CHAPTER 20
Rachel M. Hershberg, Ryan M. Niemiec, and Irwin Kula
Abstract
Researchers in philosophy and psychology have called for an integration of the science of positive psychology with the humanities, to catalyze new avenues of flourishing throughout society. Religion, as a field within the humanities, may be well poised to be integrated with positive psychology, namely character strengths, to promote flourishing. On the other hand, religious institutions have entrenched and sacrosanct perspectives and traditions, which may preclude them from using the science to become houses of human flourishing. To explore this potential integration, the Flourishing Congregations Project was developed. The project included ten distinguished rabbis who were immersed in the science of character strengths and well-being, and were tasked with developing insights and practices to modify their High Holidays services to meaningfully impact their congregants. The chapter presents qualitative findings of this project, including examples of receptivity and barriers to change among rabbis and congregants, and broader implications across congregations and communities.
Key Words: character strength, flourishing, congregation, science of well-being, High Holidays, positive religion
Introduction
Researchers in the fields of philosophy and psychology have called for an integration of the science of positive psychology with the humanities, such that important questions regarding how to promote flourishing throughout society might be answered. As Pawelski and Tay note (2018), although scholars in positive psychology have made progress in defining, operationalizing, and assessing concepts central to the study and promotion of well-being (e.g., joy, hope and love), some of these constructs continue to lack the cultural and contextual richness experienced by individuals who express them within specific communities. Partnering with scholars in the humanities could help to capture more of the nuanced cultural meanings of these terms. Moreover, such collaborations could also yield interventions that more successfully promote flourishing across a wide variety of contexts, the implementation of which requires deep immersion in the knowledge base about these contexts that has been generated across time, largely in the humanities (Pawelski & Tay, 2018). Religion is an area in the humanities that seems to lend itself well to being integrated with the science and practice of positive psychology toward enhancing the study and promotion of flourishing. Religious institutions were ideally created, and continue to exist, to help humanity achieve the promise that lies in the many positive qualities with which we have been imbued. Put another way, one of the central “jobs to get done” of religion, as both a field of study and practice, is to enhance human flourishing and to develop character. Moreover, religious institutions may be prime candidates for institutionalizing gains in knowledge from positive psychology to help people flourish, as both the practices and rituals promoted in them have been found to relate to well-being (e.g., prayer, VanderWeele, 2017), and millions of people are served by religious institutions throughout the world. However, the challenge in this domain is that religious institutions often have entrenched perspectives and practices that are encapsulated in a protective shell of “the sacred” as well as sacrosanct and sentimental tradition. The result is resistance—even in light of modern science—to transforming practices and rituals into interventions promoting human flourishing.
The Flourishing Congregations Project (FCP) was developed in the fall of 2016 to investigate these questions. It was hoped that through this project, religious leaders might be encouraged to more intentionally draw on the lens and tools of positive psychology to better understand which religious practices and rituals are successful (and unsuccessful) in promoting flourishing, and how some examples of practice and ritual might be further adjusted, customized, redesigned, and/or rethought to better help humanity to flourish. The lead investigators and facilitators of this project were rabbinic scholars of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), and positive psychology thought leaders and psychologists working with the VIA Institute on Character, a global nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character strengths. The specific participants in this project were ten leading rabbis in the United States from across a range of Jewish denominations (Reconstructionist, Reform, and Conservative), and two or three of their congregants. Additionally, after the first year of the project, an outside evaluator, the first author of this chapter (a psychologist with expertise in positive youth and character development), was hired to conduct an exploratory evaluation of the program. This evaluation examined if and how the project enhanced flourishing among rabbis and their congregants, and what questions might be examined in the future to contribute to the study and promotion of flourishing throughout religious congregations.
Although the rabbis and their congregants were the participants in this project, because rabbis are also scholars and serious practitioners of Judaism, they provided valuable insights and feedback about how to connect, integrate, and apply what they were learning from the science of character strengths and well-being to Jewish knowledge and practice. In this way, the project and the evaluation of the project were exploratory and participatory (Fetterman, Rodríguez-Campos, Wandersman, & O’Sullivan, 2014).
