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42-590: Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research is a report, originally published in 1999, by a Fetzer Institute / National Institute on Aging working group on the measurement of religion and spirituality. A revised version with a new preface was published in 2003. The book presents a series of 12 self-report questionnaire measures, each focused on a particular aspect of religiousness or spirituality, along with reviews of underlying theory and supporting research. The book's purpose

84-451: A "relaxation response") (pp. 3–4). Cultural orientation . The Introduction also noted that "While many of the items have a strong Judeo-Christian focus... the group also proposed a number of items relevant to the growing proportion of Americans who engage in spiritual activities outside the content of churches and synagogues" (p. 3). Domain-focused chapters . The titles of the 12 domain-focused chapters, each written by one of

126-692: A US national survey that incorporated many of its items. Background and purpose . The Introduction states the book is responding to "a growing body of literature.... indicat[ing] that various dimensions of religiousness and spirituality may enhance subjective states of well-being... lower levels of depression and psychological distress... and reduce morbidity and mortality.... elicit[ing] considerable attention from medical researchers in epidemiology, psychology, sociology, gerontology, and other fields" (p. 1). However, Health researchers who seek to include religious or spiritual domains in their studies typically confront various problems. Few health researchers have

168-695: A day" (p. 92). The appendix is entitled: By 2010, the book had been cited more than 350 times in scientific publications. Critiques and evaluations of the MMRS or BMMRS have appeared in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease , Research on Aging , the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion , Journal of Religion and Health , Research in

210-543: A network of scholars to contribute to the field of forgiveness research. In 2010, the institute released its “Survey of Love and Forgiveness in American Society.” The institute also provided major funding for The Shamatha Project led by B. Alan Wallace and Clifford Saron. This longitudinal research project, completed in 2013, studied how intensive meditation training affects the development of positive human qualities, especially those associated with love and compassion, and

252-410: A psychosocial perspective. As the title indicates, the primary focus of this volume is examination of the links between religion and coping. One of the important qualities of this book is that there is no effort to view religion as one form of coping or to view coping as a manifest function of religion. Each concept is treated in careful conceptual and empirical detail, and the links that emerge testify to

294-682: A sample of midwestern US college students, "despite having a collection of items from 12 different domains, these items really constitute two major areas of interest: one relating to spiritual experiences and the other to religious involvements" (p. 194). In a population of patients undergoing rehabilitation, it appears that "the BMMRS assesses distinct positive and negative aspects of religiousness and spirituality that may be best conceptualized... as... (a) Spiritual Experiences... (b) Religious Practices... (c) Congregational Support; and (d) Forgiveness" (p. 146). Findings from Southern US adults suggested that

336-624: A scholarly background in religiousness/spirituality and most are not acquainted with the long history of attempts to conceptualize and measure multiple dimensions of religiousness... [and] we currently have no widely used and validated set of standard measures for key religious/spiritual domains to recommend to interested health researchers (pp. 1-2) Domain / Chapter Title Sample Item Daily Spiritual Experiences      (Lynn G. Underwood) I find strength and comfort in my religion. * Meaning      ( Kenneth I. Pargament ) My spirituality helps define

378-735: A seminar, or in a symposium." (p. ii) Fetzer Institute published the original paperbound edition in 1999, and published a paperbound "reprint" in 2003 that contained a new preface. The 2003 edition is also available for downloading without charge from the Fetzer Institute website (see external links). The two editions are: One of the scales, the DSES, has been translated into multiple foreign (non-English) languages: Mandarin Chinese, Korean, German, Greek, Vietnamese, French and Spanish (p. 716). Fetzer Institute The institute's stated mission

420-516: A spiritual person?", with a similar question about being a "religious person"). This chapter is entitled: Survey data . The appendix contains results from administering the BMMRS to a US nationally representative sample, through the General Social Survey , in 1998. For example, it was found that 24.4 percent of US adults reported engaging in private prayer "more than once a day", and 9.0 percent reported engaging in meditation "more than once

