Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26 (2002), 309–321. Blackwell Publishing. Printed in the USA.

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C 2002 Division 35, American Psychological Association. 0361-6843/02

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE MEANING-MAKING

AND COPING EXPERIENCES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN
WOMEN: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

Jacqueline S. Mattis
New York University

This qualitative study examines the ways in which African American women use religion/spirituality to cope and to
construct meaning in times of adversity. Content analysis of the narratives of a sample of African American women
respondents (n = 23) revealed a set of eight nonoverlapping themes that explicate religiosity/spirituality’s role in meaning-
making and coping. Findings suggest that religion/spirituality help women to (1) interrogate and accept reality, (2) gain
the insight and courage needed to engage in spiritual surrender, (3) confront and transcend limitations, (4) identify and
grapple with existential questions and life lessons, (5) recognize purpose and destiny, (6) define character and act within
subjectively meaningful moral principles, (7) achieve growth, and (8) trust in the viability of transcendent sources of
knowledge and communication. Narrative examples are used to elucidate each theme. Findings point to the importance
of relationships and intimacy in the meaning-making enterprise. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

In the social sciences the lives of African American women
are represented as rife with adversity. The singularity of
this image, although seriously problematic, has inspired
a wealth of research on the coping behaviors and experi-
ences of African American women. That body of research
suggests that in their efforts to cope with life’s challenges
African American women employ myriad strategies includ-
ing humor, revenge (Aptheker, 1982; Lykes, 1983; Stack,
1974), and the advice of other Black women in their social
networks (Myers, 1980; Smyth & Williams, 1991). How-
ever, the most consistent finding regarding the coping ex-
periences of African American women is that religion and
spirituality hold central places in these women’s coping
repertoires. African American women use formal religious
involvement and private devotional practices (e.g., prayer)
to negotiate a range of adversities including race, class, and
gender oppression (see Dodson & Townsend-Gilkes, 1986;
Grant, 1989; Higginbotham, 1997; McKay, 1989; Mattis,
2001), family and parenting stress, financial stress, illness,
psychological distress, and a vast array of daily hassles (Baer,
1993; Brodsky, 2000; Dull & Skokan, 1995; Ellison, 1997;
Handal, Black-Lopez, & Moergen, 1989; McAdoo, 1995;
Neighbors, Jackson, Bowman, & Gurin, 1983; Neighbors,
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jacqueline S.
Mattis, New York University, Steinhardt School of Education,
Department of Applied Psychology, 239 Greene Street, 4th Floor,
New York, NY 10003. E-mail: jsm2015@nyu.edu
Musick, & Williams, 1998; Nelson, 1997; Williams, Larson,
Buckler, Heckmann, & Pyle, 1991; Woods, Antoni, Ironson,
& Kling, 1999). In fact, regardless of their level of involve-
ment in organized religious life, African American women
tend to use prayer as the primary means of coping with
hardship (McAdoo, 1995; Neighbors et al., 1998).
Despite considerable evidence regarding the authorita-
tive roles of religion and spirituality in the lives of women
generally, and African American women in particular, explo-
rations of the spiritual lives of women remain limited in re-
search on both the psychology of religion and the psychology
of women. This qualitative study endeavors to broaden dis-
courses about the lives of women by examining the link be-
tween religion and spirituality, coping, and meaning-making
in the lives of a sample of African American women. In or-
der to achieve this end I first provide a brief treatment
of the literature on religiosity and spirituality in the lives
of African American women. Next, I review the literature
on religiosity, meaning, and coping. Finally, I describe the
findings of this study and outline its practical as well as the-
oretical implications. Importantly, participants’ narratives
are used as vehicles for grounding the findings in these
women’s lived experiences. The reader should be aware that
this study has a distinctly Christian focus—a consequence
of the fact that the majority of the respondents in this study
(as well as most African American women) self-identify as
Christian.
Religiosity and spirituality are distinct but overlapping
experiences; as such, we begin with clear definitions of each

309
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of these terms. Following from Mattis (2000) and Zinnbauer
et al., (1997) “religiosity” is defined as the degree to which
individuals adhere to the prescribed beliefs and practices
of an organized religion. “Spirituality” refers to an individ-
ual’s belief in the sacred and transcendent nature of life,
and the manifestation of these beliefs in a sense of connect-
edness with others (e.g., humans, spirits, and God), and in
a quest for goodness. In this study I use the phrase “re-
ligiosity/spirituality” in the effort to acknowledge the phe-
nomenological link between these two constructs. However,
in discussing the findings of existing research, and in pre-
senting narrative samples from participants in this research,
I employ the terms used by the original speakers.
Religiosity and Spirituality in the Lives
of African American Women
Religiosity/spirituality have been treated with a fair amount
of ambivalence and skepticism in the social sciences. Some
scholars have embraced religiosity/spirituality as important
dimensions of human life. Others have conceptualized reli-
giosity/spirituality as escapist, illogical and pathological re-
sponses to adversity and existential angst (see Freud, 1952
for example). Ironically, the tendency to equate religios-
ity/spirituality with irrationality exists in tandem with a ten-
dency to represent religiosity/spirituality as gendered (read
female) experiences. Certainly, research has demonstrated
that women are more likely to hold memberships in reli-
gious institutions, attend worship services more frequently,
engage in private acts of devotion more frequently, and are
more subjectively religious and spiritual than men (Conway,
1985–86; Jagers & Smith, 1996; Taylor, Mattis, & Chatters,
1999). However, patterns of public and private religious in-
volvement provide only one part of the story of women’s
religious/spiritual lives. What remains unclear is how
women make use of religion/spirituality in their daily lives.
This study examines the ways in which women use reli-
gion/spirituality to construct meaning in times of adversity.
In this endeavor, feminist scholarship proves particularly
valuable.
