Why Religion Helps and Harms: Toward a Practical Paradigm of Paradox at the Nexus of Faith and Family Life

Presented by: David Dollahite, Hilary Dalton, Loren Marks

We suggest that one reason religion both helps and harms families is because religion is both paradoxically powerful and powerfully paradoxical. We focus on eight paradoxes: (a) there are both mundane and transcendent aspects to religious life; (b) religious families experience both blessings and demands from God and their faiths; (c) religion provides both comfort for and expectations of family members, (d) religions expect families to both accept certain things and reject other things in their lives; (e) strong religious commitments have important binding and liberating features; (f) in some ways, religion is a unifying force for families but in others it is a dividing force and strong religious identity both unites a family with other adherents and separates them from members of other faiths or nonbelievers; (g) religion can both excite and calm passions within families; and (h) religiosity is both a conservative and a transformative force in families.