Reading the Bible, Stressful Life Events, and Hope: Assessing an Overlooked Coping Resource

Many people rely on religion to deal with the stressors in their lives. The purpose of this study is to examine a religious coping resource that has received relatively little attention-reading the Bible. We evaluated three hypotheses: (1) reading the Bible moderates the relationship between stress and hope; (2) people who read the Bible more often are more likely to rely on benevolent religious reappraisal coping responses; and (3) individuals who rely on benevolent religious reappraisals will be more hopeful about the future. Support was found for all three hypotheses in our analyses.