Pastoral Accompaniment for Congregants Experiencing Fear of Divine Punishment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61132/ipcep.v1i4.554Keywords:
Divine Punishment, Pastoral Accompaniment, Religious Struggle, Scrupulosity, Spiritual CareAbstract
Fear of divine punishment is a spiritually charged form of distress that appears in ordinary religious struggle, moral injury, shame-based faith formation, and, in some cases, scrupulosity. This article examines pastoral accompaniment for Christian congregants who interpret suffering, intrusive thoughts, moral imperfection, or ordinary uncertainty as evidence that God is angry and punitive. The study addresses a constructive problem: many pastoral responses either normalize fear as evidence of seriousness before God or dismiss it as irrational anxiety, yet both responses can intensify spiritual distress. Using a conceptual qualitative design, the article synthesizes peer-reviewed studies on religious and spiritual struggles, scrupulosity, spiritually integrated care, moral injury, and practical theology. The analysis proposes that pastoral care should neither dilute theological seriousness nor reinforce punitive images of God. Its main synthesis is a threefold pastoral framework, differentiated assessment, grace-oriented theological reframing, and collaborative accompaniment that includes referral when symptoms suggest obsessive-compulsive disorder, trauma, depression, or suicidal risk. The article concludes that effective pastoral accompaniment moves congregants from retributive anxiety toward secure attachment to God, morally responsible agency, and communal practices of confession, assurance, lament, and restoration. The contribution is a constructive model for churches that treats fear of divine punishment as a theological-psychological struggle requiring discernment, doctrinal care, ethical boundaries, and interdisciplinary cooperation.
References
Abramowitz, J. S., Huppert, J. D., Cohen, A. B., Tolin, D. F., & Cahill, S. P. (2002). Religious obsessions and compulsions in a non-clinical sample: The Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS). Behavior Research and Therapy, 40(7), 825–838. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00070-5
Abramowitz, J. S., & Jacoby, R. J. (2014). Scrupulosity: A cognitive-behavioral analysis and implications for treatment. Journal of Obses-sive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 3(2), 140–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2013.12.007
Ano, G. G., & Vasconcelles, E. B. (2005). Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(4), 461–480. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20049
Bockrath, M. F., Pargament, K. I., Wong, S., Harriott, V. A., Pomerleau, J. M., Homolka, S. J., Chaudhary, Z. B., & Exline, J. J. (2022). Religious and spiritual struggles and their links to psychological adjustment: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 14(3), 283–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000400
Captari, L. E., Hook, J. N., Hoyt, W. T., Davis, D. E., McElroy-Heltzel, S. E., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (2018). Integrating clients' religion and spirituality within psychotherapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(11), 1938–1951. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22681
Carey, L. B., & Hodgson, T. J. (2018). Chaplaincy, spiritual care, and moral injury: Considerations regarding screening and treatment. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9, Article 619. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00619
Cowden, R. G., Davis, E. B., Counted, V., & Chen, Y. (2022). Religious/spiritual struggles and psychological distress: A test of three ex-planatory models. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 78(10), 1936–1952. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23232
Doehring, C. (2015). The practice of pastoral care: A postmodern approach (Rev. ed.). Westminster John Knox Press.
Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and initial val-idation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036465
Gonçalves, J. P. B., Lucchetti, G., Menezes, P. R., & Vallada, H. (2015). Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Psychological Medicine, 45(14), 2937–2949. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001166
Hall, N. A., Everson, A. T., Billingsley, M. R., & Miller, M. B. (2022). Moral injury, mental health, and behavioral health outcomes: A systematic review of the literature. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 29(1), 92–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2607
Hook, J. N., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Davis, D. E., Jones, J. D., Gartner, A. L., & Hook, J. P. (2010). Empirically supported religious and spiritual therapies. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(1), 46–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20626
Koenig, H. G. (2012). Religion, spirituality, and health: The research and clinical implications. ISRN Psychiatry, 2012, Article 278730. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/278730
Koenig, H. G., Youssef, N. A., & Pearce, M. (2019). Assessment of moral injury in veterans and active duty military personnel with PTSD: A review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, Article 443. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00443
Litz, B. T., Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, W. P., Silva, C., & Maguen, S. (2009). Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 29(8), 695–706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.07.003
Lucchetti, G., Koenig, H. G., & Lucchetti, A. L. G. (2021). Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current scientific evidence. World Journal of Clinical Cases, 9(26), 7620–7631. https://doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v9.i26.7620
McEwen, C., Alisic, E., & Jobson, L. (2021). Moral injury and mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Traumatology, 27(3), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000287
Miller, C. H., & Hedges, D. W. (2008). Scrupulosity disorder: An overview and introductory analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(6), 1042–1058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.11.004
Moreira-Almeida, A., Sharma, A., van Rensburg, B. J., Verhagen, P. J., & Cook, C. C. H. (2016). WPA Position Statement on Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(1), 87–88. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20304
Moroń, M., Biolik-Moroń, M., & Matuszewski, K. (2022). Scrupulosity in the network of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, religious struggles, and self-compassion: A study in a non-clinical sample. Religions, 13(10), Article 879. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100879
Osmer, R. R. (2008). Practical theology: An introduction. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 519–543. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(200004)56:4<519::AID-JCLP6>3.0.CO;2-1
Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 257–301. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018301
Vieten, C., Scammell, S., Pilato, R., Ammondson, I., Pargament, K. I., & Lukoff, D. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psy-chologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(3), 129–144. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032699
Vieten, C., & Lukoff, D. (2022). Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology. American Psychologist, 77(1), 26–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000821
Wilt, J. A., Exline, J. J., Grubbs, J. B., Park, C. L., & Pargament, K. I. (2016). God's role in suffering: Theodicies, divine struggle, and mental health. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 8(4), 352–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000058
Wortmann, J. H., Nieuwsma, J. A., King, H. A., Fernandez, P., Meador, K. G., & Currier, J. M. (2022). Collaborative spiritual care for moral injury in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VA): Results from a national survey of VA chaplains. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 28(sup1), S9–S24. https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2021.2004847
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 International Perspectives in Christian Education and Philosophy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
