Telling the Ultimate Tale: The Merits of Narrative Research in the Psychology of Religion

Abstract

Narrative research is based on the understanding that we create our experiences through language. That is, we story ourselves into being. What do narrative researchers do when we meet the limits of language to express experience? In an earlier issue of Qualitative Research in Psychology, Coyle (2008 Coyle, A. 2008. Qualitative methods and ‘the (partly) ineffable’ in psychological research on religion and spirituality. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5(1): 56–67. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) raised this issue as a particular challenge to qualitative research in the psychology of religion. In this article, I draw on the findings of a study I conducted on spiritual coping to illustrate how narrative research addresses this challenge. By offering a broad range of tools to investigate the form as well as the content of people's stories, narrative methodologies take the reader beneath the surface layer of content to reveal multiple levels of meaning. In this article, I also build on Coyle's arguments about the importance of qualitative research in the psychology of religion by demonstrating the specific strengths of narrative methods in reflecting both the range and complexity of people's spiritual and religious experiences.

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