Over the past 30 years feminist scholars have developed
a sizeable body of work that uses women’s lives and expe-
riences as lenses through which to highlight and challenge
the patriarchal thrust of theology. These scholars have en-
deavored to construct nonsexist and feminist approaches to
the reading of sacred texts (Clifford, 2001; Fiorenza, 1992)
as well as accurate accountings of women’s roles in church
history (see Higginbotham, 1997; Reuther, 1986). Within
this body of work is a corpus of Black feminist/womanist
theological scholarship that pays particular attention to
Black women’s roles in church history, and to their par-
ticularized readings and uses of Biblical texts (see Cannon,
1993; Gilkes, 1993, 2001; Grant, 1989, 1993; McKay, 1989;
Williams, 1993). This latter body of literature suggests that
Black women historically have used religion/spirituality, the
church, and the Bible as transgressive and transformative
MATTIS
spaces. That is, African American women have engaged in
radical re-readings of Biblical text and have embraced pri-
vate beliefs about the nature of the relationship between
God and humans that have helped them to disrupt and
resist the impact of patriarchy and other forms of oppres-
sion including racism. The transgressive nature of women’s
re-readings of Biblical text is evident in Sojourner Truth’s
often cited speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” In her call for grant-
ing equal rights to women Ms. Truth states: “That little man
in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as
men, because Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ
come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God
and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him” (Riggs,
1997, p. 22). As a result of these transgressive readings of re-
ligious texts women have achieved a number of ends. First,
they have challenged men’s exclusivist claims to secular as
well as ministerial leadership (see McKay, 1989). Second,
they have established authoritative philosophical grounds
for challenging and rejecting oppressive social conditions
and restrictive social roles (see Grant, 1989; McKay, 1989;
Williams, 1993). Finally, women have used their transgres-
sive re-readings of sacred texts to create spaces of leadership
and authority for themselves that allow them to exercise in-
fluence over the moral, educational, and relational lives of
men, women, and children within and outside of the African
American community (Gilkes, 2001; Higginbotham, 1997).
In sum, religion/spirituality have played powerful roles in
African American women’s efforts to negotiate and make
meaning of the larger sociopolitical struggles with which
they are faced.
Religion, Spirituality, and Meaning
Meaning-making is a central and defining activity of hu-
man life (Frankl, 1984; Geertz, 1973; Taylor, 1983). Scholars
across the disciplines have endeavored to explore meaning
through a variety of means including examinations of ritu-
als and other symbolic activities (Gluckmann, 1970), and
through analysis of discourse (Barwise, 1988; Gates, Jr.,
1988; Johnson-Laird, 1988; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). How-
ever, as Bruce (1988) and Wuthnow (1987) have argued,
research in psychology generally has relegated meaning to
a secondary consideration, or has completely ignored its
value in explaining behavior. The failure to attend to mean-
ing has been especially evident in research on the lives of
African American women.
In psychology, researchers who are concerned with
matters of meaning have tended to focus on the phe-
nomenological link between meaning-making and coping
(Bulman & Wortman, 1977; Park & Folkman, 1997; Taylor,
1983; Thompson, 1985), and/or on the roles of religiosity/
spirituality in meaning-making and coping (see Burris,
Jackson, Tarpley, & Smith, 1996; Chamberlain & Zika, 1992;
Koenig, George, & Siegler, 1988; Lehmann & Myers, 1989;
Lupfer, Tolliver, & Jackson, 1996; McIntosh, 1995; Miner
& McKnight, 1999; Pargament, 1997; Ritzema & Young,
Spirituality and Meaning-Making
1983; Wuthnow, 1987). Importantly, Berger and Luckmann
(1966) suggest that religion informs meaning-making by
permitting the simultaneous use of four levels of symbol-
ism: (a) “explanations” (efforts to elucidate the relationships
between objects, people, and events); (b) “rudimentary the-
oretical propositions” (maxims, truisms and proverbs that
provide concrete, uncomplicated explanations about life
events and experiences); (c) “explicit theories” (fairly com-
plex explanations about the relationships among and within
individuals and institutions); and (d) “symbolic universes”
that explain key existential dilemmas (i.e., the meaning of
life) and/or posit complex ideas about such existential con-
cerns as freedom. The valences of symbolism outlined by
Berger and Luckmann help to form what Park and Folkman
(1997) describe as “global meanings” (i.e., stable beliefs and
values that guide people’s explanations of events and their
understandings of experiences). According to Berger and
Luckmann, the simultaneous use of these four levels of sym-
bolism allows individuals to develop a vision of reality that
is complex, coherent, sacred, and transcendent. Taken to-
gether, the extant empirical and conceptual literature in the
psychology of religion suggests that meaning encompasses
the ways that events, objects, and experiences are symbol-
ically represented, as well as individuals’ efforts to grapple
with existential concerns (i.e., with questions of purpose,
loss, good, and evil) and to understand the causes and ef-
fects of life events (see Pargament, 1997; Park & Folkman,
1997; Taylor, 1983).
Much of the work on meaning-making and coping in
psychology has been quantitative or conceptual. However,
scholars cogently argue that efforts to excavate meaning
are best pursued through qualitative analysis (Miles &
Huberman, 1994; Rennie, 1999; Strauss & Corbin, 1990).
In keeping with this assertion, this study takes a qualita-
tive approach to the study of the link between religion
and meaning-making. In doing so, the study is positioned
to examine the extent to which, as well as the ways in
which, domains of meaning (e.g., attributions, existential
concerns) emerge in African American women’s narratives.
This study seeks to address a single broad question: How do
religion and spirituality inform African American women’s
efforts to cope with and construct meanings about the ad-
verse circumstances that they encounter? Narrative sam-
ples are used to highlight the common themes that emerge
from African American women’s discourses about the var-
ious coping and meaning-making functions of religion and
spirituality.
METHOD
Participants
Participants in this study (n = 23) were randomly selected
from a convenience sample of African American women
(n = 128) who participated in a survey study of African
American women’s experience of stress and coping. All
311
participants in that larger study were recruited from
metropolitan centers in Michigan and New York, and were
recruited via a variety of means including electronic mail,
fliers, and word of mouth. All 128 women were asked to in-
dicate on their consent forms if, in addition to completing
a survey, they would be interested in participating in an in-
terview. Seventy-eight percent of participants (n = 100) ex-
pressed an interest in being interviewed. In order to ensure
that the narrative data that were collected were sufficient
in volume to yield clear and consistent thematic patterns, a
determination was made to interview a randomly selected
group of 20 to 25% of the 100 women (n = 20 to 25) who in-
dicated an interest in participating in the interview compo-
nent of the study. Twenty-three women were interviewed.
