Journal of Psychology and Theology
2011, Vol. 39, No. 2, 155-162
THE PERCEIVED ROLES OF GOD
DURING SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT
LARRY VANDECREEK and KENNETH Mottram
Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, Bozeman, MT
Ten women described their religious lives following the
suicide of a family member. Using their audio-record-
ed and transcribed interviews, this qualitative pilot
study describes their perceptions of God’s roles in the
suicide and their bereavement. Religious traditions
and Western culture contain ancient and contemporary
Christian teachings regarding suicide and the bereaved
respond to them and create their own attributions. The
analysis produced four themes: 1) contrary to ancient
Christian teaching, God as judge did not deny heaven
to their loved one, 2) God was in control, but was not
responsible for the suicide, 3) God provided individu-
alized spiritual care, and 4) God brought good out of
the tragedy. Larger and more detailed studies are
needed to clarify further how theological attributions
function within suicide bereavement.
‘F
ew realities are as central to the heart of reli-
gion as death” (Spilka, Stout, Minton, &
Sizemore, 1977, p. 169). Questions about
death beg for answers and religion is helpful because
“. . . causal explanation is the hallmark of religion”
(Spilka, Shaver, & Kirkpatrick, 1985, p. 1).
Religion is also helpful during bereavement
because it “attempts to create a conception of exis-
tence ... in which death is incorporated as a mean-
ingful element” (Wuthnow, Christiano, & Kuzlows-
ki, 1980, p. 410). A systematic review (Becker, et al.,
2007) concludes that 94 percent of 32 studies show
some positive effect of religious/ spiritual beliefs
during bereavement.
Grief due to suicide is a significant problem in the
U.S. In 2006, the last year for which data are avail-
able (American Association of Suicidology, 2009), at
This study was supported by a grant from the Gilhousen Family
Foundation, Bozeman, Montana to the Center for Research on
Chronic Health Conditions in Rural Dwellers, Montana State
University-Bozeman, College of Nursing, Bozeman, Montana
59715. The authors thank Clarann Weinert, Ph.D. and Carol
Craig, Ph.D. for their participation in this research. Correspon-
dence regarding this article can be sent to: Larry VandeCreek,
D.Min., 8654 E. Panorama Dr., Bozeman, MT 49715. Phone:
406-522-7586. Email: lvandecreek2001@yahoo.com.
155
Copyright 2011 by Rosemead School of Psychology
Biola University, 0091-6471/410-730
least 33,300 persons committed suicide (i.e., 91 per
day, 1 every 16 minutes). The American Association
of Suicidology (2009) also estimates that an average
of six family members/friends mourn a suicide.
Based on that assumption, approximately 4.5 million
suffered suicide related grief between 1980 and
2006, nearly 200,000 persons in 2006 alone. Further,
suicide is a unique, deliberate self-destructive act and
the bereavement process can be particularly difficult
(Jordan, 2001).
Christians believe that their death is not the end,
but rather a transition to a better life with God. This
gives death and bereavement transcendent dimen-
sions. As a result, the bereaved make faith-based
attributions (spoken or unspoken) concerning God’s
roles in their situation. During suicide bereavement,
they respond to traditional “ready-made” (Spilka et
al., 1985, p. 7) religious attributions concerning sui-
cide and create additional ones based on their own
beliefs. Their attributions may be helpful or con-
tribute to bereavement difficulties.
This study used a qualitative methodology to
explore these attributions concerning God, asking
the bereaved to describe their religious life after the
suicide of a family member. The project examined
their intrapersonal religious lives, the religious
aspects of their relationships to other family mem-
bers, and their experiences with established religious
communities and the clergy. The project’s compre-
hensive results appear elsewhere (VandeCreek &
Mottram, 2009). The present article refines an
aspect of those results by describing the perceived
roles of God during suicide bereavement.
THE LITERATURE
The Scriptures and Their Interpretation
The long history of interpreting the Hebrew and
Christian scriptures contributes to the perceived
roles of God involving suicide and this influences its
bereavement. The Hebrew Scriptures record sui-
cides, the exact number depending on how suicide is
156 PERCEIVED ROLES OF GOD DURING SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT
defined. These scriptures do not condemn or pro-
hibit it (Clemons, 1990).
The Christian New Testament provides no moral
condemnation for the one recorded suicide (i.e.,
Judas Iscariot) nor does it prohibit it (Clemons,
1990). A long and tangled history, however, evolved
as Christians struggled with persecution under
Roman rule. Some Christians committed suicide
rather than be captured, tried, tortured, and killed.