In the following, this project is described in relation to the question of what psychological and behavioral processes might connect the humanities (in this case, the study and practice of Judaism) to flourishing. Prior to describing the project, research regarding how religion and flourishing are associated with one another is reviewed, and gaps in this research are articulated. In this review, we focus in particular on research regarding character science, flourishing, and religion (for additional research on flourishing and religion, see Koenig, Koenig, King, & Carson, 2012; Myers, 2018; and Newman & Graham, 2018). The methods and findings from the evaluation of this project will then be discussed in regard to this literature, and implications for future research and programming that continue to leverage the strengths provided by religious leaders and institutions (as a component of the field of religion), and for the science of positive psychology, will be described.
The Character Strengths and Flourishing Link
From the infancy of the science of positive psychology, character strengths, or positive traits, were articulated as one of the most central elements of the field (Seligman, 1999). After extensive research, six overarching virtues (Dahlsgaard, Peterson, & Seligman, 2005) and twenty-four character strengths nesting under these virtues, were articulated. This is known as the VIA Classification of character strengths and virtues and was detailed in a scholarly tome (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Since the arrival of this consensual nomenclature, over 600 studies have been published to date in basic and applied research on this VIA Classification, many showing beneficial outcomes associated with these character strengths (VIA Institute, 2019). One of the outcomes most investigated has been well-being, in which various measures of flourishing (e.g., positive relationships, accomplishment, meaning) have been positively correlated with character strengths. From early studies (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005) to recent studies (Wagner et al., 2019), to cross-cultural work (Shimai et al., 2006), to comprehensive well-being reviews (Harzer, 2016), to direct causal work (Proyer et al., 2013) and multiple intervention studies (e.g., Gander et al., 2013), the alignment of well-being indicators and character strengths is one of the most consistent positive findings in the field of positive psychology.
In terms of character strengths and religiousness, spirituality, and related areas such as meaning, Berthold and Ruch (2014) examined those who practice their religion and those who do not. They found that those who practice their religion scored higher on the character strengths of kindness, love, hope, forgiveness, and spirituality, in addition to a more meaningful life, compared with those who have a religion but do not practice it and compared with the non-religious (Berthold & Ruch, 2014). The twenty-four character strengths are naturally intercorrelated with one another, which includes the strength of spirituality. The top five correlations with the strength of spirituality are gratitude, hope, zest, love, and kindness (reported in Niemiec, 2018, from data collected by McGrath, 2013). There have been several studies looking at the link between character and meaning in life. The character strengths most connected with meaning in life—in a study using both self-report and other-report—were curiosity, perspective, social intelligence, appreciation of beauty/excellence, gratitude, and spirituality (Wagner et al., 2019). Other studies have also found strong connections between meaning and spirituality, gratitude, and curiosity, as well as the strengths of hope and zest (Peterson et al., 2007).
Given the diversity of the religious landscape in the United States and beyond, more research is needed that explores these potential connections within different religious communities, with consideration given to how being a part of a religious group that is in the minority might influence this link, as well as to how character strengths that are particularly valued within religious communities might relate to flourishing. To address this gap in the research, and in answer to the larger call to explore productive ways the science of positive psychology might bridge with the humanities, the Flourishing Congregations Project is examined in the following section.
The Flourishing Congregations Project
As described previously, the FCP was developed in the fall of 2016 as a partnership between the VIA Institute and CLAL. The project was led by two rabbinic scholars from CLAL (including the third author of this chapter), and three psychologists from the VIA Institute (including the second author of this chapter). The Project participants were ten distinguished rabbis from across the United States, who were already active in CLAL’s Rabbis without Borders (RWB) and collectively represented a wide range of Jewish practice. The mission of RWB is to “use Jewish wisdom as a source of well-being for anyone anywhere” (RWB, 2021). As such, these rabbis already had strong commitments to promoting flourishing within and beyond the Jewish communities with which they worked. Nevertheless, through this project, rabbis were immersed in extensive training in the science of well-being, namely character strengths and well-being theory.