The mean age of the interviewees was 30.9 years (SD =
12.9). Forty-four percent have some college experience or
have earned a college degree. Fifty-six percent have earned
or are in the process of earning a graduate or professional
degree. Sixty-seven percent are single/never married; 6%
are married; 27% are separated or divorced. Women’s an-
nual incomes ranged from under $10,000 to $75,999, with
a modal income of under $10,000 (42%). This low modal
income likely reflects the fact that many of the participants
were students at the time of the study.
Participants discussed a range of adverse circumstances
including, but not limited to, the challenges of confronting
racism (institutional racism as well as the racism of their
peers, professors, supervisors, or bosses); family conflicts
(e.g., conflicts between parents and/or between parents and
siblings); the simultaneous challenges of being a teen parent
and living in poverty; partner violence; loneliness and the
difficulties of trying to find a life partner; living, traveling,
and working in countries, neighborhoods and/or households
where they were not safe; and the spillover effects of prob-
lems encountered by loved ones (e.g., witnessing a sister’s
lifelong struggle with substance abuse, and the stress engen-
dered by trying to help siblings to finance their education).
Procedures
Interviews were conducted by two Black women inter-
viewers (the author and a trained research assistant) and
were carried out in a variety of private settings (e.g.,
in the homes of interviewees). Interviewees were asked
about their encounters with adversity in the past year (e.g.,
“Please tell me about a time in the past year when you
had to deal with a difficult situation related to your fam-
ily/work/relationships/health”) and about the strategies that
they employed in their efforts to respond to adverse experi-
ences. The present study focuses on women’s responses to
the question, “How, if at all, have religion and/or spirituality
helped you in times of stress or trouble?” and to accom-
panying probes. A semi-structured interview protocol was
used in this study. In sum, there was variation in the order
in which the target question (and probes) emerged in the
structure of the overall interview. In order to preserve the
312
natural flow of the dialogue between the interviewer and
interviewee, the question was introduced once the intervie-
wee spontaneously mentioned God, religion, or spirituality
as coping resources. If no spontaneous reference to God,
religiosity, or spirituality was made, then the question was
asked after the interviewee had responded to all questions
about the ways in which she coped with adverse events. The
probes used in the interviews were focused on clarification
(e.g., “Can you tell me more about that?” “You mentioned
prayer, can you tell me more about how prayer works for
you?” or “You said , can you say a little more about what
you meant when you said that?”). The specific probes that
were used depended on the content of the participants’
responses. Interviews ranged in length from 40 to 180 min-
utes (M = 90). All interviews were audiotaped and subse-
quently transcribed. The verbatim transcripts were used as
the sources for content analyses. No monetary compensa-
tion was provided to participants.
Coding of Narrative Data
In order to ensure that the themes that emerged from the
content analyses closely reflected the lived experience of
the respondents, an open-coding process (Strauss & Corbin,
1990) was employed in the treatment of the data. Consis-
tent with recommendations regarding the need for inter-
subjectivity (i.e., shared processes of meaning-making) in
the analytic process (Miles & Huberman, 1994), two Black
women coders (the author and a colleague who was also an
experienced qualitative researcher) conducted line by line
readings and re-readings of the full text of all 23 interview
transcripts. In order to remain as close as possible to the par-
ticipants’ own words and meanings, we elected to identify
thematic categories that were descriptive rather than inter-
pretative (see Miles & Huberman, 1994). Each coder in-
dependently identified emergent descriptive themes from
all of the transcripts. The themes were then compared
and integrated into an initial list of 12 coding categories.
Over a period of four weeks the two coders engaged in
a series of lengthy discussions about the meaning of each
thematic coding category, the interrelationships among the
categories, and heuristics for determining when a partic-
ular response would or would not be coded as an exem-
plar of a particular theme. As a result of these discussions,
thematic categories that represented distinct meanings and
ideas were allowed to remain separate or were disentan-
gled. Categories that were determined to represent a single
semantic set were combined. Consequently, the initial list of
12 themes was reduced to a set of 8 clearly defined, non-
overlapping coding categories. Once this final list of
nonoverlapping themes was identified, the two coders
tested the reliability of the coding scheme. Narrative sam-
ples were randomly selected from two interviews and were
used to establish the reliability of the coding scheme.
Phrases were used as the units of analysis in the coding of
the data. In order to adjust for stylistic differences between
MATTIS
speakers (e.g., to adjust for the tendency of some individu-
als to repeat ideas/themes or phrases) only the presence or
absence of any given theme—rather than the frequency of
occurrence of each theme—was recorded for each speaker.
Again, in the effort to establish clear criteria for the ap-
plication of the codes, each effort to establish reliability
was followed by discussions about the heuristics for ap-
plying the codes. Following from Miles and Huberman
(1994) reliability was calculated using the formula: Reliabil-
ity = Agreement/(Agreement + Disagreement). The over-
all inter-rater reliability of the coding scheme was .82. Once
the reliability of the coding scheme was established a single
coder (the author) used the scheme to code the remaining
transcripts.
RESULTS
The eight descriptive themes that emerged from the nar-
ratives of the interviewees explicated the process by which
respondents rendered adverse experiences meaningful and
the ways in which they used those meanings to inform
their coping choices. The themes were (a) interrogating and
accepting reality, (b) gaining insight and courage needed
to engage in spiritual surrender, (c) confronting and tran-
scending limitations, (d) identifying and grappling with ex-
istential questions and life lessons, (e) recognizing purpose
and destiny, (f) defining character and acting within subjec-
tively meaningful moral principles, (g) achieving growth,
and (h) trusting in the viability of transcendent sources of
knowledge and communication.
Interrogating and Accepting Reality
Social scientists often have conceptualized religion and spir-
ituality as forms of escapism (i.e., religion and spiritual-
ity shield individuals from reality; see Freud, 1952; Marx,
1990). However, 70% of the participants (n = 16) in this
study identified religion and spirituality as forces that en-
couraged confrontations with reality and that provided the
psychological resources needed to accept reality. According
to these participants, adversity tended to highlight a tension
between reality and desire (between “the way things really
are” and “the way we want them to be”). Spirituality played
a key role in women’s efforts to grapple with and resolve
this tension. For example, Adair1 stated:
I guess for me spirituality . . . is seeing things as they
are, not as I would like them to be. No matter how
much you love someone or a situation, you go, “God,
I wish.” Yeah, you wish, but this is how it really is!
