| By Drs. J.W.G., Lecturer & Pastoral Supervisor, (Sjaak/Jack) Körver Tilburg School of Catholic Theology, Tilburg University Post Conference Ressources PowerPoint – download here Audio Presentation – listen here CV – open here |
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Abstract
This paper deals with a research project on religious/spiritual/magical coping and lung cancer.
Lung cancer is a life threatening, unpredictable, and uncontrollable disease with far-reaching consequences in the physical, psychological, relational, and social dimensions. There are also many existential questions that arise during the disease and that have an enormous impact on the meaning of life. In this respect, religiosity, spirituality and magical thinking offer various coping strategies by means of convictions and moral rules, motivations and expected effects, rituals and texts, experiences and communities.
The study follows the study of Van Uden et al. (2007; 2009) that pays attention to religious coping of cancer patients explicitly. The project is a further exploration of the different forms of religious and spiritual coping and (lung) cancer. At the same time, it stresses some barely studied aspects of religious/spiritual coping (cf. Kwilecki, 2004):
• religious/spiritual practice or ritual
• former religious/spiritual experiences
• spiritual, magical and paranormal convictions and practices.
Also, this study stresses the specific Dutch religious/spiritual context. In this context people use other religious coping strategies than people from an Anglo-American context. The research project of Ahmadi (2006) in Sweden and the development of the Receptivity Scale by Alma, Pieper & Van Uden (2005) in the Netherlands represent examples of this attention in the typical West-European religious and spiritual context.
Our paper pays attention to the development and first results of the Spiritual & Magical Coping Scale in the coping process of lung cancer patients.
Drs. J.W.G. (Sjaak/Jack) Körver
Lecturer & Pastoral Supervisor
Tilburg School of Catholic Theology
Tilburg University
PO Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg
The Netherlands
Phone +31 13-466 3223
Mobile +31 6-3919 94 45
E-mail [email protected]