Resilience in Religion and Spirituality (2019-2023)

PI: Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter

Description
The task of the coordination project is the organisational research management in the research group as well as internal and external communication. The aim is to (a) coordinate all the people involved, events, travels, publications, public relations and equality policies smoothly and formally. Thus, (b) the actual capacities of the research group can be used for substantive research. This is only possible if (c) potential professional, organisational or communicative differences and misunderstandings are perceived at an early stage and discussed appropriately.

The most important tasks of the TPZ include: The guarantee and motivating maintenance of continuing communication between the involved academic disciplines, between PIs, employees, external experts and especially within the group of young researchers.

Additionally, the academic communication with the public is a central task for TPZ. To this end, the coordination project plans the presentation of the common aim of the project, of the contributions specific to the disciplines and the translational objective in collaboration with all involved researchers, it edits these presentations towards specific target groups and includes them in a context-sensitive manner, adapted to the respective communication context.

The coordination project works together closely with TP0, which ensures the contextual and theoretical framing of the entire project and accompanies significant interdisciplinary problem constellations, decisions and solution approaches. In order to shape the work of this highly complex interdisciplinary research group as trouble-free, efficient and communicative as possible, the two coordnitaing projects TPZ and TP0 especially have to complement each other well.

PI: Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter

Description
Communication, interaction, pragmatism and critique are indispensable in our interdisciplinary research group so as to avoid the individual subprojects drifting away into their own professional logics and conducting research side by side instead of together. For that reason, subproject 0 serves to complement the organisational coordination of the theoretical interactions in the entire research group. The aim of TP0 ist to document and comment on research tasks, problems and results which arose in the course of the joint work.

TP0 takes the theoretical problem constellations from all subprojects and supports them with conceptual and theoretical clarifications. To achieve this, TP0 sifts through relevant interdisciplinary literature for the inividual context of the project, shortly emphasizes the connecting and differing aspects and proposes ways in which the respective constellation would make sense for the joint discussion.

TP0 started into the project with the development of a term and concept of an interdisciplinary hermeneutic of resilience narratives as well as the interdisciplinary reflection on the conception of experience, which is understood in highly divergent ways within the individual academic disciplines. Over the course of the project, the term "medio-passive responsivity" will be analysed, which may be a key term for the analysis of religious and spiritual processes relevant for resilience and holds the potential to complement the common, active resilience factors critically and correctively. Lastly, TP0 concerns itself with the relation of A-functionality, functionality and disfunctionality of religious and spiritual ideas, beliefs or rituals. This relation is central to the question of the potential orientation performance of narratives of resilience and their effect on experiences, but it is in need of interdisciplinary reflection. The question of functionality and functionisability of religious and spiritual ideas is highly controversial between the disciplines in respect to the theory of science, but it is nevertheless essential for the project.

Overall, TP0 maintains the theoretical framework for all subprojects.

PI: Prof. Dr. Judith Gärtner

Description

Subproject 1 "Resilience in Prayer: Lamentation as a Spiritual Expression of Fear and Confidence" tries to analyse resilience as a interpretational category for Psalms of Lamentation in the Old Testament. Working on and systematizing these texts, we follow the question of how they can be understood as narratives of resilience which do not only express distress, but also meaningful experiences within the conflict of enduring versus shaping this distress.

A prerequisite is an interdisciplinary definition of resilience, the development of which will be the first task of the overarching project. On the basis of old-testament anthropology and research in the history of religion, psalms of lamentation - especially the so-called "Krankheitspsalmen" focussing on the individual physical and mental suffering of a paradigmatic speaker - will then be analysed and evaluated on their suitability as narratives of resilience. The "Krankheitspsalmen" appear as promising basic material through their thematic focus on crisis as well as the form of lamentations. The former shows confrontation with the processuality and ambiguity of crises as experiences of powerlessness, while the latter is an expression of the struggle for the meaning of life.

The goal is to question language patterns and semantics within the psalms in search of narratives of resilience. Thus, through the qualification as narratives of resilience, the modern reader can better understand the old-testament texts and the psalms of lamentation - because of the complexity and intricacy of experiences of crisis - can contribute to the discussion of resilience and be integrated into present pastoral, therapeutic and medicinal interventions.

PI: Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter

Partner for cooperation: Prof. Dr. Simon Peng-Keller

Description

The cross and resurrection as narratives of resilience in theology and ecumenical spirituality

Which narratives can still be told when narration has met its end in the face of death and suffering - and in what way can those narratives become relevant for resilience? This is the question that subproject 2 will take a look at when considering "narratives of resilience", led by Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter and Prof. Dr. Simon Peng-Keller.

