INVITED ESSAY: Death-Specific Religious Beliefs and Bereavement: Belief in an Afterlife and Continued Attachment

This article integrates findings from a wide variety of research to describe the roles of death-specific religious beliefs in the course of stress and coping in bereavement. First, a meaning-making approach to the stress-coping process is presented and used to illustrate how death-specific beliefs p...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Benore, Ethan R. (Author) ; Park, Crystal L. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2004
In: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Year: 2004, Volume: 14, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-22
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This article integrates findings from a wide variety of research to describe the roles of death-specific religious beliefs in the course of stress and coping in bereavement. First, a meaning-making approach to the stress-coping process is presented and used to illustrate how death-specific beliefs provide meaning to the appraisal of a death and influence the process of coping with that death. Then, the constructs of belief in an afterlife and continued attachment are introduced as death-specific beliefs influential in the process of coping with bereavement. Finally, the meaning-making stress-coping framework is used to review and integrate available literature on these beliefs, their correlates, and their possible functions in the course of bereavement. We suggest that death-specific religious beliefs are vital determinants of adjustment to bereavement, and that these beliefs should be regarded as a legitimate focus of investigation. We conclude with suggestions for future research.
ISSN:1532-7582
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1207/s15327582ijpr1401_1