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Self-Forgiveness and Religious/Spiritual Struggles

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Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness

Abstract

Although religion and spirituality often bring comfort and hope, people can also experience religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles in multiple domains: divine, demonic, moral, interpersonal, doubt-related, and ultimate meaning. This chapter explores how these types of r/s struggles could relate to challenges and opportunities associated with various aspects of the self-forgiveness process. Our primary aim is to provide a conceptual overview and to generate testable hypotheses, with the broader aim of providing a foundation for more systematic empirical work in the future. We will focus on three aspects of the self-forgiveness process: acknowledging one’s perceived wrongdoing and accepting responsibility, apology/repentance and making amends, and releasing unhelpful negative thoughts and emotions. Although there are many possible ways that challenges with self-forgiveness might lead to r/s struggles and vice versa, successful attempts to work through these challenges could promote relational healing and personal growth.

We are grateful for funding from the John Templeton Foundation, Grants #36094 and 59916.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Julie J. Exline, Joshua A. Wilt, Nick Stauner, Valencia A. Harriott & Seyma N. Saritoprak

Authors
  1. Julie J. Exline
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  2. Joshua A. Wilt
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  3. Nick Stauner
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  4. Valencia A. Harriott
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  5. Seyma N. Saritoprak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie J. Exline .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Lydia Woodyatt

  2. Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

    Everett L. Worthington, Jr.

  3. School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Michael Wenzel

  4. San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA

    Brandon J. Griffin

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Exline, J.J., Wilt, J.A., Stauner, N., Harriott, V.A., Saritoprak, S.N. (2017). Self-Forgiveness and Religious/Spiritual Struggles. In: Woodyatt, L., Worthington, Jr., E., Wenzel, M., Griffin, B. (eds) Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60573-9_10

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