Citation

Klausli J. J. Psychol. Christ. 2019; 38(1).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Publisher Bookcrafters)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Since the beginning of the positive psychology movement in the late 1990s (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), research on several virtues and character strengths, such as forgiveness (Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010) and gratitude (Emmons & McCullough, 2004), has received extensive empirical attention. However, research on humility has progressed more slowly, likely due to problems defining and measuring the construct (Davis, Worthington, & Hook, 2010). Despite these difficulties, researchers are beginning to address these challenges by developing research programs to study humility (Davis & Hook, 2014; Worthington, Davis, & Hook, 2017).

Several research studies have focused on contexts in which humility might be difficult to practice, such as marriage (Ripley et al., 2016), leadership (Owens, Johnson, & Mitchell, 2013), and religion (Hook & Davis, 2014), the latter being the focus of the present article. Although religion can be perceived as a source of coping (Pargament, 1997) and benevolence (Johnson, Li, Cohen, & Okun, 2013; Johnson, Memon, Alladin, Cohen, & Okun, 2015), religion is also associated with conflict and violence (Juergensmeyer, 2003; Zhang et al., 2015). For example, people may draw on religious concepts to fortify their positions in arguments or power struggles. People might battle for the moral high ground, seeking to be seen by others as more righteous than their opponent. Others may use religious authority Correspondence regarding this (e.g., scripture and spiritual favor from leaders) as a method of influence.

Humility and Religion

Disagreements involving religious convictions may make humility difficult to practice, especially for individuals who are...

Language: en