462-652: Is administered by Bruce Fetzer as President and CEO and actively overseen by a Board of Trustees, which is chaired by Lou Leeburg, to set the direction for the scientific legacy of the organization’s founder John E. Fetzer. More recently, in 2020 the institute commissioned and published “What Does Spirituality Mean to Us? A Study of Spirituality in the United States"; in 2019, it funded a report from The Evangelical & Religious Liberty Commission by Paul D. Miller titled "Faith and Healthy Democracy”; and in 2018 Fetzer president and CEO Bob Boisture published, “Civic Virtues and

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504-576: Is helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. Fetzer's worldview centers around the sacredness of reality, which includes the “centrality of Spirit,” integration of science and spirituality, and the sacredness of all people and the planet. It supports this mission by working with thought leaders to develop programs and research projects, and issues grants in sectors including faith and spirituality, democracy, education, and organizational culture. The Seasons retreat center, on its campus in Kalamazoo,

546-722: Is part of a larger spiritual force. * Religious Support      ( Neal Krause ) If you were ill, how much would the people in your congregation help you out? * Religious/Spiritual History      (Linda K. George) Did you ever have a religious or spiritual experience that changed your life? * Commitment      (David R. Williams) I try hard to carry my religious beliefs over into all my other dealings in life. * Organizational Religiousness      (Ellen Idler) How often do you go to religious services? * Religious Preference      ( Christopher Ellison ) What

588-628: Is the one ingredient that holds us all together. Brian C. Wilson, John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age . Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2018. ISBN   978-0814345306 Psychology of Religion and Coping (book) The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice by Kenneth Pargament was published in the United States in 1997. It is addressed to professional psychologists and researchers, and has been reviewed in many professional journals. Originally hardbound, it

630-509: Is to provide validated measures of spiritual and religious factors in health research. The book includes the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality ( BMMRS ), a practical measure with selected items from the 12 previous chapters. The book has been widely cited in health and behavioral science research, and several subsequent publications have been partially or entirely dedicated to evaluating and critiquing

672-533: Is used to convene partners. GilChrist Retreat Center, in Three Rivers, offers contemplative and spiritual programs and is open to the public. John E. Fetzer, listed in 1986 by Forbes magazine as one of the 400 wealthiest people in the United States, bequeathed most of his assets from the sale of the Detroit Tigers, Fetzer Cablevision, and other enterprises to the institute upon his death in 1991. As of June 2020,

714-634: Is your current religious preference? * Thus, "the NIA and the Fetzer Institute established a core working group to: Plausibility of health effects . The Introduction described a variety of "potential mechanisms" by which religiou/spirituality might affect health. These include "behavioral mechanisms" (e.g., less drug abuse), "social mechanisms" (e.g., community ties), "psychological mechanisms" (e.g., emotional support or religious coping ), and physiological mechanisms" (e.g., prayer or meditation that elicits

756-824: The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , the Journal of the American Academy of Religion , the Religious Studies Review Death Studies , and elsewhere. In the American Journal of Psychiatry , Favazza wrote that "This is a very fair and respectful book.... The book sets a new standard of excellence for works on religion and psychology. Although it lacks any biological or psychiatric focus, I highly recommend it to colleagues who desire to organize their thoughts about religion." (p. 988 ). In The Gerontologist , George wrote that it was: The best book that I have read on religion from

798-437: The Journal of the American Academy of Religion , McIntosh wrote that: The weaknesses of this book are a function of its strengths. By aiming for a wide audience the book must cover a lot of ground, some of which is elementary review for some of the readership. The book probes deeply into the complexities of the topic and is encyclopedic in its coverage of the research; it is therefore somewhat daunting in size. By not avoiding

840-540: The 12 domains are irrelevant to understanding religiousness/spirituality in Japan. However, a few MMRS domains held promise. For example, with regard to religious coping, he stated that "certain kinds of ritual performance in Japan can be understood in terms of coping mechanisms, and this is an area identified in the Fetzer report that holds promise for cross-cultural research (at least in relation to Japan)" (p. 405). According to

