RSSSR Call for Papers

Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion is soliciting
manuscripts for a special section for its 2011 volume on the topic of
"Spiritual Struggles and Negative Religious Coping”. Empirical and
conceptual articles are welcome. Ever since Allport reported
differential effects for internal versus external religious motivations,
research has noted different outcomes for how religion and spirituality
relate to both positive and negative outcomes. This is an old topic in
religion and spirituality with the Bible stating that “Fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, and then early Christian writers
distinguishing between “servile and filial” fear. The former they
saw as related to distress and the latter to a close attachment to God.
Our hope is that the section will bring clarity to understanding some of
the contrary aspects of religion and spirituality as they influence
human behavior, cognition, feelings, and motivation.

Empirical articles should address any of the variables currently
receiving significant attention in the social sciences. Such topics
might include, but are not limited to, emotional distress, seeing God as
abandoning or punishing, negative religious organizations, religious
sacrilege and abuse, or desecration. Theory articles will advance
methodological issues for the social sciences in studying the connection
between spirituality and religion, or provide models that could bear
heuristic fruit for future work.

Manuscripts will be received for this section until June 1, 2010. RSSSR
can accommodate longer reports, and section editors will determine
optimal length in terms of the number of acceptable submissions. Authors
should submit their manuscripts to a section editor in electronic form
and in APA style. The section editors are Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, PhD
(jwc [at] loyola.edu), Gina Brelsford, PhD (gmy103 [at] psu.edu), and Gabriel
Dy-Liacco PhD (gdyliacco [at] loyola.edu). The Journal address is Loyola
College in Maryland, Department of Pastoral Counseling, 8890 McGaw Road,
Suite 380, Columbia, MD, 21045.