And, it’s the thing of when one door closes another
one does open. But, keep your eyes open, and see
that open door and go through it, instead of staring at
that closed door.
Participants asserted that confrontations with reality
(i.e., confrontations with the full significance of a positive or
Spirituality and Meaning-Making
negative situation) were often painful and left them feeling
fragmented. Spirituality provided the strength and protec-
tion needed to maintain psychological integrity (i.e., to keep
individuals “whole”). This “wholeness” was understood as a
necessary condition for learning and for growth. This link
between facing reality, experiencing wholeness, and achiev-
ing growth was voiced by Grace:
[Spirituality] gives you that grace and that strength to
deal with the reality of issues and to come out of them
having learned some kind of lesson. And, to keep you
whole. And, if you’re fortunate and open, you can
actually have grown. The Spirit provides that.
According to the participants, individuals who fail to
face reality close themselves off from crucial opportuni-
ties to learn and limit their own potential to transcend
adversity.
Spiritual Surrender
“Turning things over” to a Higher Power (i.e., what Cole
& Pargament, 1999 refer to as “spiritual surrender”) was a
crucial part of the processes of meaning-making and coping.
Fifty-seven percent of the participants (n = 13) reported
that they engaged in spiritual surrender when they were
unsure of how to cope and/or when they were concerned
about acting in accordance with the intentions of a Higher
Power rather than from the standpoint of individual human
will. For example, Corinthian stated:
Some things I know I can do something about. But,
there are other things I feel like there is nothing I
can do about this, I’m turning it over . . . I just turn it
over . . . Like, “Send me a message!”
Although spiritual surrender was an important spiritual cop-
ing strategy, the participants reported that parameters for
giving things over were not always clear. Spiritual surren-
der required these women to confront the limits of their
abilities and to relinquish the safety that came with per-
ceived personal control. Four of the participants asserted
that they often struggled with problems well beyond the
point at which they should have surrendered them. These
points were discussed by Marlene:
Sometimes I give problems over and that’s not easy!
Because my nature is just try to solve it myself. You
know, just try to deal with it in human terms in the
concrete physical realities of my everyday existence.
But, there are times where that’s not the right strategy,
that there are things you must give over. [JM: How do
you know when?] I don’t know! [ JM and Marlene
laughing] That’s the problem! There I am thrashing
around when I needed to turn it loose.
The reluctance to engage in spiritual surrender was at-
tributable to the women’s belief that they should be able to
handle adversity alone—a perspective that derived, in part,
313
from their perception that Black women must be able to
manage hardships alone if they are to survive (see Wallace,
1978 and Collins, 1991 for discussions of controlling images
of Black women and the consequences of those images). Re-
ligiosity/spirituality challenged these women’s internalized
notions about the meaning of Black womanhood by cre-
ating tensions between a secular image that equates
“authentic” Black womanhood with independence and a re-
ligious/spiritual Black womanhood that requires relinquish-
ing control.
Any and all aspects of an adverse situation may be sur-
rendered. Women surrendered their emotions, their con-
fusions, as well as the lives of others. Redd stated, for ex-
ample: “[S]ometimes I ask Him to help those people. Like,
‘I’m over this now, but please help those two because they
need you!’ ” It appears that by “turning things over” women
gained the power to more clearly see and understand other
side(s) of the circumstances in which they found them-
selves. Further, turning things over to a Higher Power in-
vited individuals into relationship (with God, other divine
entities, and/or other humans). Through these relationships
and the resultant intimacy, individuals were able to gain the
insight, protection, and guidance needed to envision and
achieve outcomes that they would not have been able to see
or achieve on their own. In sum, in the subversive dialec-
tics of the world of religiosity/spirituality, spiritual surrender
represented not concession, but empowerment.
Transcendence
According to 48% of the participants (n = 11), and in keep-
ing with the assertions of McKay (1989), spirituality both
highlighted the boundaries of human ability and permitted
the transcendence of those boundaries. Zura described how
this process happened in her life.
I said, “Well, God, here is where I am. I have done all I
can do! I don’t know where else to go, or what else to
do, the rest is up to you!” And—I’m talking to that
spiritual—that self—that higher power within me.
Then it starts working. “Okay, you can’t do anymore,
girl, so I’m gonna take over now.” And, sometimes this
power works through someone else. Someone comes
to my aid, but it’s after I have connected to the spiritual
being, the spiritual higher power, then help comes to
me through someone. It might be in the form of an
individual or a thing, but that’s how it happens.
Transcendence is phenomenologically linked to spiritual
surrender. Zura asserted that she sought and received
support only after she acknowledged her limits and sur-
rendered herself and her situation to a Higher Power. Im-
portantly, Zura indicated that transcendence occurred in
the context of relationships with others (e.g., with a Higher
Power and/or with individuals). In short, the act of spiritual
surrender, like the act of transcendence, was not a solitary
act. Spiritual surrender required intimacy.
314
Religion/spirituality were represented by some partici-
pants (n = 4) as forces that helped them to confront and
transcend socially constructed boundaries (i.e., boundaries
created as a result of racism, classism, and sexism). Grace,
for example, pointed to the role that religiosity/spirituality
played for her in confronting the limitations that she faced
as a Black woman who grew up in poverty and who was a
teen mother.
Spirituality has helped me, you know, go ahead and do
things that people told me I couldn’t do based upon
where I was born and, you know, what my life tra-
jectory was, and my sons’ life trajectories. And, spir-
ituality has allowed me to say, “Okay, I know those
are real facts, but it doesn’t have to be the truth
for us!”
According to Grace, religiosity/spirituality lead to tran-
scendence by permitting people to develop alternative con-
ceptualizations of life’s possibilities. Religiosity/spirituality
disrupt the semantic relationship between fact and truth.