Others killed themselves to more quickly enjoy their
afterlife with God. While many regarded these sui-
cides as martyrs, St Augustine (c.413/2003)
“slammed the door shut on the right of individuals to
kill themselves by condemning the act as self murder
and therefore an pardonable sin” (Droge & Tabor,
1992, p. 3). Aquinas (c.1265/1981) fostered this
view, supporting Augustine’s attribution that God
denied heaven to those who died by suicide. Some
authors today continue to argue for this belief (Berry,
1997) while others (Clemons, 1990; Koch, 2005)
believe that the Jewish and Christian Scriptures take
a benevolent stance regarding suicide and the eternal
destiny of the victim. Catholics (e.g., US Catholic
Church, 2003) and Protestants (e.g., United
Methodist Church, 2004) are abandoning the Augus-
tine/Aquinas argument, but the Augustinian view-
point continues to influence the bereaved.
The Grief Literature
The grief research describes religious aspects of
bereavement (e g., Frantz, Trolley & Johll, 1996;
Klass, 1991), but it does not specifically pertain to
that caused by suicide. The suicide bereavement
research has grown since Cain’s (1972) landmark
book and includes comprehensive bibliographies
(McIntosh, 1985-86; McIntosh, 1996) and reviews
(Clark, 2001; Jordan & McMenamy, 2004; Rud-
estam, 1992). The literature, however, contains little
concerning religious aspects of suicide grief and we
found nothing as regards God’s perceived roles.
The Attribution to God Literature
The psychology of religion literature contains
both theoretical and research studies regarding attri-
butions to God although we found no study that
examined God attributions after the suicide of a
loved one. Spilka, et al. (1985) offer an “availability
hypothesis” to suggest why a person might make a
religious attribution. They argue that an individual
possesses a general predisposition for or against
making a religious attribution to explain an event,
usually described as their “religiosity.” Additionally,
the physical, psychological, and social contexts of
the attributor exert an influence along with the
nature and the context of the event. The result is an
availability level for each of the meaning/belief sys-
tems possessed by the individual. The system with
greater availability will be invoked first. This hypoth-
esis suggests why fundamentalist Christians attribute
more causality to God than non-fundamentalists
(Gorsuch & Smith, 1983; Smith & Gorsuch, 1989).
Other authors examine the nature of events that
prompt religious attributions. For example, persons
tend to make more attributions to God in personal
than in impersonal circumstances (Spilka &
Schmidt, 1983). These authors also observe that per-
sons tend to avoid attributing negative events and
outcomes to God. (See also Pargament & Hahn,
1986). Other studies (Lupfer, Brock, & DePaola,
1992; Lupfer, DePaola, Brock & Clement, 1994)
report that everyday events are often attributed to
secular rather than religious causes although reli-
giously conservative persons also tend to attribute
daily events to God.
Still others explore the relationship between the
attributors’ beliefs concerning characteristics of God
and the contents of their attributions. One study
(Pargament & Hahn, 1986) reports that perceived
rewards for good behavior are attributed to a loving
God, complex and hard to understand events are
associated with a benevolent God, and negative out-
comes are linked to an angry God (See also Lalljee,
Brown, & Hilton, 1990). Other researchers (Miner &
McKnight, 1999; Weeks & Lupfer, 2000) conclude
that many persons believe that God influences events
and outcomes in an indirect manner (i.e. distal
action) rather than by direct intervention (i.e., proxi-
mal action). More religiously conservative persons,
however, tend to endorse God’s proximal influence.
In attribution to God studies, researchers typi-
cally present vignettes that describe an event (and
sometimes its outcome) rather than enrolling sub-
jects after an actual stressful event. Wright (1983)
criticizes this vignette usage because “The most
obvious question . . . is whether those attributions
would have been the same had the subjects [experi-
enced] an actual behavioral situation. The answer
is probably sometimes yes and sometimes no, but
we can never know in any particular case” (pp. 45-
46). After using vignettes in their study, Pargament
and Hahn (1986) conclude that “It is particularly
VANDECREEK and MOTTRAM
important to compare (vignette) results to those
generated from people actually experiencing ... situ-
ations, including more serious ones....” (p. 205).
This literature review suggests that attributions to
God during suicide bereavement remain unexam-
ined. This report describes and categorizes these
attributions volunteered by the bereaved during
interviews that explored their religious life following
the suicide.
