Abstract: Pastoral work can be stressful, tough, demanding, sometimes misunderstood, and often underappreciated and underpaid. Ministers devote themselves to caring for their congregations, often at the expense of caring for themselves. Studies consistently show that physical health among clergy is significantly worse than among adults who are not in ministry. Flourishing in Ministry offers clergy and those who support them practical advice for not just surviving this grueling profession, but thriving in it. Matt Bloom, director of the Flourishing in Ministry project, shares groundbreaking research from more than a decade of study. Flourishing in Ministry project draws on more than five thousand surveys and three hundred in-depth interviews with clergy across denominations, ages, races, genders, and years of practice in ministry. It distills this deep research into easily understandable stages of flourishing that can be practiced at any stage in ministry or ministry formation.

Abstract: Clergy play significant leadership, educational, and caregiving roles in society. However, burnout is a concern for the clergy profession, those they serve, and their families. Effects include decreased ministry effectiveness, lower sense of personal accomplishment in their role, and negative impacts on quality of family life and relationships. Given these risks, knowledge of the nature of Christian clergy’s current resilience and well-being in Canada may provide valuable intelligence to mitigate these challenges. In summary, the purpose of this research was to describe and analyze the status of clergy resilience and well-being in Canada, together with offering focused insights. Resilience and well-being surveys used by the co-authors with educators and nurses were adapted for use in this study. This instrument was developed to gain insight into baseline patterns of resilience and well-being and included questions across seven sections: (1) demographic information. (2) health status, (3) professional quality of life, (4) Cantril Well-Being Scale, (5) Ego-Resiliency Scale, (6) Grit Scale, and (7) open-ended questions. The findings provided valuable insights into clergy well-being and resilience that can benefit individual clerics, educational institutions, denominations, and congregations. The participants’ current resilience and well-being included high levels of resiliency, moderate grit, and satisfaction with health and wellness. Other significant findings included the impact of congregational flourishing and age. This study found that clergy well-being and resilience was doing well despite the increased adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications of this study are that clerics may need unique supports based on their age and also whether they serve in a congregation they perceive as flourishing.

Abstract: From a Christian theological perspective, intimacy with God is an important element of the Christian life. However, while other aspects of relationship with God have been examined in the psychology of religion, intimacy with God has not been the focus of study. In this project, we offer a conceptualization of intimacy with God as a construct, which integrates theological perspectives with literature on human intimacy processes. Both are needed in the development of an Intimacy with God measure. We then establish and confirm its factor structure, and evaluate its construct validity in online samples of Christians who indicated they experienced suffering. In addition, we demonstrate incremental validity over two etic measures of relationship with God with respect to well-being outcomes. We conclude that the Intimacy with God Scale captures an important aspect of relationship to God that has not been robustly captured in previous measures and that is associated with well-being.

Description: Originally the field of psychology had a threefold mission: to cure mental illness, yes, but also to find ways to make life fulfilling for all and to maximize talent. Over the last century, a focus on mental illness has often been prioritized over studies of health, to the point that many people assume "psychologist" is just another way of saying "psychotherapist." This book is about one attempt to restore the discipline's larger mission.

Positive psychology attends to what philosophers call "the good life." It is about fostering strength and living well—about how to do a good job at being human. Some of that will involve cheerful emotions, and some of it will not. There are vital roles to be played by archetypal challenges such as those involving self-control, guilt, and grit, and even the terror of death enters into positive psychology's vision of human flourishing.

Charles Hackney connects this still-new movement to foundational concepts in philosophy and Christian theology. He then explores topics such as subjective states, cognitive processes, and the roles of personality, relationships, and environment, also considering relevant practices in spheres from the workplace to the church and even the martial arts dojo. Hackney takes seriously the range of critiques positive psychology has faced as he frames a constructive future for Christian contributions to the field.

Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.