This disruption emerges as an essential aspect of meaning-
making. Through this disruption Grace was able to dis-
tinguish between socially constructed reality and ultimate,
divine destiny—between that which could not be contested
(“fact”) and that which was possible when one believed in a
Higher Power (“truth”). In short, Grace asserted that even
while she remained fully aware of the limitations facing her,
she was able to transcend potentially desperate life circum-
stances by using her relationship to a Higher Power as a
means of (re)envisioning and (re)creating her destiny (and
the destinies of her sons).
Existential Questions, Answers, and Crucial Life Lessons
Fifty-seven percent of the participants (n = 13) held that in
times of adversity spirituality functioned by highlighting a
crucial set of existential questions, answers, and life lessons.
For example, Zura stated:
You have to cope with the wrongness of it . . . .You
have to cope with it—allow this person to carry on with
whatever they are doing [in order] to understand what
is this person saying? What does this person mean? Is
there something that I have to do to help this person?
Or, is there a lesson in this for me?
Zura noted that stressful events may serve as the con-
texts for learning personally relevant life lessons. However,
stressful events also may reveal lessons that are intended
for others. Efforts to discern who the lessons are intended
for, what the lessons are, and how to actualize them mark
religiosity/spirituality as interpretative enterprises. The no-
tion that religion/spirituality are interpretative in nature was
further underscored by participants’ insistence that, in the
process of coping, individuals must be prepared both to
“hear answers as answers” and to accurately interpret the
answers that they receive. Although they did not always like
MATTIS
the answers that they received, the women asserted that
spiritual and personal growth resulted from trusting in and
living in accordance with received answers (i.e., received
meanings). Marlene described:
Sometimes I don’t like the response, you know. His
answers to problems aren’t necessarily the answers I
would like. But, I think what I’m growing to be able
to do is to recognize the answers as answers, and to
take them and move on. Um, or stand still, depending
on what the directions and guidance are.
Here, again, accepting reality became a crucial part of the
coping process, because individuals had to be prepared to
accept “real” answers and lessons in lieu of more expedient
options.
Marlene pointed out that “waiting,” “quieting,” “stilling,”
and “going inside” the self were crucial strategies in the
process of grappling with existential questions and seek-
ing answers. In traditional social scientific research coping
strategies such as these may be misread as passive, escapist,
or noninstrumental forms of coping. However, these strate-
gies facilitate coping by clearing away distractions (e.g., the
distractions of desire) and by allowing the individual to dis-
cern divine intentions.
Recognizing Purpose and Destiny
Forty-eight percent of the women (n = 11) in this study
insisted that there is a purpose (a plan) both to their exis-
tence and to the negative as well as positive events that they
experience. This knowledge permitted them to put extraor-
dinary as well as mundane happenings into perspective and
shaped the kinds of appraisals and attributions that they
made. Tanya voiced these points:
I believe that there’s a bigger picture here. And, I’m
just a pawn in the game. I believe that. I believe that
you’re not given anything that you can’t deal with.
And, that forces you to deal with things . . . . I believe
that if and when things do happen, they still happen
for a reason. It doesn’t necessarily happen the way
I wanted it to happen, but . . . in the big picture that
doesn’t mean much.
This sense of destiny prompted the women to attribute
divine significance to events that might otherwise have
seemed arbitrary. Because of religiosity/spirituality these
participants understood all events as a part of a larger plan.
Further, consistent with the findings of Koenig et al. (1988),
negative events were re-appraised as challenges, necessary
points of passage, and/or as significant opportunities for
growth.
For some participants (n = 5), beliefs in destiny and
in the existence of “a larger plan” were associated with
a belief that all things and all people are interconnected.
Those who adhere to this belief system held that adver-
sity provided opportunities for personal growth as well
Spirituality and Meaning-Making
as for the growth of family, friends, and acquaintances.
As a result of this belief in interconnected lives and des-
tinies, women recognized that the choices that they made
had ramifications for others. As such, their ways of cop-
ing often reflected their commitment to make coping
choices that would be sensitive to the needs and feelings of
others.
Trusting in the Viability of Transcendent Sources
of Knowledge and Modes of Communication
Central in participants’ dialogues about the role of reli-
gion/spirituality in meaning-making and coping were dis-
cussions about the mechanisms and strategies by which
they came to acquire and validate knowledge. Forty-three
percent of participants (n = 10) suggested that prayers,
dreams, intuition, visions, and proverbs (what Berger and
Luckmann, 1966, describe as “rudimentary theoretical
propositions”) were a few of the modes through which
meanings were conveyed and/or received. These dreams,
visions, and proverbs offered hope, protection, insight, in-
formation, resolutions to problems, and/or they clarified im-
portant questions or lessons. Through these means women
were able to appraise their situations (i.e., anticipate po-
tential threats, evaluate their ability to effectively respond),
and/or learn the immediate and the larger significance(s) of
specific events. These points were articulated by Adair and
Zura. Adair stated:
Dreams. I just have to learn how to piece them
together. . . .I was told a long time ago by this old
man—he said, “You’re very sensitive, but there’s a fear
of what you think will happen . . .” He said, “When
the fear goes away a whole new world will open up
to you. And, with that you have to use your talents to
help other people.” And, it just happened . . . a couple
of years ago, where I don’t have fear anymore when
[spirits or things] come to me. Or, I can feel a pres-
ence in the room. It’s there for a reason—for me to
learn, not to fear.
Zura added:
There are some times when things get so bad, so
stressful, and I feel like—it’s not even worth it. How
can I carry this? And, why is this happening? And, why
me? And, I don’t believe I can really cope with this.
. . . There are all these little poems and all these little
verses that we—that I remember and practice. This
little verse that I always repeat to myself is: “When
you have come to the end of every light you know,
and you are about to step out into the dark, faith is
knowing that there is something solid there for you
to step on, or you are going to learn to fly!” And, I
tell myself that—“if there is nothing there for you to
step on, girl, you are going to fly.” And, I have always
flown!
315
The meanings that were offered through dreams,
proverbs, maxims, and visions were often encoded in a sys-
tem of metaphors and signs. These metaphors and/or signs
came in many forms including somatic cues (i.e., physical
distress) and emotional discomfort. Participants asserted
that when they were willing and able to interpret the signs
correctly, and when they were willing to accept the mean-
ings of these signs, they gained the ability to understand
and/or overcome adverse circumstances. This process was
articulated by Lucienne:
Just the other day I ran into somebody who is more or
less trying to inch her way back into my life, who’s not
somebody I should have back into my life. And, you
know, my stomach got upset ’cause I have gastritis.
