Coping is a conscious effort to resolve a stress or a difficulty of intrapersonal or interpersonal nature, in order to manage or minimise stress or conflict. •When the effort to cope up is unconscious it could turn out to be a defence mechanism! Even conscious coping could be functional/ adaptive or dysfunctional/maladaptive.
Religion is one of the means used in coping – both functional and dysfunctional. For instance, Cope Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) has 15 conceptually distinct sub-scales/ dimensions of coping based on Folkman and Lazarus (1984), which include: active coping, planning, positive refraining, acceptance, humour, religion, using emotional support, using instrumental support, self-distraction, denial, venting, substance use, behavioural disengagement, and self-blame. Notice that religion appears in the list.
Pargament has made extensive contribution to the exploration of the role of religion in coping. According to him, seeking meaning (significance) is an important dimension of life, and related to wellbeing. Events and situations that threaten meaning cause stress. Coping is a successful way of dealing with stress. This is achieved either through conservation of significance or transformation of it. He sees religion providing resources for coping in the following ways:
- Prevention: Religious systems through its taboos prevent adverse situations;
- Support: Through God or community religion provides support from unpreventable adverse situations;
- Purification: Religious traditions provide mechanisms to purify themselves and re-establish wellbeing;
- Reframing: Providing another interpretation to sustain significance (eg. May be God is preventing me from some greater disaster…)
- Rites of Passage: Religions prepare adherents to face crisis through rites of passage (eg. Transitions, death);
- Conversion: Crisis situations may contribute to deeper conviction.
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