METHOD
Participants
The second author recruited 10 women through
various suicide support groups in the US state of
Montana, a sample size the authors believed ade-
quate for a qualitative pilot study. Support group
leaders circulated project information to current and
previous attendees. Limiting the participants to
women created an element of sample homogeneity.
Eligible women were at least 21 years old, English
speakers who suffered the loss of a first order family
member at least two years earlier. This 2-year period
allowed time to develop attributions concerning
God’s relationship to the suicide and their bereave-
ment process. No additional criteria were used to
screen the women who volunteered (e.g., religious
tradition, religiosity, beliefs, or worship attendance).
When contacted by an interested woman, the sec-
ond author described the confidential, audio-taped,
one-to-two hour interview as one in which she would
talk in depth about the suicide and its influences on
her religious life and relationships. The first 10
women who volunteered took part; no one was
refused participation. Each chose a date, time, and
location in their community for the interview.
The ten women, all Caucasians, ranged in age
from 48 to 64 years (M = 57.5 years); their education
varied from 13 to 20 years (M = 15.5 years). Seven
were married, two were widowed, and one was
divorced. Occupationally, they included health care
workers (n = 4), teachers and university related
adults (n = 3), and an attorney, a retail clerk, and a
housewife. Nine reported Protestant religious histo-
ries; one was a Buddhist. Frequency of worship
attendance ranged from more than weekly (n = 3),
weekly (n = 5), several times per month (n = 1), and
never (n = 1). Seven considered their religion “very
important”; one reported it was “somewhat impor-
tant” and two characterized it as “not important.”
The suicide losses they suffered included five men
157
and two boys (under the age of eighteen) who shot
themselves, one woman who took a drug overdose,
one who hung herself, and one who shot herself.
Their ages at death (M = 32 yrs) ranged from 13 to
65 years. The number of years since the death ranged
from 3 to 11 years (M = 6.8 yrs). Five women lost
sons, three lost daughters, and two lost spouses. Six
died with a history of bipolar illness, depression
and/or anorexia with alcohol and drug abuse.
The Interview
At the beginning of each interview, the second
author promised confidentiality of the interview
information, asked the woman to sign the consent
form, and to complete a demographic form. After
describing its purpose once again, the interview fol-
lowed a four-step semi-structured format. The
woman first described the suicide event in detail. She
then described how the suicide influenced her
intrapersonal religion/spirituality. In the third step
she described the influence of the suicide on the reli-
gious aspects of her relationships to family members
and friends. The last interview step focused on her
relationships to established faith communities and
the clergy. The interviewer used verbal probes such
as asking follow-up questions to facilitate these
descriptions.
Data Reduction and Analysis
The analysis used a descriptive methodology
(Sandelowski, 2000). In contrast to phenomenologi-
cal and grounded theory analyses, it provided a natu-
ralistic description of the data rather than interpreta-
tion. Thus, this study classified attributions to God
into themes and described them.
The data reduction for this article built on that
conducted for the comprehensive report found else-
where (VandeCreek & Mottram, 2009). A profes-
sional transcriptionist entered the ten audio record-
ings into computer files without personal identifying
information. The first author read the transcripts,
identifying 57 possible themes that constituted a
codebook. The two authors and a third research
team member then read the transcripts repeatedly,
independently coding the narratives sentence-by-sen-
tence. Next, the researchers compared their coding
results and, by consensus, created the final coding.
Disagreements concerning how to code specific
statements were resolved by further discussion until
consensus was reached. The coded materials were
158 PERCEIVED ROLES OF GOD DURING SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT
entered into a qualitative data analysis computer pro-
gram that segmented the narratives according to the
codes, thus permitting an audit trail.
The comprehensive coding of the interviews
included the identification of textual units referring
to God and constituted the raw data for this report.
They comprised 111 textual units, approximately 3.5
percent of the narratives.
RESULTS
One woman, a Buddhist, made no attributions to
God because she described her faith as non-theistic.
The nine Christians created four themes: 1) Con-
trary to ancient Christian teaching, God as a judge
did not deny heaven to their loved one, 2) God was
in control but was not responsible for the suicide, 3)
God provided individualized spiritual care, and, 4)
God brought good out of the tragedy. These four
themes are now elaborated.
Theme One: God as a Judge did not Deny
Heaven to Their Loved One
Five women created this theme. Two of them
expressed their sense of peace with God as judge of
their loved one, implying that their loved one was
not denied heaven. One woman, who believed her
daughter was mentally ill, said:
I always felt like God loves us more than we could ever imag-
ine and if He is going to judge someone when they’re sick, He
would judge her faithfully and then I don’t have to take that
on, because His judging is so much better than mine could be.