And, it started to flare up again . . . And, that night
after seeing this person, I read the Psalms ’cause I felt
so disturbed . . .You know, I was feeling good about
myself, ’cause I was just like, “No, we can’t be like we
used to be!” But, I felt disturbed. I read the Psalms, I
put the Bible under my head, and I had such terrible
dreams. It’s like, “You stay away!” I was just like, “I
hear ya!”
As was the case for Lucienne, prayers and readings of Bibli-
cal passages were crucial in many women’s (n = 8) efforts to
interpret the signs that they encountered. Lucienne’s state-
ment also suggested the importance of trusting in one’s intu-
ition and in one’s ability to correctly interpret the meanings
of signs. Importantly, Lucienne’s focus on somatic cues was
consistent with Patricia Hill Collins’ (1991) assertions that
women are particularly likely to rely on at least two modes of
knowing—embodied experience (i.e., knowledge based on
experiences located in the physical body) and experiences
that transcend embodied forms of knowing. Lucienne did
more than simply acknowledge her physical symptoms (gas-
tritis). Indeed, she “read” (i.e., interpreted) her symptoms
as meaningful metaphors that were a part of a complex sys-
tem of signs that composed spiritual knowing.
Eight women reported that significant female others
(e.g., living or deceased mothers, grandmothers and sisters)
provided protection to them through prayers or through
dreams that forewarned of danger. Through prayers and
dreams women provided tangible links to each other that
extend across geographic space and across time. These
points were expressed by Lucienne and Adair. Lucienne
described:
I feel extremely protected by God, by my spirits, by
my parents, by my mother especially, wherever she is,
[she] will have dreams about me when I have troubles
and will call me and be like, “I keep dreaming about
you, what’s going on?”
Intercessory prayer and other modes of spiritual communi-
cation helped women to maintain connection to and provide
protection for significant others. Adair stated:
316
I prayed a lot for my sister, and I meditated . . . And
so, at night, in my meditation, I would send white light
of strength to her because she needed it and she was
so vulnerable, and I was very frightened. . . .I talked
to God and I said, “Please, you know, watch over her.
Don’t let this knock her down. Let her pick herself
up.”. . .I do believe the voice goes out. The universe
hears it, and something will happen. I may not see it
. . . . It will come. We don’t have to see it.
Adair’s response was an unusual one in that she was the
only interviewee who spoke explicitly about transferring
energy (e.g., white light). However, in other respects her
response was not uncommon. Like Adair, five other partic-
ipants identified the awareness of the transcendent aspects
of spirituality (e.g., positive thoughts and healing touch)
as key features of the role of religion/spirituality in cop-
ing with adversity. Importantly, as Adair indicated, the final
resolution to an adverse circumstance may not be readily
observable. In this regard, faith played an important role
in women’s coping, as well as in their assessments of the
meaning of adverse events.
Acting Within One’s Principles
Forty-three percent of the participants (n = 10) indicated
that they live within a set of religiously and/or spiritually
informed principles (e.g., being nonjudgmental, forgiving,
compassionate) that guide their behaviors. These principles
helped women to navigate between expedient choices and
spiritually responsible or appropriate choices. Cassandra
made this point.
Because of spirituality and because of the sense of
obligation and responsibility, I feel like I need to try
to understand things . . . . So, instead of going out and
attacking someone . . . I try to understand first. That
doesn’t mean that I accept it. But, I at least try and
understand it . . . because I feel . . . obligated to folks.
I’m obligated to see your perspective and not just say,
“You’re wrong.”
Grace articulated a similar perspective. She pointed out
that when she is confronted with the racism and/or the
racist-sexism of her coworkers she is often tempted to re-
spond by lashing out at them, dismissing them, or by aban-
doning her sense of hope, but she does not succumb to
these temptations. She stated:
Spirituality lets me know that the Spirit is there for
all of us. Even people who I think don’t mean well for
me individually, and certainly not for me as a repre-
sentative of a so-called inferior group. It allows me to
touch other areas and move on in spite of all of this
mess. And, it gives me hope that things will change.
And, all I need to do is look at the past and know
that my ancestors have certainly done a lot of things
MATTIS
to make my life more pleasant today. And, so I know
that I need to do my part for the next generation. . . .
And, spirituality allows me to act from my higher self
when I want to act from my lower self. I mean, some-
times I really want to just seriously act out, you know!
And, it allows me to do the right thing when I would
probably not.
For Grace “acting out,” giving up, or withdrawing from
her colleagues would be emotionally expedient choices.
However, religiosity/spirituality have informed her efforts
to achieve emotional self-regulation. Importantly, Grace’s
description of the role of ancestors in her decision reminds
us of the tendency of religious African Americans to define
living as well as deceased others (i.e., deceased relatives and
other spirits) as active and important participants in provid-
ing guidance and support in daily life (Nelson, 1997). Her
reflections on the accomplishments and expectations of her
ancestors, her sense of responsibility to future generations,
and her perspective that God/“the Spirit” is “there for all
of us” have inspired Grace to pursue responsible coping
options.
Participants insisted that the specific coping choices
that they made were organized to be consistent with the
values by which they lived. The focus on living by reli-
giously/spiritually meaningful principles and values even
in times of adversity gave coherence to behavior in times
of stress. Cannon (1993) in her discussion of Black wom-
anist theology suggests that “[c]ommunion with one’s own
truths makes one better able to seize and delineate with
unerring discrimination the subtle connections among peo-
ple, institutions, and systems that serve as silent acces-
sories to the perpetuation of flagrant forms of injustice”
(pp. 304). In keeping with Cannon’s assertions, it appears
that participants’ focus on subjectively meaningful values
may provide them with lenses through which to more
clearly and critically analyze the world in which they
live.
Achieving Growth
Thirty percent of the participants (n = 7) reported that
they believed that both positive and adverse events sig-
naled a crucial set of opportunities for growth or self-
transformation. Participants indicated that spirituality led
them to excavate lessons and signs from their own lived
experiences and from the experiences of others. These
lessons and signs provided fertile ground for personal
growth. For example, Grace stated, “I mean, actually,
you either go through it or grow through it. And since
you’re going through it anyway, we might as well grow
through it.”
