The term disaster refers to "a potentially traumatic event that is collectively experienced, has an acute onset, and is time-delimited" (McFarlane & Norris, 2006, p. 4). Typically, disasters are classified into two major categories, based on whether they are natural disasters (e.g., floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.) or human-caused disasters (e.g., terrorist attacks, mass transportation accidents, etc.; McFarlane & Norris, 2006). The past 50 years have witnessed a substantial increase in the frequency, intensity, and impact of natural and human-caused disasters (Centre of Research on the Epidemiology of Disaster, 2016; EM-DAT, n.d.; National Centers for Environmental Information, 2018; National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, 2016). Correspondingly, there has been increased attention devoted to the scientific study of disasters and how they impact people's lives (Norris, Galea, Friedman, & Watson, 2006; Rodriguez, Donner, & Trainor, 2018).

Within the field of psychology, most of this research has focused on how disasters affect survivors' mental health. However, within the past 20 years, there has been growing interest in studying how disasters affect people's religious/spiritual (R/S) health and well-being, as well as how survivors' religion/spirituality can affect their disaster experiences and recovery (see Aten et al., 2018b, for a review of this research).

The purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Psychology and Christianity is to present a series of articles on disasters, religion, and spirituality. Specifically, this issue includes three quantitative research articles (Captari et al., 2018; McElroy-Heltzel et al., 2018a, 2018b), two qualitative research articles (O'Grady et al., 2018; Schruba et al., 2018a), one practice-oriented article (Schruba et al., 2018b), and one training-oriented article (Aten et al., 2018a). Empirical studies are presented from four different types of natural disasters (a flood, a hurricane, a typhoon, and an earthquake) and three different countries (the U.S., the Philippines, and Haiti). Two of the articles (Aten et al., 2018b; Schruba et al., 2018b) have a special focus on the intersections between psychology and Christianity in a disaster context, and all the articles have implications that can be applied in the science and practice of disaster psychology from a Christian perspective.

To begin, McElroy-Heltzel and colleagues (2018a) present findings from a study of survivors of the 2016 Louisiana flood. They found evidence that benevolent views of suffering buffer against postdisaster PTSD. Second, McElroy-Heltzel et al. (2018b) explore the role of spiritual fortitude and positive religious coping in promoting positive psychological and R/S outcomes after Hurricane Matthew (2016). Their findings suggest spiritual fortitude has a direct effect on both meaning in life and spiritual well-being, but it has an indirect effect as well, via positive religious coping (i.e., positive religious coping is the mechanism through which spiritual fortitude increases people's psychological and R/S well-being). The last quantitative research article is by Captari and colleagues (2018), who describe a study of religiously oriented Filipino disaster workers who were engaged in long-term disaster relief after Typhoon Haiyan (2013). Captari et al. (2018) found evidence that negative religious coping predicted higher burnout for these workers, particularly in terms of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

Next, O'Grady et al. (2018) describe a two-wave qualitative study of adult survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. They used content analysis to identify the themes that characterized the psychosocial and R/S processes by which survivors responded resiliently to the disaster. O'Grady and colleagues found evidence that some of the core ingredients of postdisaster resilience are social support (e.g., from friends and family), religious support (e.g., from God and coreligionists), psychological flexibility, and adaptive deliberate rumination.

Then, Schruba and colleagues (2018a) present a qualitative study of disaster spiritual and emotional care (DSEC) providers. Specifically, they describe a grounded theory of how DSEC tends to be practiced in the field. This theory highlights the central role of "practical presence" (which Schruba et al. describe as "meeting survivors' immediate practical needs while being physically, emotionally, and spiritually present in ways that facilitate survivors' holistic health and well-being") in DSEC.

In the practice-oriented article that follows, Schruba et al. (2018b) provide an overview of Psychological First Aid (Brymer et al., 2006a), one of the most utilized and evidence-informed interventions in disaster mental health. Schruba and colleagues (2018) a make the case for using evidence to inform the practice of DSEC. Subsequently, Aten et al. (2018a) describe the Humanitarian Disaster Institute's training model for equipping future Christian mental health professionals to provide competent disaster mental health services (i.e., disaster emotional care) and spiritually integrated forms of such services (i.e., disaster spiritual and emotional care). Finally, Davis and colleagues (2018) offer several suggestions for advancing scientific research on disasters, religion, and spirituality.