The second woman expressed confidence that God
judged fairly, saying, “I know that some people feel
that [suicide is] the ultimate sin.... I just know that
God is fair. He knows our hearts and it’ll be all right
... I feel good about it.”
In contrast, the perception that God might deny
heaven to their loved one was a concern for others.
One acknowledged that immediately after the sui-
cide, she feared her son might face eternal damna-
tion. She sought the counsel of her clergy.
I remember at first thinking that, since [our son] killed himself
he was probably going to hell... . The minister saw us the next
day and ... he reassured me that God wouldn’t send children
to hell, so that was important to me.
The women also had to contend with others who
believed that God consigned their loved one to eter-
nal damnation. For example, one received a letter.
We did get a letter [from] some wacko people who had visited
our church ... the Sunday that the pastor announced our son’s
death.... These two wackos happened to be there, and they
took it upon themselves to write my husband and me a letter
telling us that our son was in hell because he killed himself....
We didn’t even finish reading the letter, we just threw it away....
Theme Two: God was in Control but was not
Responsible for the Suicide
This two part theme expressed the suicide
bereavement version of a long-standing theological
conundrum (i.e., the relationship between God’s
control and human free will). Several women talked
about how they assigned responsibility for the sui-
cide. This involved accenting either human freedom
to kill oneself or God’s control. One woman, while
acknowledging God’s control, placed the accent on
human agency.
I do believe that He could have stopped [my daughter], but
God gave her agency, and He couldn’t take that agency back
She is the one that chose to take her own life. He didn’t do
anything to cause her to do that. I thought she just used her
agency. I’ve always had such a strong belief in Him giving each
of us our own agency.
Another simply stated, “I feel it wasn’t His fault.”
Another woman accented divine control by
speaking at length about God’s sovereignty.
For whatever reason, God chose . . . not to take [the suicide
urge] away at this time. I’ll never know. But, I also believe He
could have stopped the suicide. I believe that my daughter
believed in the sovereignty of God and He allowed her to
come home at that time. My spirituality is to totally rely on the
sovereignty of God and not to question that.
Two women were concerned that others not
blame God for the suicide. One requested that the
clergy clearly state during the funeral that God was
not responsible for her daughter’s death. “We wanted
to make sure it was known that [our daughter] ... had
made the decision herself and that suicide was certain-
ly not God’s plan, that this was not the way to go.”
Theme Three: God Provided Individualized
Spiritual Care
Four women believed God provided individualized
spiritual care during their bereavement. One observed
that after she learned of her daughter’s suicide,
. . . it felt like God’s arms were just right around me. I just lit-
erally felt like I was held together . .. . It sounds strange
because He obviously wasn’t physically in the middle of
things there, but I felt held together and I have felt held
together ever since that day.
Another concluded during her bereavement that
God supplied supportive care by providing her a
VANDECREEK and MOTTRAM
funeral experience when she was in the third grade.
She recalled how her mother took her to the funeral
of a neighborhood child. She remembered:
being at the funeral and not being afraid ... that it [i.e., death]
was a normal part of life, not necessarily easy, but it was still
part of life. I’m sure that God had a hand in it as far as us not
having the fear [when the suicide happened] . . . and I look
back now and I tell people that ... was His way of preparing
me for the future.
Two women believed that this spiritual care
consisted of God providing especially helpful
friends. One described the help from a male friend
when the sheriff released the gun used by her
daughter in the suicide. This friend picked it up
from the sheriff’s office as she requested and gave
it to her.
I opened up the bag, and nobody had cleaned it. It was a very
ugly sight. And I thought I was going to faint.... I know he saw
all the blood drain from my face ... and asked me where my
gun cleaning kit was and ... he did it right then and there and
talked to me and took care of it. Oh, you know . . . God
blessed me with that man because I can’t imagine anybody
handling it the way he did.
Another believed God provided a new friend
who had her own grief to share because her son had
earlier died in an accident.
[The two deaths] bonded us and her being a Christian and me
being a Christian, we were able to talk about the loss of our
sons, she being a few years down the road from me, she could
be the stronger one and so I really believe that God gave her to
me at that critical juncture of my life....
