the roles on sanctification and the concept of god

7/28/2019 The Roles on Sanctification and the Concept of God

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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION, 9(1) 17-24Copyright 1999 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ine

COMMENTARY

Religion andSpirituality? The Roles of

Sanctification and the Concept of GodRobert A Emmons and Cheryl A Crumpler

Department of Psychology

University of California, Davis

In our reply to Pargament, we focus on 2 mam themes that are vital to a discussion ofre

ligion and spirituality (a) the multiple meanings of the term sanctification and (b) theimportance of inquiring into people's implicit beliefs about the nature of God We advo

cate using the term sacralization to refer to sanctification in the external sensethe

sanctification of objects, places, or personsand suggest that sanctification refers to an

inner process of transformation whereby persons are made pure or holy Second, the

importance of inquiring into people's implicit beliefs about the nature of God is vital in

the study of psychology and religion, because we believe this issue may he at the heart

of the debate surrounding definitions of religion and spirituality

In his article, Pargament (this issue) has made a significant conceptual advance that

is inspiring, far-reaching, and likely to influence the agenda of the psychology of

religion and spirituality for some time Achieving clarity in conceptual terminol

ogy would seem to be essential for scientific progress and the establishment of a cu

mulat ive knowledge base In broadening the domain of the sacred to encompass the

diverse meanings of spirituality while placing boundary conditions around an all

too amorphous and inclusive construct, Pargament has accomplished no small feat

Positing a search for the sacred as the common ground between religion and spiritu

ality ought to at least assuage if not completely satisfy those who would prefer that

spirituality and religion have nothing to do with each other Coming as it does fiom


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1 8 EMMONS AND CRUMPLER

one of the foremost contributors to the psychology of religion, the article com

mands respect and deserves serious consideration from those committed to a scien

tific understanding of spirituality and religiousness We find much to admire in

Pargament's thesis The telic approach that underlies Pargament's ends and means

of spirituality and religion is congenial with the personal strivings framework of

human motivation (Emmons, in press) and, more importantly, with the growing

goals revolution in psychology (Austin & Vancouver, 1996) A dynamic view of

spirituality and religion centered on goals and purpose offers considerable potential

for understanding the influence of the spiritual and religious realmm everyday life

To form a coherent response to Pargament, it is necessary to first consider what

Pargament is trying to accomplish in his article What are his purposes9 What is he

trying to do7 His overall goal, we think, is to help people think more clearly about

the constructs of spirituality and religion by correcting faulty views ofthe meaning

of these terms and offering a new and viable perspective We focus on two main

themes in our commentary (a) the multiple meanings of the term sanctification

and (b) the importance of inquiring into people's implicit beliefs about the nature

of God

THE DUAL MEANINGS OF SANCTIFICATION

Pargament defines spirituality as "the search for the sacred" (this issue) In every

day life, sacredness appears in many shapes and forms, from the most magnificent

aims to the seemingly most mundane pursuits Almost any facet of life can become

sacrahzed through a process of sanctification This being the case, where does one

draw the boundaries around the concept of sanctification 7 We are concerned that

the term sanctification can become as broad and diffuse as spirituality and thus lose

its usefulness as botha theoretical construct and a construct with practical utility

It would behoove us to consider the meaning of the concept of sanctification

within various faith traditions The term has specific theological meaning, it is notmerely a psychological construct At least two distinct usages can be identified

(Enckson, 1985), corresponding roughly to an outward and an inward sanctifica

tion Sanctification in an outward sense is a formal characteristic of particular ob

jects, persons, and places To sanctify is to set apart from the ordinary or mundane

and to dedicate to a particular purpose or use This is the meaning as employed by

Pargament According to the Hebrew scriptures, certain vessels from the potter's

shop were set aside for use by the priests officiating in the temple and became

"holy vessels" (Romans 9 21, New International Version) To avoid confusion, we

advocate using the term sacralization to refer to sanctification in the external senseof objects, places, or persons


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ROLES OF SANCTIFICATION AND THE CONCEPT OF GOD 1 9

which persons are made pure or holy. Sanctification thus refers to moral purity or

moral goodness (literally, "saint-like"). The psychological equivalent to sanctifi

cation might be something like a striving toward perfection or self-actualization

Unlike the first type ofsanctification, which is an attribute ofexternal objects, this

type ofsanctification is an inner process that reflects a spiritual transformation of

the entire person. Pargament alludes closely to this position but does not specifi

cally state this. For instance, in his discussion ofthe sanctification ofsecular ob-

jects, he notes the importance and power that can come from sanctifying one's job

or marriage. He states that "the search for meaning, community, self, or a better

world are likely to be transformed when they are invested with sacred character"

(this issue). While this is quite true, it is also true that a search for the sacred or for

significance should involve an internal process that leads through a set ofdevelopmental stages, the ultimate goal being union with God This should remain truefor

the definition ofreligion as well as spirituality. This idea ofreligious practices

leading one through a developmental process finds accord in almost all traditions

and fits well with models ofadult development (Levenson & Crumpler, 1996)

One ofthe primary functions ofspirituality is to provide the means and ends for

how life should be lived.