The character strengths material encompassed the latest character strengths theory, concepts, research, and best practices in helping individuals and groups. The well-being theory material stemmed largely from Seligman’s (2011) theory of PERMA, an acronym for five areas of well-being that can be independently assessed and intervened upon: positive emotions, engagement, relationships (positive), meaning, and accomplishment. According to this theory, the twenty-four character strengths mentioned earlier are the pathways to each of the PERMA areas (Seligman, 2011). The science has continued to strongly support that connection (e.g., Wagner et al., 2019).
Thus, the year-long project took place from the fall of 2016 to the fall of 2017 and included a range of activities:
•Rabbis took the VIA Survey, a free, online scientifically valid measure of the twenty-four character strengths to become aware of their signature strengths. The rabbis read a central book on the practice of character strengths, Mindfulness and Character Strengths (Niemiec, 2014), chapters from Peterson and Seligman (2004), and peer-reviewed articles on flourishing (e.g., Seligman et al., 2005).
•Rabbis came together for a five-day training immersed in learning and experimenting with character science, PERMA theory, and discussions of integrating this knowledge with the practice of Judaism (including Jewish liturgy, wisdom, practice, and interpretation of religious texts) under the mentorship of three psychologists from the VIA Institute and the two rabbinical scholars from CLAL.
•Rabbis received an extensive Flourishing Congregations resource manual and were encouraged to continue exploring these intersections through emails and online discussion on a joint listserv as they planned for High Holidays.
•Additional follow-up involved rabbis taking part in three to four individualized coaching calls with a psychologist from the VIA Institute, focusing on their experiences of bringing the character strengths into their personal lives, their rabbinical work, and their High Holidays preparations.
•About one year following the rabbis’ engagement in the project, they rolled out specific character strengths and flourishing applications for the High Holidays services in their congregation.
The culminating activity in which the rabbis engaged was applying character science to develop a wide array of insights, practices, and protocols toward a more intentional use of High Holiday worship services and activities to promote flourishing of attendees.
The High Holidays include Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a span of ten days in the Jewish calendar devoted to repentance, or teshuvah, where Jews are supposed to spend time reflecting on their sins, asking for forgiveness, granting forgiveness, and resolving not to repeat their sins. This is typically a somber experience, though interestingly, Jewish tradition teaches that historically Yom Kippur was the happiest day of the year; the introduction of character science and positive psychology to such rituals represents a significant shift in how the High Holidays are usually approached and paradoxically a return to a more ancient psycho-spiritual flourishing sensibility. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, more Jews reportedly attend their synagogue and participate in synagogue activities in the United States than on any other days of the year.
In the second year of this project (between August 2017 and February 2018), the first author conducted the exploratory evaluation of the program, with a focus on the success of the activities the rabbis implemented. The evaluation included: (1) an in-depth review of all intervention materials; (2) semi-structured interviews with the five project leaders regarding their experiences of the intervention and their expectations of how it might impact rabbis and congregants; (3) content analyses of interviews (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) toward identifying shared understandings of expected impacts of the project on rabbis and congregants and developing a Theory of Change that would guide the evaluation; (4) the development of a Theory of Change diagram illustrating these understandings; (5) semi-structured interviews with each of the ten rabbis regarding their experiences of the project, changes they made to High Holiday services, and other changes they experienced personally and professionally that they believed were related to their participation in the project; (6) interviews with two to three congregants from each rabbi’s synagogue (n = 22) regarding their experiences of the High Holidays and, for those who were aware of it, of the Flourishing Congregations Project more generally; (7) inductive and deductive, across-case and case-based analyses of rabbi and congregant interviews toward understanding potential direct and indirect influences of the project on their lives; and, finally, (8) the development of reports presenting initial findings from the evaluation, with feedback sought from project leaders and rabbis (see Hershberg, 2018, for more information).
The Theory of Change (Figure 20.1) for this project will be presented and described in relation to the guiding theme for this section of this edited volume, that is, regarding the psychological and behavioral processes that might connect the humanities (in this case, the study and practice of Judaism) to flourishing. Then, select findings from interviews with rabbis and congregants will be presented that highlight some of the effective ways in which this intervention appeared to promote flourishing in rabbis themselves and their congregants, as well as the resistances to experiencing flourishing. Implications from this intervention for the future study and application of an approach to flourishing that draws on tools from religion and positive psychology will then be discussed.