882-443: The BMMRS appeared to work when given to different populations. One study concluded that "most BMMRS measures are reliable and valid for use among adolescents" (p. 439). Another found that the "BMMRS is a viable multifactor measure of [religion/spirituality] for use with young adults" when the "wording on some items was slightly altered to be more inclusive of various religious traditions" (pp. 106, 110). A third reported that in

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924-530: The BMMRS in the 1998 General Social Survey . The various BMMRS questions "had the expected relationships with other measures of [religious] concepts. Overall, the instrument has the appropriate characteristics of reliability and validity to be used in further research." (p. 356). Another analysis of the same data suggested that the BMMRS "is useful for multiethnic research," and that the daily spirituality and values/beliefs scales could benefit by being combined (p. 446). Several researchers evaluated how well

966-622: The Healing of Partisan Divides.” During this time, the institute also began to shape work related to discovering the “sacredness of reality” by integrating the scientific and spiritual ways of knowing. Fetzer has been a major underwriter for Krista Tippett ’s Peabody Award-winning spirituality podcast On Being; Louie Schwartzberg ’s Netflix series Moving Art ; the Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times documentary about

1008-576: The MMRS appears best at measuring "3 primary factors (Meaning, Spirituality, Religious Practices and Organized Religiousness) and 2 secondary factors (Guilt vs. God’s Grace, and Loving/Forgiving God)" (p. 181). John Traphagan , in Research on Aging , examined how the book can "raise questions about the extent to which basic ideas associated with the study of Judeo-Christian religions are meaningful in contexts such as Japan" and other Asian countries (p. 387). He argued that questions suggested for many of

1050-604: The Other”, the “We the People” Book Club Guides, “Virtual Sacred Space”, and the “Practicing Democracy” video series. To extend the reach of its work, the Fetzer Institute partners with co-funders who share a similar vision. These include the John Templeton Foundation , Democracy Fund , Hewlett Foundation , Einhorn Collaborative, and Stand Together . For the institute to succeed, John Fetzer believed that

1092-471: The Social Scientific Study of Religion , and elsewhere. In the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease , Harold G. Koenig wrote that The Fetzer Institute’s Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality is rapidly becoming the standard measure of religiousness/spirituality in the spirituality and health field overall, given its comprehensive nature... There also exist national norms for

1134-637: The University of Massachusetts Medical School; and for Parker Palmer ’s teacher formation programs now known as the Center for Courage & Renewal. Work supported by the institute includes research examining how stress, social support, compassionate love, and religiousness and spirituality affect health and healing with studies through the National Institutes of Health, the General Social Survey, and

1176-595: The World Health Organization. The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, “a 16-item self-report measure of … ordinary, or daily, spiritual experiences—not mystical experiences (e.g., hearing voices)—and how they are an everyday part of the individual’s life,” developed by Lynn G. Underwood while at the institute in 1994, has been used widely by researchers in the social sciences and has been translated into more than 28 languages. In 2009 Fetzer worked with pioneering forgiveness researcher Everett Worthington to create

1218-556: The book's 2003 preface, the Fetzer Institute continues to receive requests for the booklet, and at that time had distributed 2,000 print copies and 1200 internet downloads. The preface reports that "the most popular subscales being used are the Religious/Spiritual Coping and the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scales (DSES). One fourth of respondents have used the booklet in either a course that they teach, in

1260-431: The committee members, are shown in the adjacent table. A sample question from each chapter's questionnaire measure is also shown in the table. Brief measure . The final chapter contains a "short form" (BMMRS) with 36 items mostly drawn from the longer measures that appear in the previous 12 chapters (see table). Two additional items elicit a respondent's overall self-ranking (e.g., "To what extent to you consider yourself

1302-899: The friendship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu ; the PBS series God in America and the Emmy Award-winning PBS Series, Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers . To further its work, the Fetzer Institute brings together leaders, innovators, and stakeholders in its various areas of interest at its retreat center, Seasons. These convenings, which range from contemplative retreats for young leaders to meetings of researchers to advance work in specific sectors, often result in publications and other resources, such as “What Does Spirituality Mean to Us?”, “Sharing Spiritual Heritage”, “Sacredness of