Finally, two women believed that God was also a
caring spiritual presence to their loved ones as they
planned and carried out their suicide. One said:
If you believe God is love and God’s in control, [then] you
know that God is there when it happened too. God doesn’t
just disappear from a person that is His child. So even at the
point of [our daughter’s] suicide, He was with her. He didn’t
want her to do that, but He allowed her to do it.
The other woman expressed the same conviction,
saying: “I believe that, at that point, just before he
pulled the trigger my son was probably more at peace
than he’d ever been because he’d made the decision.
And I believe that God was right there with him.”
Theme Four: God Brought Good out of the
Tragedy
Four women described how God brought
something good out of their experience of the sui-
cide. One described how God used it to spiritually
awaken her.
159
Over the years, I’ve grown a lot closer to God, and involved
Him much more in my life than I did before. I guess one of
the things that strikes me sometimes is that God took my son
to give me a spiritual awakening.
Another described how the suicide turned her life
around and gave her a mission.
[Our daughter’s] suicide has been a huge turning point in my
life.... I just felt like that was something God used to get my
attention. . . . Because of this happening to [our daughter],
God has brought people into my life now . . . mothers with
daughters with eating disorders, mothers and parents of kids
who were really close to suicide and that had committed sui-
cide, girls with eating disorders....
Later she elaborates further.
This whole thing in my life, I can see that God has used for
good like He says He will. And I keep thinking [about] that in
relation to [our daughter’s] death. . . . This mission I have to
share [our daughter’s] story and to help other people is . . .
totally from God.
Another described how the experience had deep-
ened her spirituality.
It deepened my understanding of God and the way He works
in our lives and how He uses everything in our life to develop
us. I knew that because the Bible tells us that, but I didn’t
know it experientially.... Now I get it. And that’s how I felt. I
felt like I finally really got it. And in spite of how awful this has
been, God has been faithful to me and, like I say, . . . it just
deepened my faith in God.
DISCUSSION
Research currently neglects religious aspects of
suicide bereavement, including the roles attribut-
ed to God. Here we report the perceptions of par-
ticipants who actually suffered the suicide of fami-
ly members (in contrast to the use of vignettes).
They produce a rich description of God’s per-
ceived relationship to their bereavement and
demonstrate how they adapt Christian beliefs into
a personally operative theology that helps them
with their bereavement. The results are now inte-
grated into the literature and future research pos-
sibilities identified.
The availability hypothesis (Spilka et al., 1985)
provides a framework to understand both the simi-
larities of the attributions (i.e., the themes) and their
differences. The hypothesis’ four factors (i.e., partici-
pant personal characteristics, their personal context,
the nature of the event, and the context of the event)
suggest whether participants make God attributions.
Thus, the Buddhist participant whose faith is non-
theistic possesses a general predisposition against
making attributions to God. Further research that
160 PERCEIVED ROLES OF GOD DURING SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT
examines more extensively how these four factors
influence attributions to God will be helpful.
The Augustinian teaching concerning the eternal
destiny of suicide victims frequently trouble the par-
ticipants. They do not believe that God denies heav-
en to their loved one. As research results (Pargament
& Hahn, 1986; Spilka & Schmidt, 1983) suggest,
they resist attributing this negative activity to God.
Clinicians whose patients struggle with this concern
can point out the lack of condemnation within scrip-
ture and the more recent teachings of Catholic and
Protestant churches (U.S. Catholic Church, 2003;
United Methodist Church, 2004). Future research
can investigate this concern and how to help family
members resolve it.
The second theme expresses the belief that God
controls everything that happens but is not responsi-
ble for the suicide. As research results (Miner &
McKnight, 1999; Weeks & Lupfer, 2000) suggests,
many believe that everything is in the proximal or dis-
tal control of God. While the suicide clearly disrupts
the religious world of the participants, they believe
that the suicide is somehow within God’s plan. Per-
haps this provides a secondary sense of control to
those who make this attribution.
God, however, is not responsible for the suicide
according to these participants. Taken to its logical
conclusion, the God-control attribution denies the
existence of human freedom and assigns responsibil-
ity to God. Many persons find such a conclusion
unacceptable. This contrast between God’s control
and human freedom expresses an age-old theological
problem and the participants hold the two parts of
this attribution in tension, living with this basic theo-
logical conundrum (See Basinger & Basinger, 1986
for attempts to resolve this dilemma).
Some participants believe that God provided
individualized spiritual care (theme three). The liter-
ature suggests that suicide and its bereavement seri-
ously disrupt relationships to others (Calhoun &
Allen, 1991; Jordan & McMenamy, 2004). The
bereaved receive significantly less emotional support
than those grieving natural cause deaths (Farberow,
Gallagher-Thompson, Gilewski, & Thompson,
1992) and Cvinar (2005) concludes that “ultimately
society affixes blame for the loss on the survivors” (p.