Figure 20.1 Theory of Change Guiding the Evaluation of the Flourishing Congregations Project
Theory of Change
After engaging in in-depth interviews with the five leaders involved in this project, Hershberg developed the Theory of Change diagram (Figure 20.1) to guide interviews with the ten rabbis and their twenty-two congregants (across rabbis), and initial analyses of data. This diagram depicts the main ACTIVITIES in which rabbis engaged; the SHORT-TERM OUTCOMES that leaders expected rabbis and their congregants to experience (i.e., October–December 2017); and the LONG-TERM TERM OUTCOMES that they thought some rabbis and congregants might experience. It was expected that some of the rabbis and congregants would reference these long-term outcomes in interviews, but that more time and measurement would likely be required to document them across all or even the majority of participants. Also illustrated are the potential MECHANISMS or processes through which the training and activities in which rabbis engaged as part of their participation in the Flourishing Congregations Project were expected to impact them and their congregants. Each of these components is described in the following.
Theory of Change Guiding the Evaluation of the Flourishing Congregations Project
The major activities rabbis engaged in throughout the FC project were: (1) immersion in the character science literature; (2) taking the VIA Survey and discussing their findings regarding their signature strengths with their fellow rabbis and the project leaders; (3) engaging in ongoing discussion among rabbis in the cohort and the project leaders regarding their plans and attempts to integrate character science and Jewish liturgy; and (4) several coaching sessions with a character strengths expert.
Based on these activities, it was anticipated that rabbis would engage in several processes that would yield beneficial personal and professional outcomes. These processes were described as (1) developing a greater awareness of their signature strengths, which would then help rabbis (2) use their strengths more in their personal and professional lives. It was expected that strength use would be accompanied by self-reflection and self-monitoring, which would, in turn, enable rabbis to develop more awareness of when they were or were not using their strengths in optimal ways or were underusing or overusing them; strengths overuse/underuse are important dynamics of how character strengths come across in context (Niemiec, 2019). Such awareness would also be accompanied by an ability to spot strengths in others, including family, coworkers, and congregants and the ability to use character strengths as a hermeneutic tool in analyzing religious stories and texts. Importantly, these activities and processes were informed by the literature on positive psychology, which has shown that strength awareness and strengths use are essential processes in creating a flourishing life; one representative sample of thousands of workers found that those in the highest quartile of strengths awareness were nine times more likely to be flourishing than those in the lowest quartile of strengths awareness, while those in the highest quartile of reported strengths use were eighteen times more likely to be flourishing than those in the lowest reported quartile of strengths use (Hone et al., 2015).
Rabbis also had the task of making changes to High Holidays services, drawing from their participation in the FCP. It was expected that through (3) practicing integrating character science with Jewish ritual at the intensive trainings, rabbis upon returning to their synagogues would develop a plan for High Holidays and, for (4) linking character science to Jewish liturgy and the High Holiday experience specifically. Finally, through (5) continued engagement in the process of using their strengths in their personal and professional lives, it was expected that rabbis would eventually (6) internalize the character science language and approach and begin to more seamlessly use it in the various contexts of their lives. Here, too, rabbis were expected to draw on their wisdom and experiences to promote greater well-being in their congregants through the integration of Jewish knowledge and character strengths applications.
Some of the major outcomes that resulted from these activities and processes are depicted in Figure 20.1. They include (1) more frequent strength use in personal and professional lives, which would also lead to (2) enhanced personal and professional relationships. In addition, after applying character science to High Holiday services (and to other Jewish activities), it was anticipated that (3) congregants might experience High Holiday services specifically, and “Jewish” more generally, as connected to and promoting flourishing or well-being. Through such experiences, project leaders hoped some congregants might (4) come to use the character science language or approach in their own lives. Finally, leaders also hoped that these activities, processes, and short-term outcomes might eventually lead individual congregants to see and experience “Jewish” as a discernible path to greater flourishing and that such flourishing—and the possibility of “Jewish” being a path of human flourishing—would ripple throughout the congregation and communities more broadly.
