Positive Affect and Religion; Some Thoughts

• PTSD by (No author), 5/24/96
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    • Positive Affect and Religion by Ray Schroeder, DMin, 12/3/96
      
      

Your questions have triggered a good deal of interest-excitement in me, Ray. Apologies for slowness responding; I just got an on-line service.

You are absolutely right; religion/spirituality involves much more than just shame; all of the affects can be involved. I loved your desciption of the eucharist as God's smile. I have been thinking a lot about community over the last several years, and am fascinated by the ways in which affect is manifested in spiritual communities. For example, a number of us in Burlington have sung in an ecumenical Gospel choir organized by the only Black church in Vermont. The style of worship is much more exciting than what we grew up with in White, mainline Protestant churches, and we really enjoy it.

Another example is the relief of negative affect, which, according to Tomkins, produces positive affect. He gives us ninteen rules of affect dynamics which are quite interesting. The complete relief of shame, for example, produces joy. In that light, it is interesting to think about the role of confession and pardon in Christian worship---it serves a very important function. (Many faiths provide mechanisms for pardon and restoration of relationship between people and God, and with each other.)

The interaffectivity and affective resonance is crucial in faith communities, as in families and couples.

On your question about individual spiritual seeking, I will answer briefly, but want to keep pondering it, because I'm not sure. I think affect theory is not undermined; I can think of a number of situations based in scripts, rather than innate affect, which would apply to that situation. What do you think?

Religions serve as affect modulation scripts.

• A patient's perspective of Religion as a script for affect modulation. by David J. Chiu , B.A., 1/14/99
• A patient's perspective of Religion as a script for affect modulation. by David J. Chiu , B.A., 1/14/99