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1344-614: The goals I set for myself. Values      (Ellen Idler) My whole approach to life is based on my religion. Beliefs      (Ellen Idler) Do you believe there is a life after death?* Forgiveness      (Ellen Idler) I have forgiven those who hurt me. Private Religious Practices      ( Jeff Levin ) How often do you pray privately in places other than at church or synagogue? * Religious/Spiritual Coping      ( Kenneth I. Pargament ) I think about how my life

1386-597: The importance of each, separately and jointly. The scope of the book is encyclopedic. I could not identify a question that I had that was not addressed. (p. 508 ) In the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , McFadden wrote: This book represents a major theoretical and empirical contribution not only to the psychology of religion and clinical/counseling psychology but to other fields as well. Along with psychologists, persons in religious professions can learn much from Pargament. Mental health professionals, who traditionally have shunned religion in their own lives and in

1428-516: The institute's endowment is valued at more than $ 560 million. John Fetzer's vision of more consciously integrating the “inner life of mind and spirit with the outer life of action and service” is apparent throughout the institute's programmatic history. Fetzer provided funding through the 1990s toward Daniel Goleman ’s seminal work on emotional intelligence and the establishment of the field of social and emotional learning; for Jon Kabat-Zinn ’s pioneering work on mindfulness-based stress reduction at

1470-516: The lived experience of their clients, might be persuaded by Pargament's broadband approach to investigate how religion operates in the tales of coping and crisis they hear on a daily basis. (p. 368 ) She added that: This book is also appropriate for use in courses on the psychology of religion. My students have responded positively to Pargament's careful exposition of his theory, the support he offers in examples from his research and clinical practice, and his engaging use of metaphor. (pp. 368–369 ) In

1512-466: The measures. Both editions contain an introduction, followed by 12 chapters, each on the measurement of a particular aspect ("domain") of religion or spirituality. Combining all these questions gives the Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality. (MMRS). Concluding pages of each edition select items for a briefer 38-item version of the questionnaire ( BMMRS ), along with data from

1554-704: The outcome or the results of spirituality. However, should they be part of the definition itself?... completely secular persons and atheists may experience these things as frequently or more frequently than so called 'spiritual persons" (p. 352). Others have empirically tested this issue for the BMMRSs Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale finding that it is composed of two factors - theism and civility — with many people who eschew religion and spirituality scoring highly on civility. In Research on Aging , Idler and other working group members reported results of in-depth analyses of data from administering

1596-439: The people running it “must come together and make a settlement within themselves, as to a sense of participation, in the pursuit of this agenda.” He referred to this as a “community of freedom.” To support this philosophy, the institute, under the leadership of president and CEO Bob Boisture, has established a way of working to aid its entire staff in “being the work” and participating in the organization's mission of “Helping build

1638-520: The psychological and physiological pathways involved. The Fetzer Franklin Fund was established by the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust, with the support of the John E. Fetzer Institute, to advance the scientific exploration of a relationship-centered view of reality. It supports publications, organises conferences with global outreach, on advanced science fields like quantum physics and quantum mechanics . The Trust

1680-452: The short version of this instrument (p. 352). However, he expressed concern that some items for some of the domains of the BMMRS might be "contaminated": "Among its spirituality subscales are meaning, values, and forgiveness subscales [containing] items such as... 'Knowing that I am a part of something greater than myself gives meaning to my life'... [and] 'It is easy for me to admit that I am wrong,' ... these positive traits could very well be

1722-430: The spiritual foundation for a loving world”—via diverse policies and staff development efforts—so they can support Institute partners in pursuing this same mission. In 2020, the Center for Evaluation Innovation published the report “Co-creating Our Story: A Hybrid Participatory Case Approach to Evaluating and Accelerating Organizational Change,” documenting this effort. Love is the core energy that rules everything ...love

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1764-467: Was republished as a paperback in 2001. By 2010, it had been cited more than 450 times in the psychology literature. The Psychology of Religion and Coping contains 12 chapters that include an introduction and 11 other chapters divided into 4 parts. The parts are entitled: The book also includes 5 appendices. Reviews have appeared in The American Journal of Psychiatry , The Gerontologist ,

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