Abstract: Research interest in human flourishing continues to grow across multiple disciplines. In this article, we suggest means by which Christian theology can inform teaching positive psychology. We survey the field of positive psychology by characterizing and distinguishing theories regarding eudaimonic and hedonic accounts of flourishing. Christian theological approaches diverge from the emphases of psychology by grounding flourishing outside of the self. Love, properly understood, links various Christian proposals regarding the nature of flourishing and circumscribes the relationships in need of flourishing: with God, with each other, with ourselves, and with the rest of creation. From this follow several pedagogical implications: (a) grounding positive psychology in love, (b) linking love of God to psychology of religion and spirituality, (c) using love to unify the study of traits, (d) including emic versions of positive traits, (e) incorporating discussion of positive institutions, (f) tempering positive psychology with a theology of suffering, and (g) using cross-cultural perspectives.

Abstract: This paper presents an emic approach to the science of Christian flourishing, focusing on the individual domain as a foundational element for broader congregational and community well-being. While VanderWeele’s universal etic approach to human flourishing, involving six domains, provides valuable insights, it may not fully capture the nuances of flourishing within Christian contexts. Christian flourishing can be conceptualized through three interconnected domains: individual Christians, their congregations, and the communities they influence. The rationale for adopting an emic approach lies in the recognition that flourishing is a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the contexts in which they live. Religious communities, as a significant context for human existence, serve as both a setting and a pathway for flourishing. Given that Christianity represents the largest religious group globally, focusing on the Christian context offers a critical lens for understanding how faith communities contribute to human flourishing. Therefore, we introduce a new construct and corresponding measure—the Christian Flourishing Index—that reflects individual flourishing in alignment with the values of the Christian "abundant life," the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, communion with God, and a stewardship approach to material resources. While the conceptual framing and measurement template of the individual Christian flourishing broadly aligns within the original dimensions of VanderWeele, the proposed dimensions might be better framed as—contentment, health, meaning, character, relationships, and stewardship—reflecting the transformative influence of the Christian faith to anchor temporal conceptions of the good life to that which is pointed towards eternal ends in God. Although this paper centers on the individual domain, we invite further scholarly engagement on other domains (e.g., congregational, community) of flourishing within the Christian context.

Abstract: An important node of overlapping interest between contemporary positive psychology and Christian theology is the issue of human flourishing and the virtues one should pursue to experience this. In this essay, we argue that the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), one of the most important and influential portions of the Christian Scriptures, addresses human flourishing and virtue at a foundational level, providing resources for a robustly Christian understanding of positive psychology. In contrast to positive psychology in general, a Christian positive psychology will prioritize the God-ward (vertical) and Charity (horizontal) virtues, as well as maintaining a vibrant orientation to assured hope for a new era called God’s kingdom.

No abstract available.

Abstract: A key question that arises from studies on posttraumatic growth and resilience is whether suffering is necessary for growth or “does growth require suffering?” In a recent major systematic review and meta-analysis on genuine posttraumatic growth as well as genuine post-ecstatic growth, Mangelsdorf et al. attempted to answer this crucial question. Consistent with the growing literature on posttraumatic growth and resilience, Mangelsdorf et. al. pointed out two crucial and unresolved issues concerning whether and when negative events or adversity may lead to growth. The first issue has to do with the methodological problems and limitations of retrospective studies with cross-sectional designs that frequently use a self-report measure such as the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, which are the majority of studies in this area. The second issue has to do with whether growth requires suffering or if growth can also be the result of experiencing positive events. In order to adequately address these two issues, Mangelsdorf et. al. conducted the first large-scale meta-analysis and systematic review of longitudinal studies on what they described as genuine posttraumatic growth and genuine post-ecstatic growth, by including only studies that focused on major life events, with specific outcomes evaluated repeatedly over time, without depending on measures of self perceived change in a post hoc way. To conclude, both posttraumatic growth and post-ecstatic growth are important and valid from a biblical perspective.

Abstract: The Jesus Prayer, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” has a history dating back to the desert fathers of the early 4th century. Practitioners of a number of Christian traditions have used the prayer, also known as the Prayer of the Heart, as a means of growing in union with God. This review of the Jesus Prayer describes the history of its use among various religious groups, the scriptural rationale for its use, and perceived controversial theological considerations and conflicts for evangelicals. Further addressed are the perceived psychological and spiritual benefits of the practice, as well as barriers to the use of the prayer. We contrast the prayer with Buddhist meditation practices and further discuss the burgeoning empirical support surrounding Christian contemplation and the Jesus Prayer itself. Finally, this review concludes with potential clinical uses of the prayer and future directions for research and psychotherapy