the universe is in fact ordered and intelligible. The religions of the world share this assumption. Though their 48 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION visions differ, every tradition depicts a meaningful world and encourages Jtsjmeiniieja_lCi.ÍLuX3n,äJiyj;J?y tn*s mean^nJ- Much of classic religious literature takes the form of a dialogue between the divine and a seeker of meaning, the perplexed individual who wonders why there is evil, pain, and inequity in the world and how one should live amidst so much confusion. Many people look to religion for meaning. In one study, more than 2,000 people were asked why they were religious. The most common answer was that "religion gives meaning to life" (Braden, cited in Clark, 1958, p. 79). Other researchers have also found that religious involvement is associated with a greater sense of purpose in life (see Paloutzian, 1981) and a belief that the world is just (Rubin & Peplau, 1975; Sorrentino Sc Hardy, 1974). The number and popularity of books written in the past decade with titles such as "Where Is God When It Hurts," '"When Bad Very Jmpoitant Purpose 5 of Religion General Purposes of Religion FIGURE 3.1. What people say they look for from religion. Religious Pathways and Religious Destinations 49 Things Happen to Good People," and "Why Me, Why Anyone" also suggest that many people turn to religion for meaning. Geertz (1966) believes meaning giving is the most essential function of religion. In his classic paper, entitled "Religion as a Cultural System," he said a minimal definition of religion would not be a belief in God, but a belief that God is not mad. People of different culturesjnay be able to deal withmany conditions iň~^tv1ng,'''rmt"trľey cannot deal with_the uninterpretable—the womanwho suffers the deaths of her mother, father, Juid children or the withdrawal of God from humanity as trie result of a small offense. Religions of all kinds ensure that these problems of bafflement, suffering, and injustice are not ultimately incomprehensible. "The effort is not to deny the undeniable—that there are unexplained events, that life hurts, or that rain falls upon the just—but to deny that there are inexplicable events, that life is unendurable, and that justice is a mirage" (pp. 23-24). In essence, religion offers meaning in life. Religion ana the Search for Comfort Freedom from worry, protection from jpain, relief from guilt and self-dourjt, reassurance that hře~wIITňot push the individual beyond the point oT~ěh3urance—to many irrindsj these are the primary purposes of retígtoTT: Thtš'was (Sigmund Freud's view. He believed religion offered fwolcíncis of comfortTa~pTöte£f1Ön from the dangers of the world and a protection from the dangers of human impulse itself. A Shelter from the World FřetrcH 1927/1961) maintained that people turn to religion, albeit unconsciously, out of a sense of helplessness. Cataclysm, storm, disease, and death mock human efforts at control. Without the gods, people are left to fend for themselves against these superior powers. But with the gods, they can take comfort. Freud (1927/1961) asserted that religious beliefs and practices provide some respite from tension and anxiety. The outpouring of emotion at a religious gathering, the repetition of behavior in the religious ritual, and the explanation of the workings of the universe within religious dogma all serve to cushion the individual from life's pain and uncertainty. In this sense, he accords a limited value to religion. But, as is well known, Freud felt religion is ujt]mately__a..„childisJi^wiorig-^ásá^^^íLÍÍLí!16 problems of living; he preferred that people face their state of helplessness head on through an "education to reality" (Freud, 1927/1961, p. 63). Qbviouslvr organized religions do not share this view. Indeed, they encourage their members to seek and find protection and comfort from 50 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION the world through their faith. In one early content analysis of about 3,000 Protestant hymns, Young (1926) found that the majority of hymns dealt with one of two motifs. Thirty-three percent focused on the return to a loving, protective God, as we hear in the following hymn: Leaning on the everlasting arms, Leaning, leaning, Safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Twenty-five percent of the hymns reflected the comforts and_r^wards_the Individual would experience in the world to come. ť. Ä Shelter from Human Impulse' Freud (1927/1961) went one step further, asserting that people look to religion for protection not only from the terrors and cruelty of nature, but from human impulse itself. There are, he held, destructive instincts in everyone. Uncontrolled, these drives pose a threat to the survival of civilization. Unrestrained, these drives also threaten to