Theodicies and professional quality of life in a nationally representative sample of chaplains in the veterans’ health administration

This study examined the role of theodicies or theological/philosophic attempts to resolve existential dilemmas related to evil and human suffering in chaplains’ professional quality of life (ProQOL). A nationally representative sample of 298 VHA chaplains completed the recently developed Views of Suffering Scale (Hale-Smith, Park, & Edmondson, 2012 Hale-Smith, A., Park, C. L., & Edmondson, D. (2012). Measuring beliefs about suffering: Development of the views of suffering scale. Psychological Assessment, 24, 855–866. doi:10.1037/a0027399[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and ProQOL-5 (Stamm, 2010 Stamm, B. H. (2010). The Concise ProQOL Manual. Retrieved December, 2012 from Proqol.org. [Google Scholar]). Descriptive results revealed that 20–50% endorsed strong theistic beliefs in a compassionate deity who reciprocally suffers with hurting people, God ultimately being responsible for suffering, and that suffering can provide opportunities for intimate encounters with God and personal growth. Other results indicated that chaplains’ beliefs about human suffering were differentially linked with their sense of enjoyment/purpose in working with veterans. These results suggest that theodicies might serve as a pathway to resilience for individuals in spiritual communities and traditions in USA, particularly for clinicians and ministry professionals who are committed to serving the needs of traumatized persons.