To this end, two elements of Christian tradition (the cross and resurrection) are being taken into account: in the diverse, polyvalent biblical stories of the "cross" and "resurrection", mostly found in the Passion and Easter stories, narrative elements telling of existential crises and dealing with them (without always resolving the crises) can be found. The "cross" and "resurrection" are understood as narratives relevant to resilience. The meaning of this is explained in dialogue with the other subprojects: Our understanding of resilience comes from narratives that appear relevant to resilience, all the while the specification of the term "resilience" changes our view of narratives relevant to resilience. The subproject focuses on two examples of different ways to deal with the narratives of the "cross" and "resurrection": the existential and interdisciplinary theology of paul Tillich (1886-1965) and the spiritual practice of the ecumenical Communauté de Taizé.

Tillich thinks through the "cross" and "resurrection" as symbols of Christian faith within his existential-ontological programme: It takes "Courage to Be" to know oneself to be accepted and affirmed in spite of existential desperation and futility. This attitude aims at a way of overcoming crises which includes - ultimately and contrafactually - an imperative of hope, all ambiguities of life notwithstanding. In what way this attitude of hope and (self-)affirmation can still be relevant for whom and in which situations, will be discussed in the course of the entire project.

In Taizé, the narrative of the cross is a central element of the liturgical and spiritual practice, condensed in the weekly "prayer at the cross", which will serve as an example studied in this project: In what way can the spiritual and emotional experiences that are expressed in this practice be described as a way of processing crises or become crises in and of themselves? What happens if existential concerns are physically and without reflection distance through "brought before the cross" in a narratively and normatively highly loaded context?

The "cross" and "resilience" as narratives of resilience are connected in a complex way: What does it mean to talk of the cross and resurrection in such a way that the resurrection is already included in the description of the cross, and talk of the resurrection reminds you of the cross? Verbally, this is difficult to implement. But in graphic design this becomes more apparent: the dark resonates in the light, the light breaks through the dark, and both cannot be reduced to one another.

PI: Prof. Dr. Thiemo Breyer

Description

Subproject 3 "Empathy and Resilience. Phenomenological Studies on the Potentials of Resilience of Interpersonal Resonance" deals with the question of how interpersonal relationships can have effects that are either supporting or hindering resilience. The subproject takes a look at empathy as the medium of interaction and the mutual communication between people and in a philosophical way tries to clarify which dimensions of empathy and experienced connectedness between people can be distinguished as experiences of resonance or as spititual self-conception and in what way these can be connected to dealing with experienced crises.

To this end, aspects of reciprocal resonance in different fields of health care are being studied and the importance of the construct of empathy in the theory of research is being reflected upon in the interdisciplinary research between medicine and theology. On the grounds of a theory of personified (inter-)subjectivity and using a hermeneutic approach, it is adressed how resilience can be defined as a structure of experiences and in what way empathy as an interpersonal phenomenon of resonance has to be included on the affective and cognitive level when dealing with crises. Current theories of the self and of empathy will be worked through, so that the corresponding forms of resilience can be defined more clearly on different levels and it can be analysed with which professional services of empathy and on which level medical and pastoral interventions accompany or allow the confrontation with crises.

PI: Prof. Dr. Dr. Jochen Sautermeister

Description

Subproject 4 "Mindfulness from an Anthropological Perspective" reflects on the relation between resilience, mindfulness and spirituality from an anthropological, conceptual perspective and studies its influence on enduring and weathering existential crises. First, an anthropological-conceptual analysis of mindfulness from a theological-ethical perspective that is oriented towards moral psychology takes place. Then, the qualities promoting resilience and the ability of mindfulness to handle crises and vulnerability - in the context of resilience as a practice of subjectification - are worked out from an theological-ethical perspective.

The aim is to, on the one hand, develop an anthropological-ethical criteriology in cooperation with the other subprojects and, on the other hand, to specify practice-oriented attitudes and practices of mindfulness.

PI: Prof. Dr. Franziska Geiser

Description
Question:
The project's gain is the innovative attempt to combine the rich potential of the common disciplines of humanities (theology, anthropology, phenomenology) on the intersection to clinical psychology, psychotherapy and palliative medicine with new approaches from hospice and spiritual care.

Description:
Resilience means the ability or talent inherent to some people to handle severe crises even under highly complicated individual, psychophysiological or social starting conditions. However, it is unclear whether the genesis of resilience depends on genetic or psychophysiological conditions and the familial-social environment or is the responsibility of pedagogy and management or coaching to facilitate resilience.