Many participants expressed the idea that accepting
change and learning one’s life lessons made personal and
spiritual growth possible. In contrast, participants believed
that individuals who are resistant to change are consigned
Spirituality and Meaning-Making
to repeat negative events until transformation—through the
learning and internalization of life lessons—is achieved.
DISCUSSION
What do Black women’s narratives help us to learn about
the role of religion/spirituality in meaning-making? The
findings of this study indicate that religion/spirituality help
women to interrogate and accept the reality of their cir-
cumstances; identify, confront, and transcend limitations;
engage in spiritual surrender; identify and grapple with ex-
istential questions and life lessons; recognize their own pur-
pose and destiny (and the purpose of others’ lives); act in
principled ways; achieve growth; and accept transcendent
sources of knowledge. These themes do not suggest a hier-
archy through which individuals must travel in the effort to
construct meaning. Instead, they simply name critical parts
of a process of meaning-making.
In their discussions of each of these themes, the par-
ticipants revealed a number of critical points regarding
meaning. First, contrary to traditional social scientific per-
spectives that posit that individuals use religion and spiritu-
ality exclusively as sources of emotional comfort or to shield
themselves from the realities of their circumstances, the
participants in this study suggested that religion/spirituality
help them to confront and accept reality. Religion and spir-
ituality are described by these women as analytic devices
that promote rational and critical thought. The clarifying
and analytic functions of religiosity/spirituality should in-
spire researchers and practitioners to explore more fully
the ways in which Black women use religious and spiritual
ideologies to formulate or challenge particular ideas about
their experiences and the worlds in which they live.
Second, the findings point to a set of processes by
which religion/spirituality create meaning. Participants sug-
gest that meaning emerges out of disruptions of taken-for-
granted semantic and symbolic relationships. The capacity
to invent new ways of understanding, thinking and being
reflects what Stewart (1996) describes as the “improvisa-
tional” potential of indigenous Black religiosity/spirituality.
This finding regarding the disruption of old meanings and
the creation of new ones reflects the belief of Black men
and women that God is able to create new ends out of old
circumstances and is able to achieve great things in and
through the lives of people who might be constructed as
marginal. Researchers and practitioners are cautioned to
be mindful of religion/spirituality’s analytic, interpretive,
and constructive functions in the lives of Black women.
Practitioners, in particular, may be especially well served
by attempting to work collaboratively with their African
American women clients to make deliberate use of reli-
gion/spirituality’s analytic, interpretative, and constructive
functions.
Third, consistent with the valences of symbolism out-
lined by Berger and Luckmann (1966), many participants
asserted that dreams and “rudimentary theoretical proposi-
317
tions” (e.g., proverbs) help to clarify the proximal meanings
of particular events, as well as the life lessons that those
meanings and events reveal. For these women, dreams,
proverbs, and the like appear to be sites in which knowledge
is located, as well as sites for the validation and transmission
of knowledge. The notion that knowledge can be produced,
validated, and transmitted via these modes defies rational,
scientific thinking. However, for religious/spiritual African
American women, these modes and sites of knowledge pro-
duction and transmission are immune to scientific critique
and inquiry. In keeping with the assertions of Patricia Hill
Collins (1991), these women’s knowledge claims are author-
itative not because they are consistent with mainstream or
patriarchal modes of knowing, but because they are a part
of a legacy of knowledge production and validation that
is familiar to African American women. Researchers and
practitioners must be mindful of the reality that there are
myriad processes by which women acquire, interrogate, and
validate knowledge. Further, we must seek to understand
the links between these processes of meaning making and
knowledge production and Black women’s efforts to make
sense of and manage distress.
Fourth, the findings point to a relationship between re-
ligiosity/spirituality, meaning, and interpretation. The sym-
bols that emerge in dreams, proverbs, and in daily interac-
tions must be decoded in order for learning and growth to
occur. This focus on symbolism and interpretation is con-
sistent with the conceptualization of meaning offered by
Geertz (1973) and Mechanic (1986) who suggest that mean-
ing is determined, in part, by the symbols that individuals
and cultures use to reflect the worlds in which they live,
by the location of speakers, and by the way in which in-
dividuals are positioned to interpret these symbols. Both
research and clinical work may benefit from explorations
of the ways in which a range of factors (e.g., gender, gen-
der socialization, religious/spiritual beliefs, ethnicity, age,
class, and event-related factors) jointly inform religious
people’s ideas about what constitutes meaningful symbols
and their ideas about appropriate ways to interpret those
symbols.
Fifth, consistent with the work of a number of fem-
inist theorists (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule,
1997; Surrey, 1985) the narratives highlight the point that
for these women meaning is constructed in the context
of relationship. Sociologists generally argue that psycho-
logical approaches to meaning are problematic in that
they tend to place primary focus on the individual as the
unit of analysis (Bruce, 1988). However, in keeping with
Belenky et al.’s (1997) notion of “connected knowing” all of
the participants in this study insisted that their relationships,
particularly their relationships with other women (e.g., their
grandmothers, mothers, and sisters) served as the contexts
in which they made sense of the events they encountered
and the worlds in which they live. Further, these women’s
beliefs in the interconnectedness of people’s lives and des-
tinies, their use of intercessory prayer, and their reliance on
318
God, ancestors and human others for guidance, support,
protection, and knowledge suggested that even seemingly
“private” acts of devotion have a relational foundation. The
fact that intimacy plays such a critical role in the creation of
extended networks of support and care, and in the creation
of meaning suggests the need for an integration of the-
ories of meaning, theories of religion and spirituality, and
relational theories. Through the critical integration of these
bodies of scholarship we will be better poised to understand
the specific ways in which women’s relationships with God
and with other women, and their religious/spiritual beliefs
help to shape their coping choices and the meanings that
they construct about stressful events.
