The field of positive psychology is growing, but there are still a lot of gaps. For example, in prior searches I've not found a lot of helpful research on hope as an eschatological construct. But I did find some good recent research on joy.
Much of the growth in joy research is due to the interest and attention associated with Yale's Theology of Joy & the Good Life, a Templeton-funded project:
The Theology of Joy and the Good Life project sought to restore joy to the center of Christian reflection on the nature of the good life and to restore the question of the good life to the core of Christian theology, the world’s colleges and universities, and our most significant global conversations.
Projects like Yale's have made joy a hot topic in both theology and positive psychology. In my searchings I found a wonderful volume from 2020 in The Journal of Positive Psychology devoted to joy. At the heart of this volume was a review of the literature on joy by Matthew Johnson (see: Johnson, M.K., 2020, "Joy: a review of the literature and suggestions for future directions," The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15, 5-24.).
In his review of the literature, Johnson makes the point that joy can be examined in one of four ways:
- an emotion
- a mood
- a disposition or trait
- a spiritual fruit
A lot of the early work on joy focused on joy as a positive emotion, working to distinguish it from other positive emotions. This work has its place, especially if we're seeking to determine what conditions of life produce joy. We could, following Yale, examine the conditions and factors associated with "the good life" where joy is experienced and seek to bring about these conditions in the world.
Trouble is, life isn't always so good. And for Christians, joy is something that transcends life circumstances. Even when life is bad, we "rejoice in the Lord always."
So for Christians, joy is more than a feeling. Joy is a virtue. So in my class at church, and in this series, I had us deal with the last two bullets on Johnson's list. The focus was on less upon the feeling of joy than how we might cultivate joy as a disposition and trait. Further, how can we cultivate joy as a spiritual fruit in our lives?
