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Religion and Bereavement: A Conceptual Framework
Robert Wuthnow; Kevin Christiano; John Kuzloski; John Kuzlowski
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
, Vol. 19, No. 4. (Dec., 1980), pp. 408-422.
Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8294%28198012%2919%3A4%3C408%3ARABACF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
is currently published by Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/sssr.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgThu Jul 5 00:03:26 2007
408JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGIONamong U. S. Catholics."
Sociological
Ryder, Norman and Charles Westoff
Analysis
29: 28-34. 1968 Relationship Among Intended, Expected,Renzi, Mario Desired, and Ideal Family Size: United1975 "Ideal family size as an intervening States
1965.
Washington, D.C.: Center forvariable between religion and attitudes Population Research.toward abortion."
Journal for the
Scanzoni, Letha and John Scanzoni
Scientific Study of Religion
14: 23-27. 1976
Men, Women and Change.
New York:McGraw-Hill Co.
Religion and Bereavement:
A
Conceptual Framework
ROBERT WUTHNOW, KEVIN CHRISTIAN0 and JOHN KUZLOWSKI*
Though many discussions have posited a relationship between religion and well-being among thebereaved, this relationship has not been examined fully or systematically. As a guide to suchinquiries, many of the concepts and research findings generated in other studies of religion may beapplied to the problem of bereavement. This paper presents a conceptual framework for examiningthe relationships between religious commitment and adjustment to bereavement. Drawing onliterature that has conceptualized religion alternatively as a source of meaning and as a source ofbelonging, it develops a number of hypotheses about the manner in which specific religious beliefs,moral commitments, experiences, and practices may influence levels of well-being among thebereaved. Some attention is also given to the role of funerary rites in the adjustment process.
Religion has long been regarded as a relevant factor in understanding bereavement(see Lindemann, 1944, for an early example). A few studies have examined thisrelationship empirically (Cavan,
et
aL,
1949; Parkes, 1972; Edwards
&
Klemmack,1973). But the kind of extensive research applied to other correlates of religiouscommitment has yet to be applied to the study of bereavement.Apart from the results of a few highly limited studies, the basis for makingjudgments about the relationship between religion and bereavement is restricted tothat which can be inferred indirectly from research focusing on related problems. Fromthis material and from the theoretical literature it can be inferred with reasonableconfidence that religion is likely to have an important bearing on the manner in whichbereaved persons cope with their bereavement. The following, in particular, point to thelikelihood of such a relationship.First, research has found that religious commitment (except measures affected bydeclining physical health) is particularly salient among older persons; that is, among
*Robert Wuthnow is Associate Professor, and Kevin Christian and John Kwloski are Doctoral candidates inSociology, Princeton University.
O
Journal for the Scientific Study ofReligion,
1980,19
(41:
408422
409
ELIGION AND BEREAVEMENT: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
those most likely
to
be confronted with bereavement (Wuthnow, 1976b; Roof, 1978b).Indeed, religion in one form or another appears to be a dimension of life that is virtuallyuniversal in this age group.Second, research has demonstrated that religious organizations function, alongwith family and community, as significant social support systems for many of theirmembers. Religious organizations perform this function by providing friendship ties(Lenski, 1961), by reinforcing localistic loyalties (Roof, 1978a), and by serving as"family surrogates" (Glock,
et
d,
1967).
Third,
religion has been conceptualized
in
the theoretical literature as a source ofsubjective meaning, a framework that helps
to
make reality understandable (Bellah,1970; Geertz, 1973; Greeley, 1972). Empirical evidence has shown positiverelationships between religiosity and feelings of purpose in life and well-being (Gurin,
et
aL,
1960: 245; Hadaway
&
Roof, 1978).Finally, research has generally (although not consistently) shown religiouscommitment to be higher among persons in crisis situations and among personsconfronted with subjective stress or anxiety (reviewed in Argyle
&
Beit-Hallahmi,1975: 52-57).In addition to whatever impressionistic notions may be held, these pieces ofevidence indicate that religion is likely
to
have a bearing on coping with bereavement.But they suggest only the likelihood of a relationship, not the nature of content of thatrelationship. It cannot be presumed that the relationship necessarily is positive. Nor isit at all clear how different beliefs, experiences, and practices may be associated withbereavement. We are, therefore, in the curious situation of having strong reason tosuspect that religion is an important factor to understand if ways of facilitatingadjustment among the bereaved are
to
be found, but research thus far has failed toreveal the main dimensions of this factor.The available empirical and theoretical literature does, however, afford some cluesabout the kinds of religious factors that warrant attention. As the foregoing suggests,some of the likely effects of religion on bereavement derive from the fact that religiousorientations seem
to
provide meaning, while others stem from the support or sense ofbelonging that religion may provide. The distinction between meaning and belongingis, in fact, one that has been employed usefully in other studies of religion (e.g., Greeley,1972; Roof, 1978a).
RELIGION AS
A
SOURCE OF MEANING
In the comparative study of modem religion, problems of bereavement, illness, andexistential anxiety
-
in short, "problems of suffering"
-
have occupied a centralposition at least as far as theoretical discussion has been concerned. These problems
are
said
to
raise "religious questions" in that they confront the believer with questionsabout the meaningfulness of his or her existence. Clifford Geertz (1973: 104) writes inhis celebrated essay on the definition of religion: "As a religious problem, the problemof suffering is, paradoxically, not how
to
avoid suffering but how to suffer, how to makeof physical pain, personal loss, worldly defect, or the helpless contemplation of others'agony something bearable, supportable
-
something, as we say, sufferable." Religions
of 00
Wuthnow Et Al - Religion and Bereavement - A Conceptual Framework
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