Finally, the findings of this study underscore the point
that meaning cannot and should not be divorced from
epistemology. Patricia Hill Collins’ (1991) work on Black
feminist epistemology is particularly relevant here. Collins
(1991) asserts that Black women’s particular ways of know-
ing hinge on four factors: (1) concrete personal experience
as a condition for meaning-making; (2) the importance of
dialogue as the source of knowledge validation; (3) the abil-
ity of the individual to ground her knowledge claims in an
ethic of caring; and (4) the ability of the individual to demon-
strate an ethic of personal accountability. These four themes
resonate strongly in the narratives of these respondents.
Despite (or perhaps because of) their awareness of public
skepticism surrounding religiosity/spirituality, the women
in this study consistently offered concrete, “personal testi-
monies” of the powerful ways in which religiosity and spir-
ituality (e.g., the power of prayer and of dreams) mani-
fested in their lives. In addition, consistent with Collins’
discussions of the importance of dialogue in the validation
of knowledge, participants routinely pointed to dialogues
that emerged out of their intimate connections with friends
and family (particularly female friends and family) as the
primary contexts in which they came to evaluate the signif-
icance of critical events and signs. Further, in keeping with
Collins’ notions regarding the ethic of personal responsibil-
ity and the ethic of caring, participants routinely pointed
to the importance of living in accordance with subjectively
meaningful moral values (e.g., forgiveness, empathy) even
in the midst of adversity. The participants seem to be con-
stantly aware that the way that they live their lives and their
level of commitment to particular values, are important tests
of character, and are signs of both the authenticity of their
religious/spiritual convictions, and the depth of their reli-
gious/spiritual maturity.
The study raises important points for reflection regard-
ing religion/spirituality’s role in meaning-making. First, in
these interviews a number of participants noted that they
rarely share their religious or spiritual beliefs and experi-
ences outside of the African American community or out-
side of their friendship support networks, because they fear
that they will be disbelieved or marked as “insane.” The con-
cerns that participants bring to dialogues about religiosity
and spirituality suggest the need for the development of
MATTIS
an ethos of trust and responsibility between study partici-
pants and scholars pursuing this line of research. Second,
discussions of religion and spirituality remind us that we do
not have an adequate public language for discussing these
topics. Participants’ efforts to articulate the complexities of
their beliefs and experiences often were punctuated with
sounds (e.g., hums) that were rich with meaning but that
did not translate easily into spoken word. We must concede
that there are some aspects of religiosity/spirituality that
may always elude language. However, it is crucial that re-
searchers as well as therapists and service providers develop
methodologies that will allow individuals to use multiple
modes of expression (i.e., verbal, behavioral, visual) in their
discussions of religiosity/spirituality. We also must develop
strategies of analysis that will allow us to integrate effectively
these various modes of expression. Only with these method-
ological and analytic advances can we move toward more
complex and accurate representations of women’s lived ex-
perience of religiosity and spirituality.
As is the case with all qualitative studies this research has
important limitations. The study is intended to elucidate
points; however, it does not endeavor toward generalizabil-
ity. The nongeneralizability of these findings is underscored
by the fact that the participants in this study are well ed-
ucated. We must consider that the process(es) of making
meaning from religion and spirituality may vary in accor-
dance with both level of education and with factors that are
correlates of education and class (e.g., neighborhood com-
position, denominational affiliation). Further, we cannot ig-
nore the potential impact of social desirability in studies of
religiosity and spirituality. Participants may focus height-
ened attention on the importance of religiosity/spirituality
in their coping experience and may be reluctant to discuss
the negative impact of religion/spirituality in their lives.
Finally, given the intentional focus on African American
women in this study the findings of this study cannot and
should not be generalized to African American men or to
men and women of other ethnic backgrounds.
The methodology used in the analysis of these data also
deserves attention. The fact that a single coder applied the
coding scheme to the narratives is a limitation in that it
certainly leaves room for the introduction of idiosyncratic
deviations from the coding scheme. However, this and other
strategies of analysis must be understood as a part of a
larger conceptual and methodological debate. Social sci-
entists agree that meaning-making is an intrinsically sub-
jective process that is shaped moment-to-moment by cul-
ture, context, the particular relationship between speakers
(e.g., interviewers and interviewees), and by the identities
and social locations of speakers (Agar, 1996; Merrick, 1999;
Rennie, 1999). The analytic enterprise introduces addi-
tional layers of subjectivity since those who code/analyze
data inevitably bring their identities, views, and meanings
to bear on their evaluation and interpretation of the orig-
inal narratives. Some scholars insist that certain structures
must be imposed on the process of managing narrative data
Spirituality and Meaning-Making
in order to locate qualitative analysis as a scientific (i.e.,
reliable, credible, valid, and “objective”) enterprise (Miles
& Huberman, 1994). Others insist that these multiple lay-
ers of subjectivity must be acknowledged and examined but
should not be erased or artificially controlled (see Merrick,
1999; Rennie, 1999; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). On a practical
level these concerns often manifest in active and unresolved
debates about whether researchers should work alone or
in teams in the data collection, data analysis, and writing
phases of qualitative research. This study took a “both-and”
approach (both team oriented and singular). However, the
field stands to benefit from studies that make deliberate,
creative, and critical use of various strategies of analysis in-
cluding studies that more firmly embrace the role of subjec-
tivity and those that attempt to establish validity or credibil-
ity through the use of intersubjectivity (e.g., by conducting
reliability checks at multiple points in the coding process as
recommended by Merrick, 1999 and Miles & Huberman,
1994).
The growing fields of feminist methodology and fem-
inist epistemology, and ongoing research in African
American (liberation) theology and feminist theology
promise to add greater depth to present knowledge about
the roles of religiosity and spirituality in the lives of Black
women. To the extent that we link Black feminist epistemol-
ogy with dialogues about meaning and religion/spirituality,
we will create a space for interrogating how women’s ex-
periences and their ways of knowing bear on their efforts
to (1) know God/the divine as well as the sacred and tran-
scendent dimensions of the world in which they live; (2)
validate their own and each others’ knowledge claims about
the transcendent dimensions of life; and (3) translate this
knowledge into survivalist and transgressive action in ev-
eryday life. The benefits of forging this line of research will
be profound.
Initial submission: August 10, 2001
Initial acceptance: March 25, 2002
Final acceptance: May 6, 2002
NOTE
1. Pseudonyms are used throughout this manuscript in order to
protect the identity of the interviewees.
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