Reactions and Strategies of German Catholic Priests to Cope with Phases of Spiritual Dryness

We investigated strategies of 763 Catholic priests (response rate 36%) to deal with phases of spiritual dryness, specifically their reactions toward these feelings, and which strategies were used. Most priests have found strategies to cope with feelings of spiritual dryness. Those who have managed t...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Büssing, Arndt 1962- (Author) ; Sautermeister, Jochen 1975- (Author) ; Frick, Eckhard 1955- (Author) ; Baumann, Klaus 1963- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2017]
In: Journal of religion and health
Year: 2017, Volume: 56, Issue: 3, Pages: 1018-1031
Further subjects:B Spiritual dryness
B Strategies
B Life Satisfaction
B Coping
B Catholic priests
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:We investigated strategies of 763 Catholic priests (response rate 36%) to deal with phases of spiritual dryness, specifically their reactions toward these feelings, and which strategies were used. Most priests have found strategies to cope with feelings of spiritual dryness. Those who have managed to overcome these phases were stimulated “all the more to help others” and experienced “deeper spiritual clarity and depth.” Whatever strategy was chosen (we differentiated eight strategies in various combinations), there were no significant differences for priests’ self-efficacy expectation, transcendence perception or life satisfaction. Instead, we found significant differences for social support (F = 6.5; p < 0.0001) and somatization (F = 3.4; p = 0.002).
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-016-0333-5