“Unknowing” in the 21st century: Humble detachment for Christians with repetitive negative thinking.

Abstract

Drawing from several bodies of literature (i.e., transdiagnostic, Christian theology, contemplative prayer, mindfulness), the authors developed a Christian-sensitive model for understanding repetitive negative thinking. With structural equation modeling (SEM), we empirically investigated a proposed model of the relationship between Christian college students' views of God's providence, the ability to surrender to God, humble detachment, and repetitive negative thinking. Utilizing The Cloud of Unknowing as a starting point to operationalize a Christian-distinctive model for making sense of Christians' struggle with rumination and worry, our conceptualization provides an alternative to mindfulness meditation as a mechanism through which detachment and inner peace can be cultivated in the midst of perseverative thinking. Among a sample of Christian college students (N ϭ 191), the model was empirically supported, showing that the link between surrender and repetitive negative thinking was explained by efforts to "humbly detach." Future directions for research, along with a manualized treatment approach that has been developed, are discussed.

The Christian Gratitude Scale: An emic approach to measuring thankfulness in every season of life.

“…In agreement, of late, some authors in the psychology of religion (Knabb & Wang, 2021; Sisemore & Knabb, 2020) and indigenous psychology (Kim et al, 2006) literatures have argued for a more balanced perspective. In fact, several empirical studies have recently investigated “local,” “insider,” “bottom-up” (Kim et al, 2006) conceptualizations of psychological and spiritual processes (Knabb et al, 2018) and interventions (Knabb et al, 2017, 2020; Knabb & Vazquez, 2018) among Christian populations. Tethered to this need for more emic assessment and intervention strategies in the psychology literature, we sought to develop a short Christian Gratitude Scale (CGS) for subsequent research—both basic and applied—within Christian communities.…”

Holy be the Lay: A Way to Mindfulness Through Christian Poetry

“…Likewise, MBPs have also been developed to incorporate religion, with a number being tailored to Christian clients (e.g. [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]). These Christian MBPs demonstrate that the underpinning philosophy of the mindfulness practice can find parallels in Christian practice and theology, with studies suggesting positive effects (see Garzon et al [39] for a review).…”

“…Similar themes are also central to the development of Christian Accommodative Mindfulness (CAM) e.g., [38][39][40]42]. CAM draws on Knabb et al's [45] identification of "humble detachment" as a key Chrstian construct that is associated with decreases in worry and rumination. This flexible ability comprises letting go of preoccupations with inner experiences and self, and pivoting to a more transcendent awareness of God's active and loving presence.…”

Christian meditation for repetitive negative thinking: A multisite randomized trial examining the effects of a 4-week preventative program.

“…To operationalize this Christian construct, Knabb, Vazquez, Wang, and Bates (2018) empirically examined humble detachment as a latent variable for helping to explain the link between surrendering to God and RNT. In this study, the authors first developed a Christian-sensitive theoretical model by drawing from the Cloud of Unknowing , a 14th century anonymous Christian writing that offers instructions for contemplative (i.e., apophatic ) meditation (Bangley, 2006).…”

“…Using structural equation modeling (SEM) to empirically confirm the proposed model among a sample of Christian college students, Knabb, Vazquez, Wang, et al (2018) found that deeply held views of God’s providential care were positively associated with the ability to surrender to God as a form of religious coping, which was negatively linked to RNT. In addition, the surrender-RNT association was mediated by Christians’ ability to “humbly detach.” Ultimately, the Knabb, Vazquez, Wang, and Bates model laid the foundation for the manualized approach (Knabb, Vazquez, Bates et al, 2018) in the current study.…”