Niemiec Ryan M, Russo-Netzer Pninit, Pargament Kenneth I
VIA Institute on Character, Cincinnati, OH, United States.
Department of Counseling and Human Development, Achva Academic College, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 4;11:2040. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02040. eCollection 2020.
Little attention has been given to the integral relationship between character strengths and spirituality (the search for or communing with the sacred to derive meaning and purpose). The science of character strengths has surged in recent years with hundreds of studies, yet with minimal attention to spirituality or the literature thereof. At the same time, the science of spirituality has steadily unfolded over the last few decades and has offered only occasional attention to select strengths of character (e.g., humility, love, and forgiveness) or the universal typology of the VIA classification of character strengths and virtues. In this exploration, we argue that there is a robust synergy of these sciences and practices revealing that spirituality is vitally concerned with promoting character strengths. At the same time, character strengths can enhance and deepen spiritual practices, rituals, and experiences. We elaborate on how character strengths and spirituality come together in the context of the psycho-spiritual journey toward wholeness. By wholeness, we are referring to a way of being in the world that involves a life-affirming view of oneself and the world, a capacity to see and approach life with breadth and depth and the ability to organize the life journey into a cohesive whole. We further discuss six levels by which spirituality can be integrated within the VIA Classification, including a meta-perspective in which wholeness represents a meta-strength or superordinate virtue. We frame two pathways of integration: the grounding path, in which character strengths offer tangibility and thereby deepen and enhance spirituality, and the sanctification path, in which spirituality elevates character strengths. Finally, we turn to research-based practices and examine how character strengths might facilitate and contribute to spiritual practices and, conversely, how spirituality might enhance character strength practices. Such multifaceted integration offers insight and wisdom to both areas of study and opens up new directions for psycho-spiritual research and practices to deepen and broaden our understanding of what it means to be human.
人们很少关注性格优势与灵性（寻求与神圣之物交流以获得意义和目的）之间的内在关系。近年来，性格优势科学蓬勃发展，有数百项研究，但对灵性或相关文献的关注却微乎其微。与此同时，灵性科学在过去几十年中稳步发展，只是偶尔关注某些特定的性格优势（如谦逊、爱和宽恕），或性格优势与美德的VIA分类的通用类型学。在本探索中，我们认为这些科学与实践之间存在强大的协同作用，表明灵性与促进性格优势密切相关。同时，性格优势可以增强和深化灵性实践、仪式和体验。我们详细阐述了在迈向完整的心理灵性旅程中，性格优势与灵性是如何结合在一起的。这里所说的完整，是指一种在世界上的存在方式，它涉及对自己和世界的一种肯定生命的看法，一种以广度和深度看待和对待生活的能力，以及将人生旅程组织成一个连贯整体的能力。我们进一步讨论了灵性可以在VIA分类中整合的六个层次，包括一个元视角，其中完整代表一种元优势或超ordinate美德。我们构建了两条整合途径：基础途径，即性格优势提供具体性，从而深化和增强灵性；神圣化途径，即灵性提升性格优势。最后，我们转向基于研究的实践，研究性格优势如何促进和有助于灵性实践，反之，灵性如何增强性格优势实践。这种多方面的整合为这两个研究领域提供了见解和智慧，并为心理灵性研究和实践开辟了新方向，以加深和拓宽我们对人之为人的意义的理解。
