Spiritual Practices Are Boring: a Psychoanalytic Understanding of Spiritual Ennui

Boredom in prayer or in a spiritual discipline can be a common experience among people of faith. Questions arise about what is going wrong, and some may stop their practice altogether. Believers bring their histories and personalities to the devotional moment, which may account for some of this bore...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Special Issue "In Honor of Lewis Rambo"
Authors: Strawn, Brad D. (Author) ; Gioielli, Chris D. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science Business Media B. V. [2020]
In: Pastoral psychology
Year: 2020, Volume: 69, Issue: 5/6, Pages: 509-522
Further subjects:B Psychoanalysis
B spiritual disciplines
B Spiritual Formation
B Boredom
B spiritual practices
B Christian Spirituality
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:Boredom in prayer or in a spiritual discipline can be a common experience among people of faith. Questions arise about what is going wrong, and some may stop their practice altogether. Believers bring their histories and personalities to the devotional moment, which may account for some of this boredom. D. W. Winnicott and spiritual theology reveal the underlying dynamics at play in certain types of boredom and offer practical methodology for discernment and navigation through such experiences. Spiritual theology indicates that boredom in prayer may be a result of sin, God-initiated purgation, or a developmental capacity or deficit. In cases of developmental capacity or deficit, spiritual theology does not fully explain why the deficit exists or how to develop that capacity. Psychoanalytic theory bolsters spiritual theology by providing a deeper understanding of such boredom experiences and a methodology for working with them. Case studies from psychoanalytic theory and spiritual direction amplify theoretical concepts by providing examples of practical applications.
ISSN:1573-6679
Contains:Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11089-020-00926-1