Abstract
In the article “Religiously/Spiritually Involved, but in Doubt or Disbelief—Why? Healthy?”, Mrdjenovich (in J Relig Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0711-2, 2018) explored the practices of religious attendance and prayer among atheists and agnostic theists. Speed et al. (in J Relig Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01109-1, 2020) offered a commentary regarding Mrdjenovich’s (2018) article with attention to moderators of associations between religious/spiritual constructs and health outcomes. In this rejoinder, I review Speed et al.’s (2020) commentary and I identify a number of concerns, both with their observations and ostensive oversights involving qualitative research methodology, the utility of survey data, the domain of belief, and the impact of calls for a pluralistic approach in the religion-heath research field. I conclude that Mrdjenovich does not misunderstand mechanisms of the (non)religion-health relationship as much as Speed et al. seem to misinterpret Mrdjenovich’s (2018) purpose, perspective, and default position on the issues. I reiterate that a concerted effort is required to study health outcomes among religious minorities.
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Notes
For example, health care providers (physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, etc.) might employ secular analogs of religious/spiritual constructs to reach the broadest group of patients (Carey & Mathisen, 2018; Koenig, 2007). Such an approach is distinct from using religious/spiritual or faith-integrated versions of secular treatments (Koenig, 2005).
I suspect, although I am always prepared to be wrong, that such statements could be interpreted in very different ways depending on the theistic orientation of the reader and whether the reader imagines what the author’s theistic orientation might be. Recently, I conducted a survey of authors in the religion–health research field concerning their perceptions and practices of disclosing their theistic orientation in the context of their journal articles (Mrdjenovich, 2020). It may be that such disclosures would help researchers contextualize each other’s work.
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Mrdjenovich, A.J. Fishing in a Puddle of Doubt and Disbelief?: A Rejoinder to the Speed et al. Commentary. J Relig Health 61, 2323–2330 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01200-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01200-1