Revision with unchanged content. Researchers have begun to examine the
theory that religion may help bereaved individuals provide meaning (or
an explanation) to an otherwise inconceivable event. Recent work has
spawned a growing understanding that bereavement forces individuals to
restructure and rebuild previously held assumptions about the self and
the world. This book examines the inter-relationship of religious
coping, meaning reconstruction, and shattered assumptions by reviewing
these three domains. Definitions surrounding "religious coping" and
"meaning reconstruction" are clarified, and theoretical constructs are
refined by exploring their relationships. This book presents a study
which examined mediator-moderator effects of positive and negative
religious coping on relationships between grief intensity and world
assumptions in mothers bereaved by the death of a child (by homicide,
illness, or accident). Results suggest that the negative associations of
grief with world assumptions may be, in part, offset when grief is
processed through positive religious coping and enhanced when grief is
processed through negative religious coping. Suggestions for future
research are discussed, including methodological and conceptual
considerations. The need to find meaning in the universe is as real as
the need for trust and love, for relations with other human beings.
Margaret Mead, Twentieth Century Faith (1972)