The research situation is already broadly distributed, but so far, in the discipline-specific approaches the common perspective of enhancement dominates: resilience as the implicitly desirable ability to quickly overcome critical experiences should be promoted, through pharmaceutical, therapeutic, advisory etc. measures. Here, the project joins in on the discourse, and the cooperative approach combining humanities and mediciine results in an hermeneutic perspective on phenomenons of crises which - the necessity of therapeutic assistance nonwithstanding - does not immediately pathologise critical experiences of powerlessness, anxiety, fear, despair, grief and loss, but is able to make polyvalent models for the analysis and interpretation of crises accessible.Thus, the research aims to identify and establish modes of enduring and shaping phenomena of powerlessness, fear and anxiety.

Aim:
Jointly working on a general theory of resilience sensitive to religion and spirituality to promote a corresponding practcie of resilience in medicine and therapy, pastoral and spiritual care.

PI: Prof. Dr. Lukas Radbruch

Description

A holistic palliative care is based on the four pillars of controlling symptoms, mental, social and spiritual support. This holistic approach is the frame for discussing the questions that go beyond the "explainable", but still are unavoidable for interdisciplinary treatment teams dealing with life-threatening diagnoses. The scientific challenge of these questionslies in how these constructs can be recorded and measured, and where measuring has its limits.

The project participates in the research on resilience by first investigating discipline-specific databases.Then, concepts relevant for palliative medicine - such as salutogenesis, resilience, coherence, quality of life, meaning of life - and interventions - such as therapy focused on dignity, procedures based on mindfulness, biography work - will be looked at from a discourse-analytic point of view. From the results, hypotheses are generated which will then be discussed by experts in the fields of the mentioned concepts and interventions. The surveys will be conducted in individual settings as well as focus groups. Additionally, focus groups with workers from specialised facilities in hospice and palliative care will take place.

In a second phase, the perspectives of patients and their relatives will be recorded via narrative and half-structured interviews. Finally, a grounded theory will be developed on the basis of the connections between the previously shown concepts and interventions. It aims to uncover possible incommensurabilities and to produce pointers for the development of potential measuring instruments.

The project is supported by the expertise of the external cooperation partner, and at the same time the originator of dignity-centered therapy, Prof. Dr. Harvey Chochinov.

PI: Prof. Dr. Constantin Klein

Description

Subproject 7 aims to empirically study the relations between resilience and the different facettes of spirituality by analysing a sample of people in mourning and to develop new instruments to measure spiritual well-being.

The complexity of both phenomenons necessitates capturing spirituality and resilience quantitatively as well as qualitatively. The study offers the opportunity of testing new measuring possibilities as well as using those instruments which proved expedient in preliminary works. In two phases, a total of N=300 people in mourning will be tested twice using a comprehensive questionnaire, while in a thrird phase a selected sub-sample aof n=30 persons will additionally be questioned in an interview about spirituality and religion.

A special focus of the sub-project concerns the study of spirituality which is seen as experiences and concepts of transcendence, spiritual coping or spiritual well-being and growth after experiencing a crisis (such as the death of a relative). Thus the characterisation of spirituality as interindvidually variing, dynamic and multidimensional relation to transcendence by the overarching project is met. In a similar way, the complexity and dynamic of resilience according to the formulated working definition is met by , on one hand, capturing resilience using existing and relatively mainstream measurements, which mostly concern themselves with resilience as an ability, and, on the other hand, using comprehensive interviews and instruments newly developed by subproject 5 to study resilience as a specific configuration of personality traits.

PI: Prof. Dr. Eberhard Hauschildt

Description

Within group discussions, subproject 8 studies how and using which narratives people in professional and volunteering caretaking raoles in clinics interact with vulnerable patients and try to strengthen their resilience. The potentially existing religious-spiritual level will receive special recognition because spirituality (or religion) takes place in similar interactive and dynamic processes.

Such processes often take place in crises in which emotionally pressing insecurities occur and which appeal to the environment, especially in clinical settings, for humanity and a response. Thus, group discussions with professional and voluenteering caretakers are a central element of subproject 8, and are evaluated using the Dokumentarische Methode after Ralf Bohnsack included in the standards of qualitative social research. The evaluation will be discussed with the other subprojects and the expected gains collected for the theory of spiritual and pastoral care. This is supposed to contribute to the common aim of the research group, to develop an interdisciplinary theory of resilience sensitive to religion and spirituality in order to encourage an equivalent practice of resilience in medicine, therapy, pastoral and spiritual care.

Subproject 8 is supported by the sociological expertise of Prof. Dr. Claudia Schulz, professor for theory and practice of pastoral care and social work at the Ev. Hochschule Ludwigsburg.