Beliefs can help deal with crisis.

If news media coverage is any indication, Americans' interest in religion never has been greater. Likewise, more social scientists, mental health professionals, and physicians are studying the role religion plays in daily life and individual well-being. According to Kenneth Pargament, director of the doctoral clinical psychology program at Bowling Green (Ohio)State University and author of The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice, one thing he and fellow researchers have learned during their studies is that "religion is far more complex and richer than many psychologists and mental health professionals imagine."

Social scientists as a group, he notes, are less religious than the population as a whole and, in the past, tended to overlook religious dimensions in coping strategies. "There was a tendency to think of religion simply as a defense against anxiety, a passive way to avoid problems. We studied people going through stressful times. We found that, in critical times, religion may take many forms and assist in many ways."

Whether it helps people deal with crises depends on the way religion is expressed. Still, Pargament maintains that some beliefs do seem to aid...