We hope you enjoy reading this special issue and can find ways to apply it in your life and work. We are grateful to all the contributors; we enjoyed working with you and appreciated the meaningful contribution you have made to this issue and to the field more broadly.

References

Aten, J. D., Boan, D., Davis, E. B., & Schruba, A. (2018a). The Humanitarian Disaster Institute: A training model for graduate-level psychology and counseling programs. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 80-86.

Aten, J. D., Smith, W., Davis, E. B., Van Tongeren, D. R., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., ... Hill, P. (2018b). The psychological study of religion and spirituality in a disaster context: A systematic review. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Brymer, M., Jacobs, A., Layne, C., Pynoos, R., Ruzek, J., Steinberg, ... Watson, P. (2006a). Psychological first aid: Field operations guide (2nd ed.). National Child Traumatic Stress Network and National Center for PTSD. Retrieved from http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/ pfa/english/2-psyfirstaid_final_no_handouts.pdf Captari, L. E., Hook, J. N., Mosher, D. K., Boan, D., Aten, J. D., Davis, E. B., ... Van Tongeren, D. R. (2018). Negative religious coping and burnout in national humanitarian aid workers in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 28-42.

Centre of Research on the Epidemiology of Disaster (CRED). (2016). The human cost of weather related disasters. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from https://www.unisdr.org/

Davis, E. B., Aten, J. D., Van Tongeren, D. R., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., DeBlaere, C., & Shannonhouse, L. R. (2018). Advancing scientific research on disasters, religion, and spirituality. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 87-93.

EM-DAT. (n.d.). The Emergency Events Database. Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL)--CRED, D. Guha-Sapir, www.emdat.be, Brussels, Belgium. Retrieved from www.emdat.be

McElroy-Heltzel, S. E., Davis, E. B., Davis, D. E., Aten, J., Hook, J. N., Van Tongeren, D. R., & Hwang, J. (2018a). Benevolent theodicies protect against PTSD following a natural disaster. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 6-16.

McElroy-Heltzel, S. E., Van Tongeren, D. R., Gazaway, S., Ordaz, A., Davis, D. E., Hook, J. N., ... Stargell, N. A. (2018b). The role of spiritual fortitude and positive religious coping in meaning in life and spiritual well-being following Hurricane Matthew. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 17-27.

McFarlane, A. C., & Norris, F. H. (2006). Definitions and concepts in disaster research. In F. H. Norris, S. Galea, M. J. Friedman, & P. J. Watson (Eds.), Methods for disaster mental health research (pp. 3-19). New York, NY: Guilford.

National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). (2018). U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. Retrieved from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2016). Global Terrorism Database [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd

Norris, F. H., Galea, S., Friedman, M. J., & Watson, P. J. (Eds.). (2006). Methods for disaster mental health research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

O'Grady, K. A., Orton, J. D., Stewart, C., Flythe, W. W., Snyder, N., & Desius, J.-P. (2018). Resilience in the wake of disasters: A two-wave qualitative study of survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 43-56.

Rodriguez, H., Donner, W., & Trainor, J. E. (Eds.). (2018). Handbook of disaster research (2nd ed.). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Schruba, A. N., Aten, J. D., Davis, E. B., & Shannonhouse, L. R. (2018a). A grounded theory of the practice of disaster spiritual and emotional care: The central role of practical presence. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 57-73.

Schruba, A. N., Davis, E. B., Aten, J. D., Wang, D. C., Entwistle, D. N., & Boan, D. (2018b). Psychological first aid and the role of scientific evidence in Christians' provision of disaster spiritual and emotional care. Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 37, 74-79.

Edward B. Davis

Jamie D. Aten

Wheaton College

This publication was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Grant #44040). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Edward B. Davis, Psychology Department, 501 College Ave, BGC Mezzanine, Wheaton, IL; [email protected]

Authors

Edward B. Davis (Psy.D, Regent University) is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (IL). His research focuses on the psychology of religion and spirituality, especially relational spirituality, God representations, disasters, and positive psychology.

Jamie D. Aten (Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, Indiana State University) is the Dr. Arthur P. Rech and Mrs. Jean May Rech Associate Professor of Psychology and the Founder and Executive Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College. Dr. Aten's primary professional interests include the psychology of religion/spirituality and disasters, spiritually oriented disaster psychology, and psychology in disaster ministry.