TY - CHAP
T1 - The Contributions of Christian Perspectives and Practices to Positive Psychology
AU - Worthington, Everett L.
AU - Lavelock, Caroline R.
AU - Van Tongeren, Daryl R.
AU - vanOyen-Witvliet, Charlotte
AU - Griffin, Brandon J.
AU - Greer, Chelsea L.
AU - Jennings II, David J.
AU - Lin, Yin
AU - Jordan, Kayla
AU - Ho, Man Yee
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - We summarize contributions of Christianity to positive psychology. There are three initial caveats. First, the diversity of Christian views and practices across cultures and throughout history has not been universally positive. Second, positive sources of well-being specifically due to Christianity are challenging to isolate. Third, culture is difficult to separate from religion. Christianity has made contributions to culture and intellectual thought and to individual and societal operations through virtues. Christianity supplements secular views of virtue by a Christian telos as maintaining a faithful and authentic relationship with God and by not being focused on raising up oneself, but about serving. Christianity promotes virtue by strengthening self-control and self-regulation, clarifying and focusing goals, and promoting other (related) virtues. It emphasizes two cardinal virtues—love and forgiveness. Future research directions depend on testing these suppositions. We must formulating testable hypotheses and organize existing research and accumulate additional research addressing each proposition.
AB - We summarize contributions of Christianity to positive psychology. There are three initial caveats. First, the diversity of Christian views and practices across cultures and throughout history has not been universally positive. Second, positive sources of well-being specifically due to Christianity are challenging to isolate. Third, culture is difficult to separate from religion. Christianity has made contributions to culture and intellectual thought and to individual and societal operations through virtues. Christianity supplements secular views of virtue by a Christian telos as maintaining a faithful and authentic relationship with God and by not being focused on raising up oneself, but about serving. Christianity promotes virtue by strengthening self-control and self-regulation, clarifying and focusing goals, and promoting other (related) virtues. It emphasizes two cardinal virtues—love and forgiveness. Future research directions depend on testing these suppositions. We must formulating testable hypotheses and organize existing research and accumulate additional research addressing each proposition.
KW - Positive Emotion
KW - Religious Coping
KW - Positive Psychology
KW - Mental Health Symptom
KW - Character Strength
U2 - 10.1007/978-94-017-8950-9_3
DO - 10.1007/978-94-017-8950-9_3
M3 - RGC 12 - Chapter in an edited book (Author)
SN - 9789401789493
T3 - Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology
SP - 47
EP - 70
BT - Religion and Spirituality Across Cultures
A2 - Chu Kim-Prieto,
PB - Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
ER -