CRISIS! : It Can Be the Seed for Spiritual Growth, Study Finds

Crises can be the occasion of spiritual growth rather than something harmful to be avoided, according to a clinical study presented at a meeting of social scientists.

The findings were based on a series of hourlong interviews with 400 families conducted over a period of several years by sociologist C. Margaret Hall of Georgetown University. Her paper was one of 300 presented here last weekend at a combined congress of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Assn.

“Crisis conditions are more conducive to spiritual growth than non-crisis conditions,” said Hall, who has been a clinical sociologist and family therapist for 14 years. “This contradicts the conventional wisdom that crises are harmful and to be avoided.”

Hall said that members of “crisis families who make spiritual values their most significant reference points for life-orientation appear to live more productively and experience more life-satisfaction than (do) members of crisis families or non-crisis families who make no conscious effort to examine their values or life orientation.”

‘Transcendent Qualities’

She defined spiritual values as “supernatural, transcendent qualities which are characteristic of a central power or related powers in the universe, such as God, life, love, good or truth.”

Hall said people who increased their commitment to spiritual values as a way to effectively cope with crises “shifted away from their previously held perception that they were victims of social or emotional circumstances.”

Hall collected her data from in-depth interviews over lengthy time periods, generally including at least three generations of family members. There were 200 life histories of crisis families, and 200 of non-crisis families.

Individuals selected represented a cross section of Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, agnostics and atheists from virtually all social classes and a variety of ethnic groups. Hall said she gave the most attention to the values and behavior of family members who performed effectively in society and reported considerable life-satisfaction.

Takes New Direction

The sociologist, who served for five years as clinical consultant for Community Mental Health Services in Frederick, Md., said she chose that focus as a research goal “in order to counterbalance the predominance of examinations of pathology and dysfunction in current research. . . . In fact, there appears to be a kind of taboo against including religious or spiritual data in clinical examinations of the quality of life of individuals.”

Hall listed several patterns in her findings:

--About 40 of the 400 respondents (10%) had a strong spiritual orientation in their lives.

--About 32 of these individuals experienced some kind of crisis prior to their commitment to these values.

--People who had been able to examine and formulate their own spiritual values reported the most effective and satisfying lives.

--For both crisis and non-crisis families with continuing problem behavior, there tended to be either no awareness of religious or spiritual values, or “a dogmatic, ritualistic religious orientation.”

--Qualities of openness to life and adventurousness were more easily identified in the responses of those who placed a higher value on spiritual growth.

Necessary for Growth

Hall concluded that crisis is necessary for dramatic spiritual growth, but crisis itself does not necessarily produce increased spiritual awareness.

Although some family members reported a strong focus on spiritual values but no crisis conditions, the depth of their spiritual orientation was not as great, nor the influence of spirituality in their lives as pervasive, Hall found.

A clinical implication of her findings, Hall reported, is that research on “optimal functioning, recovery and spiritual growth is perhaps more needed at present than continued research on pathology and dysfunction.”