Either Sent by God or Used by God: Impact of COVID-19 on the Religious Lives of Black Families With Dementia

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored systemic disparities and laid its effects on the Black community. Often overlooked is how health disparities heighten stress and affect the emotional well-being of Black American caregivers. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on church engagement for Black families affected by dementia. A qualitative design was employed to collect data from current caregivers, faith/church leaders, and persons with cognitive impairment. Participants (n = 17) were predominantly female, all identified as Black. During semi-structured interviews, participants were asked how COVID-19 has impacted their participation in faith practices. The following themes emerged: (a) ability to continue faith practices, (b) increased church engagement, (c) new normal, (d) importance of fellowship, and (e) role of technology. Participants believed COVID-19 did not impact their faith practice partly due to the ability to continue with faith traditions in a virtual format. Online worship services enabled more families affected by dementia to participate. Many church leaders expressed the intent of continuing to provide online worship services post-pandemic. Families highlighted their need to have fellowship with other parishioners. Technology was perceived as a double-edged sword that serves as both a motivator and a barrier to religious engagement. These findings will support faith leaders and churches in understanding the needs of their congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically, it will allow families living with dementia to continue engaging in religious activity and living in meaningful ways.

Searching for Significance During a Pandemic: A Muslim Perspective

The authors in this article seek to describe the importance of keeping one’s beliefs and spiritual practices alive during the COVID-19 pandemic from a Muslim perspective, and it considers this challenge in light of the theory of religious coping and the growing literature on the benefits of mindfulness. It provides nurses and other healthcare providers a view into the beliefs and practices of a Muslim-American family and shows how faith practices can help people not only cope but grow in difficult times. Implications for nursing and healthcare are discussed.

Spiritual Synchronicity: Icon Veneration in Evangelical and Orthodox Religious Practices in the 21st Century

Much scholarship in the dialogue between evangelical and Orthodox believers focuses on doctrinal compatibility. This article contributes to that literature by giving an example of a spiritual practice (icon veneration) that creates additional space for ecumenical dialogue and unity. Some US-evangelicals in the 21st century have incorporated the use of icons into their personal faith practices. Icon veneration is ripe with ecumenical potential for evangelical–Orthodox relations because of its prominence in Orthodox communions while at the same time appealing to a growing number of evangelicals. This article considers three sites of evangelical icon use in turn: the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia (EBCG), Icons of Black Saints, and an evangelical ministry called “Heart of the Artist”. Each site adopts a slightly unique understanding of icons that may appeal to evangelical believers. Although Orthodox and evangelical believers may understand theologies of icon veneration differently, the emergence of icon veneration among evangelicals remains a spiritual synchronicity, and ought to be recognized as such. Evangelicals continue to receive the gift of icon veneration from their Orthodox siblings in ways in line with the EBCG, Black Orthodox icons, and Heart of the Artist, so icon veneration has potential to further resource ecumenical dialogue.

Faith-Based Coping Among Arabic-Speaking Refugees Seeking Mental Health Services in Berlin, Germany: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Background: The benefits of faith-based coping or using religious and spiritual beliefs as a stabilizing force for interpreting stressful or distressing events are largely unexplored among the exodus of Arabic-speaking refugee populations from Muslim-majority countries, particularly those resettled in Europe. The present study aimed to explore the manifestation of faith-based coping strategies among Arabic-speaking refugee adults seeking mental healthcare services in Berlin, Germany and explore how favorable faith-based coping strategies can be optimized from a mental health service-delivery and broader integration perspective.Methods: A total of 17 qualitative interviews were conducted with Arabic-speaking refugee adults (six females, 11 males) seeking mental health services at the Charité Universitaetsmedizin in Berlin. Research questions aimed to solicit comprehensive perspectives from refugee adults on their mental health, with an emphasis on faith-based coping, and how this facilitated or impeded their integration into German society. Interview transcripts were translated to English from Arabic and analyzed using MAXQDA (2018) to highlight thematic patterns using a grounded theory approach.Results: Findings were structured into four themes, including: (I) faith-based coping methods during flight, (II) changes in faith practices upon arrival, (III) faith-based coping methods to address distress during integration, and (IV) advice for German mental healthcare providers. Participants who demonstrated a stronger commitment to faith were more likely to utilize faith-based coping strategies when seeking mental health services and facing the challenges of displacement and integration. Examples of faith-based coping included prayer, supplication, reciting scripture, and seeking help from a local religious leader.Conclusion: The findings suggest how faith and faith practices play a significant role in the mental health and integration of refugee populations in Germany and provide insight on how mental healthcare can be delivered in a culturally-sensitive manner, providing alternatives to the social, cultural, and linguistic barriers posed by the German health system. These findings are particularly relevant for mental health professionals, non-governmental organizations, and humanitarian aid agencies providing mental healthcare to Arabic-speaking populations recently resettled in Western contexts.

