RT Article
T1 The Meaning of Waiting: Meaning-making Narratives and Counter-narratives in the Teachings of the Desert Fathers
JF Journal of spiritual formation & soul care
VO 16
IS 2
SP 237
OP 251
A1 Aijian, Janelle L.
A1 Merrill, David L.
LA English
PB Sage Publishing
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1870947754
AB Recent work in the psychology of emotions has highlighted the helpfulness of meaning-making narratives to contextualize and make sense of experiences of suffering. In this article we argue that the experience of waiting should be regarded as an experience of suffering with the potential to produce a disruption in a person’s sense of the meaningfulness of their experience. We look to the resources of the Christian tradition for a narrative of waiting that can reorient a person feeling the disruption of a long season of waiting. We argue that Evagrius’ description of the deadly thought of acedia is best understood as a meaning-making counter-narrative, employed by a demonic tempter to disrupt a believer’s perseverance. We show how the responses suggested by Evagrius, namely to reassert an orienting narrative through the use of scriptures, can be expanded to lean on the larger Christian tradition, which grounds the meaningfulness of waiting in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love through meditations on the Exodus narrative and the life of Christ.
K1 Theology of Suffering
K1 Narrative Psychology
K1 Meaning-Making
K1 Evagrius
K1 Acedia
K1 Seven Deadly Sins
DO 10.1177/19397909231206609