Findings from the Flourishing Congregations Project
The analyses of interviews with rabbis and congregants yielded initial evidence indicating that the FCP positively influenced participant rabbis and congregants in several ways. Findings were grouped into three main categories: (1) Impacts on Rabbis, (2) Potential Impacts on Congregants, (3) Case-Based Findings. The first two categories of findings were derived from across-case analyses, that is, from looking at interviews with all rabbis, collectively, and then with all congregants. The third category of findings was derived from considering each rabbi and his/her congregants as a unique case unto itself.
The FCP appeared to positively influence rabbis in a variety of ways. Through taking and discussing the VIA Survey with one another and the leaders, rabbis reported (a) becoming more aware of their signature strengths (what their strengths were and when they were or were not using them), and of the strengths of others, which enabled them to better understand self and others, including family members, coworkers, and congregants. Rabbis (and some of their congregants) also described this enhanced understanding as leading to more resources for resolving conflicts when they occurred, including those related to minor personality differences among board members, to more significant challenges, such as those regarding the future directions of synagogues. Rabbis also reported that (b) their sharpened awareness of signature strengths, more strengths use, and strengths-spotting appeared to enhance their personal and professional relationships. As anticipated, almost all rabbis also reported that the project (c) provided them with a new framework, or lens, to use when approaching Jewish liturgy, which appeared to help them implement changes to High Holidays services and/or to other synagogue activities, including board meetings and educational programs that made these experiences more meaningful. Unanticipated findings were that through implementing these changes, rabbis seemed to become “more accessible” to their Congregants, and appeared “more grounded.” Additionally, most rabbis described developing a (d) new sense of purpose from this project, which appeared to be enhancing their daily work with their congregants. Examples of these findings, and corresponding example excerpts from or about rabbis, are presented in the online supplement.
There is also some initial evidence that the FCP positively impacted congregants through influencing the personal and professional development of rabbis. In a few cases, individual congregants did appear to experience greater well-being (i.e., flourishing) through changes rabbis made to services and synagogue activities. In addition, some congregants described these changes and/or activities as promoting flourishing throughout their communities/congregations more broadly. Examples of impacts on congregants came to the fore in descriptions from congregants and some rabbis of changes and/or activities rabbis created and implemented around High Holidays that integrated Jewish liturgy and character science, such as the messages and workshops on character strengths integrated into the month of Elul, the month prior to the High Holidays devoted to preparing for the High Holidays. In one of the most inspiring cases, for example, a congregant described how one such workshop changed her life by allowing her to leverage her newly identified strengths of optimism and hope. Several rabbis also described making significant changes to the educational programs they provided to youth in their community, drawing from character science and positive psychology.
Rabbis and some congregants also described specific changes/additions to services, such as using a revised version of the Ashamnu prayer that emphasized positive strengths (this prayer is a confessional recited five times on Yom Kippur that traditionally emphasizes one’s sins); using character strengths as guiding themes in sermons and homilies; and witnessing community members share personal stories wherein expressions of character strengths, such as forgiveness or perseverance, were highlighted. Each of these examples were described as making congregants’ experiences of High Holidays more positive and meaningful (see Flourishing Congregations Report, Hershberg, 2018, for full examples of these findings). Select examples of these positive impacts are presented in the online supplement, with supporting excerpts.
Although the project seemed to achieve many of its goals, and had generally positive impacts on rabbis and congregants, case-specific analyses indicated that rabbis and their respective congregants spoke of the impact of the project on their personal and professional lives in different ways. Moreover, these case analyses suggested that individual characteristics of rabbis (e.g., leadership skills) and synagogues (e.g., financial security) might have influenced the effectiveness of the intervention. More specifically, congregants’ particularly compelling descriptions of meaningful High Holiday programs or changes made by rabbis were often accompanied by emphatic descriptions of their rabbis as strong and compelling leaders prior to the FCP beginning. In contrast, when congregants described a lack of meaningful changes to High Holiday services, or ineffective changes, their descriptions were accompanied by less positive descriptions of their rabbis in general, as well as comments about other challenges or frictions within their synagogues. These findings suggest that there will be barriers to successfully implementing interventions aiming to bring positive psychology and flourishing to bear on religious practice in contexts where well-being and flourishing is particularly low (for religious leaders and/or their congregations). Excerpts from congregants supporting this idea can be found in the online supplement.