14). In contrast, this third theme asserts that God
does not blame them. He provides friends and their
helpfulness demonstrates His care.
The fourth theme describes how God brought
good out of their suicide experience. An extensive
literature describes personal growth after trauma
(See Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006 for review). Others
(Gillies & Neimeyer, 2006; Holland, Currier &
Neimeyer, 2006) describe finding benefit or value in
the experience of loss. While this attribution
describes personal growth and finding benefit, its
unique feature is the assertion that God purposefully
intervenes to bring about these benefits.
These four themes are likely not independent of
each other. For example, the individualized spiritual
care (theme 3) may be part of the good that God
brings out of the tragedy (theme 4). The perception
that God is in control (theme 2) is likely associated
to providing individual spiritual care (theme 3) and
His bringing good out of the tragedy (theme 4).
Future quantitative studies can test for correlations
across the themes.
This project did not assess the stability of the
themes and future studies need to examine their reli-
ability. Furthermore, attributions to God likely
evolve during the course of bereavement. For exam-
ple, participants likely require considerable time and
spiritual healing before they can assert that God
brings good things out the tragedy (theme 4). Multi-
ple follow-ups during the course of bereavement will
be necessary to track when and how themes emerge.
These participants suffered traumatic loss and an
emerging literature explores whether and how it con-
tributes to complicated grief (Currier, Holland, &
Neimeyer, 2006). Future research may find an associ-
ation between complicated bereavement and the
presence, absence, or content of God attributions.
Pargament (1997) describes the positive associa-
tion between three religious coping styles in relation
to God (i.e., self-directing, deferring, and collabora-
tive) and the management of personal crises and var-
ious aspects of wellbeing (See Harrison, Koenig,
Hays, Eme-Akwari, & Pargament, 2001 for review).
Acknowledging the importance of Pargament’s con-
tribution, Park (2005) raises “the intriguing question
of how religion gets translated into well-being” (p
707) and goes on to demonstrate the role of religion
as a meaning-making framework. Future research
can explore how attributions to God function as
part of the religious coping and meaning-making
frameworks.
Additional limitations suggest future research as
well. The sample consists only of women; men may
make different attributions. The participants reside
in a sparely populated Western U.S. state; partici-
pants in more populated and urban settings may
VANDECREEK and MOTTRAM
respond differently. The participants also rate their
religious faith and worship attendance as quite
important; less religious persons may produce differ-
ent attributions. The interviews did not explore what
sources influenced the attributions (e.g., early child-
hood religious training, additional traumas or
deaths, or their participation in their support
groups). One participant was a Buddhist. While this
woman reported her faith as non-theistic, it remains
unclear whether attributions to God are possible in
some of the many varieties of Buddhism. Additional-
ly, the range of years since the suicide is quite large (3
to 11 years). Future research can explore whether
and how the length of time since the death influ-
ences attributions to God. These and many addition-
al questions merit research attention.
In conclusion, persons frequently make attribu-
tions to God. The contribution of this study lies in
the examination of these attributions when they arise
out of an actual traumatic experience (in contrast to
the use of vignettes). The themes reflect a belief in a
helpful God who, while in control of the universe, is
not responsible for the suicide. The theme contents
demonstrate the nature of the cognitive process by
which the participants integrate their perceived roles
of God into their bereavement process.
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AUTHORS
VANDECREEK, LARRY. Address: 8654 E. Panorama Dr. Boze-
man, MT 59715 Phone: 406-522-7586. Email: Lvande-
creek2001@yahoo.com). Title: Founding Director (Retired)
Department of Pastoral Research The Health Care Chaplaincy
New, York, New York. Degree: D.Min. Areas of Specialization:
Pastoral research into the role of religion/spirituality during trauma
and illness, including its role with family members after their loved
one committed suicide. Research into the nature of spiritual care
provided to ill persons and the effectiveness of hospital chaplaincy.
MOTTRAM, KENNETH. Address: Bozeman Deaconess Hospi-
tal, Bozeman, MT 59715. Title: Board Certified Chaplain; Manag-
er of Spiritual Care. Degree: D. Min. Areas of specialization:
Spiritual care. Author: “Caring For Those In Crisis: Facing Ethical
Dilemmas With Patients and Families,” Brazos Press, 2007.