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Article
Religious Narratives and Religious Coping Strategies in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic
Author(s)
Maria Ivanova
Full-Text PDF XML 278 Views
DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2022.10.003
Affiliation(s)
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
ABSTRACT
Recent findings demonstrate
a growing interest in religiosity during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that
religiousness has a Janus-face impact on coping with stress. On the one hand, the
empirical data indicates a positive link between religiosity and mental health,
agreeableness, and higher emotion regulation skills. On the other side, some surveys
describe religious people as being reluctant to follow the recommendation of public
health experts, and they also tend to score lower on intelligence and analytic thinking
measures. However, how religiosity in our country impacts psychological processes
of perception and coping with stress during the pandemic is not studied yet. The
research reveals religious views on the COVID-19 pandemic through the analysis of
semi-structured interviews with believers from different Bulgarian religious communities—Orthodox
Christians, Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims. The focus of the one religious
interpretation is pandemic as retribution for the self-forgetfulness of a man and
the consumerist attitude towards God’s creation. The main narrative in the other
interpretation considers diseases and suffering that accompany human life as a natural
consequence of original sin and perishable human nature. Both points of view relate
to various coping methods with challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KEYWORDS
COVID-19 pandemic, religious coping, religious beliefs, retribution
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