Conclusion
Scholars from across disciplines have called for more research and programming that leverages the insights gained from both positive psychology and the humanities to promote greater flourishing throughout humanity (Pawelski & Tay, 2018). The FCP was an intervention developed by experts in both positive psychology and the humanities (i.e., Religious/Jewish Studies) to see if integrating some of the teachings from positive psychology (namely, the science and practice of character strengths) with the knowledge and practice of Judaism could enhance flourishing among a select group of Jewish leaders and members of their congregations.
As described earlier, the project was largely successful at enhancing flourishing in many of the participants, and at generating some additional questions for the future integration of positive psychology with areas of religious study and practice. One significant question is: how might religion be utilized further to promote well-being among religious leaders and their congregants? In some of the preceding examples and in the online supplement, rabbis worked hard to help congregants engage in deep reflection about their character strengths so that they could use them more, and through such use, experience greater well-being. In one compelling example, a rabbi modeled for congregants how Jewish liturgy might be connected to character strengths by sending out weekly online messages about this, which led to a grandmother facilitating conversations with her young grandson about how he could put into practice the Jewish value of tikkun olam (“healing the world”).
Another rabbi discussed how his ability to connect prayer and even his discussions of Jewish texts to character strengths and well-being helped him meet the needs of his congregants more; in his words, it “changed my life and the relationship I had with people.” It’s clear that his professional life was enhanced by this, and thereby, his own well-being. These findings also suggest that when rabbis shift their understandings of their roles from preserving and transmitting inherited traditions and rituals to consciously using and adapting those traditions in light of the science of character strengths, these traditions actually become new protocols and interventions that promote well-being. These protocols help rabbis connect parishioners more deeply to their religion and help people flourish; further research may also find that they are potentially a source for new interventions for the field of positive psychology.
In some of the previous examples, it’s clear that the rabbis’ ingenuity yielded some tools that might be useful for further consideration in additional studies that integrate religion and positive psychology. One consistent example was that rabbis reframed some High Holiday prayers such that they would include a sense of hopefulness and looking toward the future, rather than only focusing on repentance and sins of the past. Although some religious leaders might find such a reframing controversial, it did appear to be positively received by members of their congregation. Importantly, rabbis did not completely throw out the traditional somber framing of these prayers, but, rather, added a positive version to the traditional recitations. Future research is needed to confirm if such adaptations—where character strengths of hope and optimism are highlighted—have long-term effects on congregants’ experiences of these important holidays, but preliminary evidence suggests that at least some congregants had a more meaningful experiences of services due to these changes.
Another additional change that appeared to positively influence congregants’ experiences was creating opportunities for them to reflect on their character strengths in workshops connected to the High Holidays. Self-reflection is built into these weeks for Jews; thus adding these workshops did not reflect a controversial shift in ritual. It would, nonetheless, be important to explore if such workshops continue to help congregants think about their own character strengths and to use their strengths more. Previous research suggests that strengths use is highly correlated with flourishing and general well-being (Wagner et al., 2019). Thus, these workshops may hold real promise for a future practice of Judaism (and of other religions) that is more explicitly connected to character science.
We suggest that more dedicated and long-term measurement of the use of such interventions within Jewish and other religious contexts could not only enhance these contexts further, but also contribute to advancing positive psychology. Here, we have presented findings from an initial and short-term experiment drawing on resources from both positive psychology and religion, with a focus on ten specific Jewish settings. Although our research suggests that some of the trusted mechanisms for flourishing identified in the field of positive psychology do translate well to these settings (e.g., enhanced self-reflection, self-monitoring, greater strength use), there is certainly room for more resources and, perhaps, for a more in-depth integration of these character science resources with some of the tools from Jewish ritual and prayer. Jews across the globe may benefit from such continued efforts as, at this current moment, Jews are especially vulnerable to experiencing lower well-being, with the uptick in anti-Semitic attacks in Jewish communities throughout the United States and the world (including during this past Hanukkah; see Romero & Dienst, 2019). Further integration of positive psychology and the humanities, and further application of this integration, may be one answer to this significant challenge.
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