overwhelm the individual with guilt and worry. The religions, Freud believed, curb^the human appetite and, in the process, defend against the socia[_dangers and anxiety rooted in the unmitigated expression of instinct. That religion encourages people to moderate their impulses seems beyond dispute. As noted earlier in this chapter, the major faiths of the world will not abide self-indulgence. It is, for instance, the theme comjmorM:o .each of the Seven Deadly Sins—pride™envy, wrath, sloth, cove^o^sQÉSs^^gliittony, ancTTečherj^^However, religions generally "find fault with human needs not for the psychological and social reasons proposed by Freud, but because, when overindulged, they separate the_ individual from .Qpcj,- Listen to this admonition about anger in its extreme, taken from the Zohar, the Jewish Book of Splendor: "One, who in his ire cares nothing for the welfare of his soul, uprooting it and letting it be replaced by the impure domination, such a man is a rebel against his Lord ... he tears and uproots his soul in his heedless rage, and allows a 'strange god' to usurp its place within him" (Schimmel, 1980, p. 262). The religions will not tolerate idolatry. There can be no barrier between the individual and God, not even human need. By keeping instinct in its place, God remainvin His. v Empirical.studies have also tied religious involvement to indicators of impulse control, such as lower rates of premarital and extramarital sexual activity, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide (see Payne, Bergin, Religious Pathways and Religious Destinations 51 Bielema, 8c Jenkins, 1992, for review). Of course, we can only infer from these studies that people seek restraint and relief from their own impulses through religion. Religious involvement could be motivated by the desire for closeness with people rather than the desire for self-control; the improvements in mental health that follow could simply be an unintended but desirable consequence. Or perhaps people seek both closeness and comfort. Motivations do not have to be simple or clean. Here we are only suggesting that the search for comfort is one end of religion. Whether this is the whole story, however, is another question. Religions are far from happily-ever-after storybooks. Fearsome images .of hell, vengeance, and slaughter seem to be as plentifuim the religious literatures of the_Eastand West as soothing ones (see Camporessi, 1991). Geértz (1966) puts it this way: "Over it's career religion has probably disturbed men as much as it has cheered them; forced them into a head-on, unblinking confrontation of the fact that they are born to trouble as often as it has enabled them to avoid such a confrontation" (p. 18). And empirical studies have found, in some instances, religiousness to be'ašsocíaigd„with heightened guilt, anxiety, and distress (see "Pressman, Lyons, Larson, & Gartner, 1992; Spilka, Flood, 6c Gorsuch, 1985). In short, while religious involvement can be consoling, it can also raise diäc^iglin^^cijiestions ancT demands oF its own. The person'who looks to religion solely for"comfort may go away disappointed. Religion ana the Search for Self Although religions spurn the arrogance that comes with exclusive self-preoccupation and exaggerated self-opinion, they still see something of the divine within the self. Some important implications follow for the individual: He owes himself self-respect, a dignity of thought and action befitting one in whom burns a spark of God. And he is under the duty to express his individuality. For bearing the divine image, he bears it uniquely.. . . Therefore he is obliged to discover and develop his uniqueness. Otherwise, to all eternity some aspect of the divine nature shall have been left latent and unfulfilled. (Steinberg, 1975, p. 70) To find oneself, ft?.,.resrject..oneself, and to. strengthen and actualize oneself, from this perspective, become religious ends. These ends are apparent in Erich Fromm's (1950) description of humanistic religion, a religious form he contrasts favorably to authoritarian religion. The latter, Fromm said, represents an indulgence in 52 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION dependency, a projection of the best of ourselves onto God at the expense of the strengths we do have. To appreciate one's limitations is one thing, but to demean ourselves and worship the powers we rely on is another. Humanistic religion makes no such demand: "Man's aim in humanistic religion is to achieve the greatest strength, not the greatest powerlessness; virtue is self-realization, not obedience" (p. 37). Fromm finds elements of humanistic religion (and authoritarian religion as well) within many of the world's faiths: the Buddhist precept that knowledge and understanding must grow out of personal experience; the teaching of Jesus that "the kingdom of God is within you"; and the Jewish biblical tradition of human autonomy and divine accountability. Some writers feel that Fromm has made a religion out of the self. I do not read him that way. Fromm is not dismissing God here; he simply assigns the divine a different role. God represents an ideal, a vision of what people should strive for in living. In this sense, the self to be realized in humanistic religion is a self intimate with God. If people involve religion in their search for self, then (to the extent they are successful), we should also find signs of a tie between the two. This is a tricky area of study, however, for the major religions encourage a particular kind of self-development, a self connected to the divine, not a self devoted solely to its own glorification. Watson and his colleagues (Watson, Hood, Morris, 6c Hall, 1985) have suggested that the equiyjo^ cal and, at times,.negative relationships between religiousness and indices of self-esteem and self-actualization may be due to an antireligious bias embedded in the measures of self-functioning. For example, severalof the items in the Personal Orientation Inventory, a widely used measure of self-actualization, are antireligious in nature (e.g., "People need not always repent their wrongdoings"; "I am not orthodoxly religious"). Others depict an impulsive, happy-go-lucky person, unfettered by social standards. Not surprisingly, when measured in this fashion, self-actualization is incompatible with religious commitment. However, W^jgon et aL JJ^2SS^,i^á,jhM^-^-Á^íemat-pkxure emerges when less religiously biased measures of self-functioning are used or when the antireligious dimension is statistically controlled. Then the relationship "Between self-functioning and religious commitment becomes more positive. Similarly, when we asked people in the Project on Religion and Coping what they seek from religion, many were not hesitant to say they look to religion for their own development. In fact, the search for personal growth through religion was endorsed by church members to a greater degree than any other end, with the exception of the spiritual purpose. I think it is safe to conclude that self-development is another religious end for many people, but remember that this is often a particular kind of self, a self oriented to the sacred. It is important to add that the search for self does not take place in Reli gious Pathways and Religious Destinations 53 isolation. Identity, Erik Erikson (1980) noted, is both a psychological and a social phenomenon: "It connotes both a persistent sameness with oneself . . . and a persistent sharing of some kind of essential character with others" (p. 109). People look to religious groups in part to help "constitute themselves" (cf. Bellah et al., 1985). From the earliest moments in life when the newborn receives a name through religious ceremony to life's latter phases when old roles have been relinquished, religious groups offer opportunities for self-definition and development. Merely the act of affiliating with a religious group says something important about how people are likely to see themselves and how others are likely to see them. Consider the diverse images and associations members of different religious groups can bring to mind: the conservative Christian, the New Age devotee, the fyiormon, the orthodox Jew, the mainline Protestant, the devout Muslinj Identity is defined in part by the gt^i^^^bejrfflgjp. The large majority of people in theUníted States and Canada affiliate with a religious group (Bibby, 1987; Gallup &c Castelli, 1989). Of course, for many people this identification is less than total. JPjeJsjrigjiricl choosing selectively^ fromtheteachings and practices of a faith ^SL increasing^commonplace. But religion can be relevant even to those who remain unaffiliated, for what people stand against says as much about jffcpfjfy an Yfk°f ťh"y ^T^J^ The social religious context is, in this "anti-sense," critical to the development and maintenance of the identities of the atheist, the spiritual person who rejects organized religious involvement, and the religious woman who is, in most respects, conservative, but takes issue with the church's stand on abortion. Religious groups provide more than labels for self-definition. Every religious tradition represents a "community of memory" (cf. BeUärTet al., 1985) that Kelps its members tínaHŕnemseíves in time and place. Through the stories or the tradition, people learn about who and where they come from. They hear the accounts of exemplary individual and fallen figures who model the way life should and should not be lived. Embedded in the stories and rituals of every religious faith are general templates for living, maps that allow people to locate who they are, who they are not, and how they can best