Individual Theodicies as Meaning-Making Models. Narrative Research Among Catholics and Lutherans

Abstract The paper presents the results of a study of individual theodicies among Polish Catholics and Lutherans, conducted with the use of both qualitative and simple quantitative methods. The theoretical background of the study involves combined perspectives of theoretical and empirical theology, sociology of religions, and narrative psychology. In-depth interviews conducted among religiously engaged individuals led to the distinguishing of 12 theodicy models used by Catholics and Lutherans as narrative frameworks helping to give meaning to difficult life situations. The list complements and enriches the previous lists drawn up by van der Ven (1993) or Hutsebaut (2003). The analysis compared each model according to the types of negative experience which could be placed within the respective frameworks of meaning, as well as for the emotional consequences the frameworks could evoke in the subjects.