Chapter 5: Religion, Meaning, and Motivation

This chapter demonstrates that religion has been and remains, a powerful motivational force in the lives of many people. Yet those who study motivation arguably pay slender attention to the possible role that spiritual beliefs and membership in religious communities play in framing thoughts, actions, feelings, and emotions. In addition, in the past when social scientists have considered religion, the focus was often on the bizarre or the diabolic. However there are many examples of religious believers moved to heroic, as well as commonplace acts of charity, service, and sacrifice; that stand as profound evidence of how faith commitments play a significant, positive, and productive role in the world. This chapter investigates, from a psychological perspective, the impact of such faith commitments on the motivation of individuals and on consequences arising from that motivation.