A Qualitative Investigation Of Religion And Spirituality Implications For Social Scientists And Psychotherapists

Religion and spirituality have recently become topics of discussion within the social sciences and among psychotherapists. This study has attempted to contribute to the ongoing discussion and research that has been conducted in this area by presenting descriptions and interpretations from a qualitative study involving two Christian denominations, i.e., Lutherans and Orthodox. From these observations and interpretations the researcher has constructed a rich, thick description of religious people's lived experiences of the terms religion and spirituality that has implications for social scientists and psychotherapists who have an interest in religion and spirituality. To be more specific, this research project (a) has served to reinforce the renewed interest that social scientists and psychotherapists have in the role religion and spirituality play in religious individuals and families lives, (b) has served to explicate how certain salient contextual information is often missed when social scientists and psychotherapists fail to understand the full meaning of the terms religion and spirituality from religious people's perspectives, (c) has served to further clarify how certain salient contextual information can be missed when therapists fail to address religion and spirituality with religious individuals, couples and family systems, (d) has served to assist social scientists and psychotherapists in their efforts to further conceptualize the interrelationship that exists between the terms religion and spirituality as perceived by religious people, (e) has served to stimulate further research that could lead toward a verification of the descriptions generated in this research, and (f) has served to facilitate more precise future research with probability samples.

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