Kelly Kapic | Covenant College (original) (raw)

Papers by Kelly Kapic

Journal of Traumatic Stress, Nov 28, 2023

Studies in Christian Ethics, Oct 18, 2023

Journal of black psychology, Feb 12, 2024

Journal of Health Psychology, Jul 7, 2023

While religious meaning-making has been extensively studied, emic religious coping remains largel... more While religious meaning-making has been extensively studied, emic religious coping remains largely unexplored. This consensual qualitative research study explored Catholic cancer survivors’ ( N = 22) descriptions of drawing on their religious framework throughout their cancer journeys. Findings revealed distinctive Catholic resources such as the power of blessings, drawing comfort from the saints and sacraments, and “offering up” suffering as a form of spiritual surrender, suggesting the existence of underlying theodicies of divine purpose as well as potential clinical resources. While many participants described spiritual struggles and questions, most found meaning through deepening their faith, helping others, and re-examining their priorities. Exploratory mixed-method analyses suggest that questioning God may promote turning toward faith, while being angry at God is associated with difficulty in doing so. The findings have implications for research, pointing to emic practices that merit further study.

Current Psychology, May 3, 2023

Global meaning systems help people make sense of their experiences, but suffering can violate glo... more Global meaning systems help people make sense of their experiences, but suffering can violate global meaning and create distress. One type of potential violation is conflict between one's experience of suffering and one's deeply-held beliefs about God as loving, powerful, and just. The problem of theodicy-why an all-powerful and all-loving God would allow suffering-has long been an important theological and philosophical concern, but little is known about how theodicy plays out psychologically for religious individuals facing serious life difficulties. To address this issue within a specific religious tradition, Christianity, we drew upon philosophy, Christian theology, and psychology to develop the construct of theodical struggling. Through theological and philosophical input, we generated a 28-item pool and conducted 10 cognitive interviews with a diverse sample of Christian adults. In three consecutive online studies of Christian adult samples, we reduced the scale to 11 items through PCA, found a strong one-factor solution using EFA, and found support for the one-factor solution along with preliminary reliability and validity. This newly-developed Theodical Struggling Scale represents an important advance in understanding individuals' experiences of ruptures in their beliefs regarding God's goodness and paves the way for future research on this topic.

European Journal of Theology, 2020

SUMMARYThis volume of essays examines John Owen as an orthodox theologian with modern elements in... more SUMMARYThis volume of essays examines John Owen as an orthodox theologian with modern elements in his thought. It situates Owen in his early-modern context, and explores various aspects of his theology (penal atonement, Scripture, effectual calling and catholicity) and his spirituality (trinitarian piety, meditation on Christ, human happiness and public prayer). Although Owen’s context is different from our own, the essays offer insights into what it means to be both orthodox and modern today.RÉSUMÉCet ouvrage contient diverses contributions présentant John Owen comme un théologien orthodoxe à la pensée empreinte d’éléments modernes. John Owen est replacé dans son contexte moderne, et divers aspects de sa théologie sont explorés (la substitution pénale et l’expiation, l’Écriture, l’appel efficace, la catholicité), ainsi que de sa spiritualité (la piété trinitaire, la méditation sur Christ, le bonheur humain, la prière publique). Le contexte de John Owen était différent du nôtre, mai...

There are many books on leadership and noble servitude in the church, and Hill is not shy to admi... more There are many books on leadership and noble servitude in the church, and Hill is not shy to admit it; indeed, his work shows a deep appreciation of the insights of others on the subject of Christian leadership and community dynamics. Servant of All certainly takes its place among them as a sincere account of the New Testament's vision for Christian communities. As Hill explains, this is not a vision of a required structure or an eternally ordained hierarchy, but of an ethosa 'countercultural community' that exhibits 'a distinctive, even radical character … that challenges problematic social norms', a place where 'an alternative reality' preached and practiced by Jesus 'is not only conceptualized' but 'demonstrated' (pp. 176-78). Indeed, Hill's book not only teaches Christians about the relevance of the New Testament for questions about status and ambition; his writing will excite them to live out the New Testament's answers as 'ministers of reconciliation' in the pulpit and in the pew, in the board room and in the soup kitchen, and anywhere in between.

Journal of spiritual formation and soul care, Oct 25, 2022

As scholars who have been engaged in interdisciplinary emic measure development, we provide our r... more As scholars who have been engaged in interdisciplinary emic measure development, we provide our reflections on the prospects and perils of this kind of engagement. We contrast the approach we have in mind with other interdisciplinary activities; we commend engaging social scientists, philosophers, and theologians in collaboration across all of the phases of the measurement development process from the from the development of theory, through the creation of items, to the completion of construct validity work. We describe the values that emerge from interdisciplinary collaboration for emic Christian measure development: overcoming disciplinary limitations, benefiting from distinct knowledge traditions, generating new insights, and increasing communication beyond academic guilds. We next cover three kinds of challenges and obstacles that may weaken the likelihood of success. First, social scientists and philosophers/theologians may have certain assumptions about those from the other disciplines and each practitioner may be unaware of critical concepts of disciplines outside their own. Second, approaches to both method and content differ. Third, researchers from various fields are socialized into contrasting forms and conventions of dissemination. In the final section, we suggest means for overcoming these challenges through careful planning and the cultivation of collegial dispositions, such as intellectual humility, humor, hospitality, and trust.

Theology Today, Jul 1, 2019

To the Puritans, communion between God and man is the end to which both creation and redemption a... more To the Puritans, communion between God and man is the end to which both creation and redemption are the means; it is the goal to which both theology and preaching must ever point; it is the essence of true religion; it is, indeed, the definition of Christianity."

Spirituality in Clinical Practice

Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2022

Suffering is part of the human condition, and people often turn to their faith to make sense of t... more Suffering is part of the human condition, and people often turn to their faith to make sense of this experience. Active religious coping has been related to positive psychological outcomes in individuals facing adversity. However, not all sources of suffering can be resolved. Spiritual surrender is one form of religious coping relevant in these unresolvable situations and has been studied in the areas of addiction, grief and loss, and illness related trauma. Despite the importance of this religious coping practice and its positive impact on wellbeing, spiritual surrender is rarely examined and has been quantified with mixed results. We propose an emic, Christian, conceptualization of spiritual surrender that integrates theological perspectives with religious coping scholarship; then we present three studies describing the development of a new measure. With these studies, we establish and confirm the factor structure of the Christian Spiritual Surrender Scale and evaluate its constru...