Bereavement and spiritual change

Journal/Book: Death Stud. 1999; 23: 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007-1598, USA. Hemisphere Publ Corp. 485-493.

Abstract: The thesis of this article is that bereavement is a life crisis that challenges one's assumptions about human existence and Provides the grounds for spiritual change. Construing a new understanding of the meaning of human existence and revising assumptions about one's place in the universe is a singular form that indicates spiritual change at at work. Three aspects must be present for a life crisis to produce spiritual change: The situation must create a psychological imbalance or disequilibrium that resists reading being stabilized; there must be time for reflection; and the person's life must forever afterwards be colored bg the crisis, the premise of this article links spiritual change to what F. W. Fowler (1981) termed transformed faith consciousness and argues that the dual process model of coping with loss (M. S. Stroebe & H. Schut, 1995; hi. S. Stroebe, H. Schul, GI W. A. Stroebe, 1995; hi. S. Stroebe, H. Schut, & J. Van Den Bout, 1994) provides a means to understand how dealing with grief can evoke spiritual change. Some bl ief case examples are used to examine the thesis that bereavement triggers spiritual change.

Note: Article Balk DE, Oklahoma State Univ, Coll Human Environm Sci, Dept Family Relat & Child Dev, Stillwater,OK 74078 USA

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