When defining religion and spirituality, every effort must be made not to

overlookthe individual and the unique internal developmental patterns involved

in the religious process. A search for the sacred or a search for significance inways related to the sacred should involve dynamic change in each individual

life, both externally, as Pargament clearly elucidates, and also internally While

religious practices may transform the external objects ofone's world, the pri

mary teachings ofall faiths suggest that it is an internal sanctification that is crit

ical. In the major monotheistic traditions ofChristianity, Islam, and Judaism, the

acts involved m the religious traditionsprayer, meditation, service, and a

moral lifestyleare designed to lead to personal transformation. For instance, in

Islam, practitioners are admonished to pray five times daily, read scripture, lead

a morally superior life, seek God's mercy, and purify the self. In addition, theuse ofmature defenses such as humor, suppression, sublimation, altruism, hope,

and asceticism are encouraged so that ultimately one can become annihilated in

God, meaning that the person ultimately can become a sanctified vessel through

which God may work The daily activities involved in the service ofone's life

also become sanctified, because during this process one becomes more aware of

the sacred in each aspect ofhis or her life. It is purported m Islam, particularly in

the mystical tradition of Sufism, that the process of sanctification takes many

years and involves a particular sequence of development in which the

self-centered personality characteristics are lost. With a great deal of commitment, sincerity, and a willingness to change, the person sacrifices the limited


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Sanctification as growth in the spiritual life is not considered by Pargament, yet

may prove useful for understanding processes such as spiritual conversions and

personality changes in their aftermath The two meanings of sanctification might

even be linked m a dialectical process, where a person progressivelysanctifies var

ious spheres of his or her life (e g , job, personal relationships, goals, and activi

ties), eventually resulting in an overall personal sanctification (what some

theologians refer to as ultimate sanctification) Presumably, such a bottom-up ap

proach to sanctification can be contrasted with a top-down approach in which an

overall regeneration of the person (as in "born-again" individuals) leads to shifts in

specific aspects of a person's life The distinction between the two meanings of

sanctification points to the importance of studying the person and the process of

sanctification In our study of spirituality, we must not lose sight of the spirituallives that people are living

The spiritual life is a lifelong process of growth toward holiness and progress

toward the ultimate goal of perfection There is a long history of using

goal-language metaphorically to depict spiritual growth In devotional writings,

spiritual growth and spiritual maturity are viewed as a process of goal attainment,

with the ultimate goal being intimacy with the divine For instance, Gregory of

Nyssa (Danielou & Musunllo , 1961 ) saw the spiritual life as a race, where spiritual

growth for those whom are entered is a never-ending process of striving toward

perfection St Teresa ofAvila (1979), m her classic The Interior Castle, saw progress in the spiritual life as a continuous striving toward greater depth and to the

core of one 's being, each step moving us closer to a vision of the ultimate Allport

(1950) contended that goals that are never quite fulfilled are best able to direct at

tention, guide current striving, and maintain unity Religion thus constitutes the

most effective form of integration because religious strivings, more than any other,

are never fully realized, never completely attained "because religious accom

plishment is always incomplete, its cementing character in the personal life is

therefore all the greater" (p 93)

We rally behind Par gament' s vision of a dynamic psychology of religion and

spirituality We believe that an expansion of the meanings of sanctification that

puts the person and the process at the center can complement the emphasis on

sanctification of specific life domains An important agenda for the futuie will be

to identify the virtuous ends toward which people strive and how they construe

daily opportunities to achieve progress toward these valued ends Virtues are ac

quired excellences in the moral domain and have been described as characteristics

that "come closer to defining what a person is than any other category of qualities"

(Zagzebski, 1996, 135) Many such lists of qualities have been identified, such

as "the fruits of the Spint"(Galations 5 22, New International Version)love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-controlor


