How to Build Resilience
Resilience is widely recognized as an important subject of psychological research. Individuals with the ability to adapt to what life throws at them are better able to thrive. But what is resilience?
Eric Greitens is a distinguished humanitarian and CEO of The Mission Continues, an organization that works with injured military veterans. He and his team are investigating how individuals who have faced harsh circumstances develop, or fail to develop, this invaluable aspect of moral character. The work is supported by a $362,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Reporting on his initial findings, Greitens believes that resilience is often misunderstood. The word is commonly used to mean an ability to recover from setbacks. “We’re discovering, though, that folk who have experienced great difficulties can’t simply bounce back,” Greitens explains. “This is because their experience has become part of them.” Instead, resilience is better thought of as an ability to live through the pain and distress in such a way that it can be used positively. The resilient individual is able to make sense out of what happened to him and thereby become wiser.
Resilience is not just about survivability either. Greitens’ research suggests that it plays a key role in happiness. “One of the ways in which life becomes deeply satisfying follows from the achievement of important goals,” he continues. “This is likely to include overcoming tough odds or being committed to a cause that is far larger than you.” And this too requires resilience.
In other words, resilience is self-reinforcing as a key generator of worth. This chimes with the belief of Sir John Templeton. Writing in Wisdom from World Religions, he noted that by growing physically, mentally, and spiritually, we can “accelerate the assurance that our growing resilience can move us courageously and triumphantly forward.”
A third element that builds resilience has to do with how an individual understands his life. The person who can tell his own story, and relate it to the lives of others who have faced similar circumstances to theirs, is more likely to nurture deep sources of strength. “It is as if they say, others have been here too. I can live through it as well,” Greitens says.
Finally, it looks as if resilience is different from other virtues in certain respects. An individual may display occasional moments of great courage, but resilience must be sustained over time. Only then can it enable the individual to embrace circumstances that may challenge him for prolonged periods.
“Sir John was deeply concerned with understanding how people create meaning and purpose in their lives, even in the face of serious challenges and traumatic experiences,” explains Craig Joseph, director of character development at JTF. “Dr. Greitens’ research, focusing on three quite different groups of people, will provide new information on the sources of resilience. We expect that his research will have an impact not only among academic audiences, but also people facing obstacles and hardships in their own lives.”
Where Did Religion Come From?
Robert Bellah is arguably the best known American sociologist of religion. His latest book, Religion in Human Evolution, has been called “a breathtaking survey of the whole sweep of the history of religiosity,” by religious scholar Mark Juergensmeyer.
Bellah organized a special session at the November 2011 meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) to discuss the book, which was supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation.
Recordings from the AAR session are now available on the leading social sciences and humanities blog, The Immanent Frame.
Luke Timothy Johnson notes that Bellah’s “highly detailed analyses of the mimetic and mythic dimensions of religion provide balance and depth to his argument concerning the ‘breakthrough’ of the theoretical or critical dimension that is claimed to characterize the so-called axial age.”
Jonathan Z. Smith appreciates the breadth of the study, and that its account of the development of human religiosity is situated within biological evolution. He also has reservations about the notion of an axial age, a concern shared by Wendy Doniger.
Bellah, in responding to his readers, continues a fascinating exchange on this central theme in contemporary religious studies.
Learning to Pray
Many Christians have a personal experience of God, while skeptics find that hard to believe. Can science help resolve the difference?
Tanya Luhrmann, a professor of anthropology at Stanford University, describes how people learn to experience the divine in her new book, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. Her research, utilizing insights from the social sciences, is supported by the John Templeton Foundation. A review in The New Yorker this week remarks, “She has addressed a subject that most other people would never touch. We should thank her.”
Luhrmann explains that prayer can train individuals to attend to their inner experiences so that thoughts become more real, and emotional insights become more tangible. She believes that people are not hard-wired to believe in God, and shows that some are better at visualizing the divine than others, though most people can learn to do so.
As an anthropologist, Luhrmann is clear that her job is not to assess the veracity of people’s experiences, but she concludes that believers are genuinely changed. Further, the work it takes to experience God in this way enables people to hold onto their beliefs in the face of the skepticism of the secular world.
Valued Advisor to JTF, Sanford (“Sandy”) N. McDonnell, 1922–2012
Sandy N. McDonnell, a valued member of the John Templeton Foundation’s Board of Advisors between 2000 and 2006, died March 19 at the age of 89. He was a longstanding national leader in character virtues.
“No other single American citizen has had a bigger impact in the field of character education than Sandy McDonnell,” said Mark Hyatt, president and CEO of the Character Education Partnership of which McDonnell was chairman emeritus. “He changed and improved the lives of thousands and thousands of people, young and old, through his selfless service and leadership.”
He earned degrees from Princeton University, the University of Colorado, and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as several honorary doctorates. He worked at McDonnell Aircraft, eventually becoming chairman and CEO of the company. Among his many other roles, he was also the National President of the Boy Scouts of America from 1984 to 1986.
The Foundation remembers with profound respect and admiration Sandy McDonnell’s pursuit of the development of good character in America’s youth, his determination to identify and recognize leadership and excellence in character education, and his enthusiasm in sharing effective strategies and best practices to help schools across America. He was truly a pioneer in redefining the concept of “performance character” in schools and in all walks of life, and he will be greatly missed.