A Theological Statement on the Coronavirus Pandemic

This Statement is a response to the challenge that the church and Christian communities around the world face as a result of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the regulations that have been imposed in order to control the spread of infections. The paper starts off by explaining that pandemics may be a challenge and an opportunity to the faith. Special attention is paid to the coronavirus pandemic, its origins, the effect on public health systems around the world, and its impact on the socio-economic livelihoods; the role of medical health scientists and the breakdown and disruption of communities, the economic arrangements of states. It also raises questions about the possibility of a new world order that seeks a more equal, compassionate and humane world. On that basis, the paper raises some pertinent theological questions that arise for the church and for faith communities. It explores and examines theological questions that arise out of a world that is broken and suffering, beset by devastation and yet called to live the faith responsibly and truthfully. The questions that arise are pre-eminently about God and the meaning of the divine and how God manifests Good during dark times. The paper raises some of the dilemmas that traditional faith practices are confronted by the pandemic especially in areas like worship, the sacraments and understanding the value of technology in the practice of the faith. Finally, the paper explores implications for the life of the church, especially in the moral life of the Christian community and the dilemmas posed by public ethics.

Demons on the Couch: Spirit Possession, Exorcisms and the DSM-5 by Michael Sersch

Michael J. Sersch’s (2019) Demons on the Couch: Spirit Possession, Exorcisms and the DSM-5 is an immaculately researched and referenced treatise on possession and exorcism presented through the lens of modern psychotherapy and the DSM-5 (the diagnostic bible of the mental health field.) Sersch states in his introduction: In writing this book, I hope to answer why demonic possession has held a cultural fascination for over two millennia as well as how clinicians can successfully and ethically deal with patients who legitimately believe they are possessed by a spiritual force. There is also mounting evidence that integrating a patient/client’s worldview into clinical practice, including their spirituality and faith practices, increases their likelihood of getting better (Lund, 2014) which is a position I am overtly advocating. (p. 5) He also claims that he has no desire to attempt to prove or disprove spirit or demonic possession (p. 5). His approach is largely clinical and pedagogical: what does a clinician do with a patient who claims they are possessed? Sersch divides his thesis into three sections, each section dealing with a different aspect of possession and exorcism. The first section, appropriately enough, deals with the history of spirit possession, demon possession, and different forms of exorcism. The second section is more clinical in its approach going into detail on such topics as the different designations for diagnoses found in the various editions of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) such as Multiple Personality Disorder (an older label having been replaced with Dissociate Identity Disorder in the fourth edition of the DSM (APA, 1994)). The third section focuses on suggestions for the clinician, again: how does the clinician handle patients claiming to be possessed?

Latina/o Religious Studies Since the 1970s

This article provides an overview of the field of Latina/o religious studies since the 1970s. Motivated by the political tenor of the times, Latina/o religious studies began as a political project committed to contextualizing theological studies by stressing racial identity, resistance to church hierarchy, and economic inequality. Rooted in a robust interdisciplinary approach, Latina/o religious studies pulls from multiple fields of study. This article, however, focuses on the field’s engagements with ethnic studies in the last fifty years, from the 1970s to the contemporary period. It argues that while the field began as a way to tell the stories, faith practices, and theologies of religious insiders (i.e., clergy and religious leaders), recent scholarship has expanded the field to include the broader themes of community formation, labor, social movements, immigrant activism, and an intentional focus on the relationships with non-religious communities.