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ROLES OF SANCTIFICATION AND THE CONCEPT OF GOD 21

Why all the fuss over the meanings of sanctification9 After all, is it not a theo

logical term, and our job is psychology, not theology7 We have two replies First,

insomuch as they deal with fundamental questions of human nature and provide

prescriptive guidelines for how life should be lived, theologies are also psycholo

gies Second, it is important to get the meaning of theological terms precisely cor

rect when applying them in psychology Lopata (1996) wrote on the widow's

sanctification of her dead husband She invoked the term sanctification to depict

an "idealization of the deceased" (p 151) or a reconstruction of perfection in the

memory ofthe surviving spouse In her research, sanctification is measured by se

mantic differential ratings of husbands on adjective pairs of "good-bad," "use

ful-useless," "honest-dishonest," "kind-cruel," and "friendly-unfriendly " Note

that the usage of sanctification here and its measurement resembles neither theologically based meaning described earlier An entire research program has been

constructed around the concept of "husband sanctification," a phenomenon that is

undoubtedly real but more accurately described with the psychological concept of

idealization We thus encourage Pargament and his colleagues to be very clear on

the meaning of sanctification, because the concept is likely to be adopted by other

researchers (indeed, as we ourselves have done)

CAN WE LEAVE GOD OUT'?

It has become standard practice to invoke what may be called the "law of95" in the

opening section in articles on the psychology of religion and mental health Thelaw

of 95 refers to the survey research literature finding that approximately 95% of

those queried report a belief in God, presumably thus legitimizing empirical re

search on religion What is often overlooked, however, is that this figure represents

those who report a belief in some form ofa God, the form of which may vary con

siderably from respondent to respondent According to Pargament, one of the ad

vantages in viewing spirituality as the search for the sacred is that "we avoid restricting ourselves to narrow or traditional conceptions of God" (this issue) We

confess to being confused as to how the sacred can exist without God Divinity, by

definition, means of or like God Can one speak of divinity or holiness without

God9 Wherein then would these terms derive their meaning7 Pargament does not

elaborate further on what he means by traditional or narrow conceptions of God,

but he alludes to what in our mind is an extremely important issue how God is im

plicitly represented in people's consciousness This point ma\ in fact be the crux of

the division between defining oneself as religious or spiritual

Pargament goes to considerable trouble to discern why differences exist in thedefinition and association between religion and spirituality In his own research,


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question, to what degree are their views about these processes a projection of their

own personal orientations7

We would further add "and images of God " Although

this issue of who and what is God has been divisive since the Middle Ages (Martin,

1930), it may have become even more relevant with the introduction of Eastern

philosophies into conceptualizations of religious matters For instance, to Chris

tians, Moslems, and Jews, the primary image of God as personal and as existing

apart from God's creation is very different from a Buddhist who does not believe

in a personal God but rather the attainment of enlightenment, Oneness, and a state

of Nirvana If one abides by a Buddhist perspective, then in a monotheistic culture,

one may not identify well with the term religious The term spiritual may feel

much less bound to traditional religious ideologies and requirements

Why are we taking such issue with this concept

7

We believe that the concept ofGod may be an important moderator of different effects in the definition of religion

and spirituality and perhaps one of the prime reasons for the division of the two

terms In addition, conceptions of God and religious identity have important rami

fications from a mental health standpoint, both for the client and practitioner (for a

discussion from numerous religious perspectives see Koenig, 1998) Years ago, C

S Lewis (1994) colorfully expressed the different views on divinity that people

hold

Men are reluctant to pass over from the notion of an abstract and negative deity to

the living God I do not wonder The Pantheist's God does nothing, demands noth

ing He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf He will not pursue

you An impersonal Godwell and good A subjective God of beauty, truth and

goodness, inside our own headsbetter still A formless life-force surging through

us, a vast power which we can tapbest of all But God himself, alive, pulling at the

other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed that is quite another

matter (pp 321-322)

If one views God as either a universal and impersonal force that affects all of nature

versus a personal God who responds benevolently to one's prayers, this may influence a variety of mental and physical health variables such as self-esteem and

well-being, as well as treatment issues, particularly for individuals who are signifi

cantly more involved in their religious practices than the average person (Malony,

1998) Barrett and VanOrman (1996) pointed out that the images held of God may

either bias worshipers toward a mature developmental pattern or lead to undesir

able concepts of God It is possible that those who embrace New Age "spir ituali ty"

or define themselves as spiritual rather than religious may do so because of discom

fort with traditional and widely held concepts of God

We advocate that researchers in the psychology of religion and spirituality as

sess the nature of people's implicit beliefs about the nature of God as routinely as


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