express their distinct identities. Thus, the search for self through religion should not be seen as a solitary pursuit. Bellah et al. (1985) make the point eloquently: "We find ourselves not independently of other people and institutions but through them. We never get to the bottom of our selves on our own. We discover who we are face to face and side by side with others" (p. 84). Religion ana the Search for Physical Health Peopjejook to reli^QP for^uiysifcal health as well as psychological and emotional well-being. Prayers for a rapid recovery from illness are 54 A PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION nothing out of the ordinary in the religious services of most faiths. In one survey of Protestants and Roman Catholics, 79% indicated that they ha^asJi£gLQ}daa*r£slQr^ health; this was the second most 'common_oJ_ja.il prayers (Stark & Glock, 197ÖJT In other parts of the world, thousands of people have taken religious pilgrimages in the search for healing at sites where miraculous cures are believed to have taken place, such as Lourdes, France, and Tiruchendut, India. Traditionally, people have looked as much to religion in their search for health as they have to medicine. Religions, new and old, have designed their own roles and structures to facilitate this search. Long before the development of medicíně äš we ÍČnow it, sTilrmafiíf were calling on spiritual powers to treat the sick and dying and to protect their communities from illness. Alternative forms of religious healing such as shamanism are not a thing of the past. They remain popular in many parts of the world, including the United States, where interest in faith..healing. New Age therapies, and transcendental meditation is high (see McGuire, T981?t~Reiigittus roles arT3°^tructures are also well integrated into the traditional system of health care, as illustrated by the presence of religiously based hospitals, hospital chaplains, and religious orders dedicated to serving the'"šíčk within many communities. The role of the physician itself can be vested with spiritual significance. "Value the services of a doctor for he has hisplace assigned him by the Lord" is a verse from the deuterocanonical Book of Ecclesi-asticus (38:1) that many physicians might enjoy posting in their waiting rooms. Finally, as we will see later in the book, organized religions are able to draw on a variety of coping methods to help the sick and frail understand and come to terms with their conditions. ReHjjoj^s^,tjadj:|ji5)_ns are interested in more than the alleviation of pain and suffering. They pnjrü,Qte healthy lifestyles among their members: Mormons are told to stay away from alcohol and caffeine; Jews are instructed to avoid nonkosher foods; Seventh-Day Adventists are taught to be vegetarian; Parsis are directed toward late marriage and strict monogamy (see Levin & Vanderpool, 1989). And there is some evidence that religious groups are successful in their health-promoting efforts. Commitment to religious beliefs and practices has been positively associated with a variety of subjective and objective measures of health status for people affiliated with a broad spectrum of religious groups (see Levin, 1994; Matthews, Larson, & Barry, 1993). Of course, these positive effects are not necessarily the result of an active search for health through religion. Better physical health could be simply ^-by-product of other religious goals and processes. Perhaps it is an outgrowth of the individual's attempt to gain social support or behavioral control through a religious group. Perhaps the search for Religious Pathways and. Religious Destinations 55 spiritual connectedness, emotional comfort, meaning, or a sense of control has some healthy fringe benefits, such as physiological relaxation (cf. Benson, 1984) or potentially immunosuppression-countering effects (Achterberg, 1985; Mcintosh Se Spilka, 1990). Orjjerhaps.better health _is the result of some combination of factors (Hill &c Butter, 1995; McFadden &' Levin, 1996)ľ In any case, there is nothing illegitimate about the search for physical health from the perspective of most religious traditions. It is important to add, however, that this junderstanding of physical health cannot be separated from broader spiritual concerns. Physical health, as religions view it, is one part of a greater spiritual well-being: Christians are tola that their bodies are vessels that contain tne spirit of God and, as such, degerve glorification; many eastern religions speak of the unity of body and mind; and healing is defined by alternative religious groups as a process of becoming closer to God. In these ways, the search for physical health becomes more than the pursuit of bodily comfort. Like many seemingly worldly objects of significance, physical health can take on sacred value. ~~ " " " ""'