ABSTRACT
Complicated spiritual grief (CSG) is a spiritual crisis following the loss of a loved one in relation to God and/or the mourner's spiritual community. Faith, religion, and spirituality prove supportive and comforting following the loss of a loved one for many bereaved individuals. While this is true for some spiritually inclined grievers, the opposite is true for others. The Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief 2.0 (ICSG 2.0), which is a simple-to-use, multidimensional measure, was developed and validated to assess CSG, which has been shown to exacerbate bereavement distress. The ICSG 2.0 is now being used in both clinical and research settings. However, given that as part of the meaning-making process in bereavement grieving adults tend to seek the presence of their deceased loved one as a means of maintaining an ongoing attachment, this chapter also considered the book's presence-within-absence theme as a potential area of inquiry beyond just that of CSG. To do so, this chapter examines participants’ narratives used to develop the scale to ask applicable questions for follow-up research. This chapter highlights spiritual struggle following loss, generally, and explores it in light of maintaining an ongoing connection with the deceased, specifically.
