Scrupulosity
From Ptypeswiki
Derived from the Latin word scrupulus (a sharp stone), implying a stabbing pain on the conscience.
Traditionally a Catholic concept, scrupulosity is the obsessive concern with one's own sins frequently focusing on acts or thoughts not usually considered sins within one's religious tradition.
Scupulosity can take the form of repeated baths -- up to 35 baths per day. It may also take the form of a morbid feeling that one is rejected by God and doomed to damnation no matter what one does. This is distinct from the normal religious impulse towards goodness in several ways, most notably that the over-scrupulous person may tend not to acknowledge the verdict of otherwise accepted religious authorities that they are making much ado about nothing. It also distorts the central Christian message of salvation and forgiveness of sin to the contrite soul; instead of peace, it brings anxiety and fear.
Ideally, an individual should avoid the extremes of lax conscience (being unaware of the sinful nature of certain actions) and scrupulosity or overly tender conscience (believing many of one's non-sinful thoughts and actions to be sinful, or believing minor sins to be major ones). The scrupulous person lacks this balance, veering to the latter extreme. In modern times, scrupulosity is often considered to be a religious variation of Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD.
Scrupulosity in itself is not considered to be sinful, and some well-known saints, including Ignatius Loyola, Alphonsus Liguori, and perhaps Faustina Kowalska, have suffered from scrupulosity. Some Catholic scholars have speculated that Martin Luther, who instigated the Protestant Reformation, suffered from scrupulosity and broke with the Catholic Church because he could not accept Catholic assurances of grace in the face of his feelings of sinfulness.
To help the individual conquer his scrupulosity, the priest or spiritual director usually counsels the afflicted person to focus on God's love and the objective nature of grace and forgiveness rather than subjective feelings of sinfulness and objection; he may also advise the person to avoid typical scrupulous behaviors such as re-confessing past sins already confessed. This spiritual counsel may be either instead of or in addition to medical treatment for OCD.
References
- Thomas M. Santa, Understanding Scrupulosity: Helpful Answers for Those Who Experience Nagging Questions and Doubts (Ligouri, 1999)
- Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, The Doubting Disease: Help for Scrupulosity and Religious Compulsions (Paulist Press, 1995)
External links
- OCD Sufferers Consumed by Religion
- Scrupulosity: Religious Obesessions and Compulsions
- God Forbid
- Life of a Scruple
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Categorization".
