Today’s interview is on the subject of spiritual fortitude and features Dr. Daryl R. Van Tongeren, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Hope College. His research focuses on the social motivation for meaning and its relation to virtues and morality.
Van Tongeren was named a 2016 Association for Psychological Science (APS) Rising Star. He has more than 125 scientific publications on meaning in life, religion, and virtues and his work has been supported by numerous external grants. He is currently working on his first book on the subject of meaning and suffering.
In my book A Walking Disaster, I share a finding from a study he led that our team did that draws a distinction between spiritual fortitude and resilience or grit, so I asked him to share more about that distinction.