Center for Catholic Education at UD

By Emma Grace Geckle, CCE Student Assistant

For about three months in the summer of 2019, I stayed on UD’s campus to work on an undergraduate thesis with the Berry Summer Thesis Institute through the University Honors Program. Working with my thesis advisors, Sr. Laura Leming and our center’s own director, Susan Ferguson, I created a project entitled, “Toward a Theology of Mental Illness: Spirituality, Religion, and Their Effect on Mental Health.” Before I get to the research itself, let me take you back a bit. 

I began working at the Center for Catholic Education my second semester of freshman year. Every day, I was hearing the amazing work being done by ECHO and Lalanne and my curiosity about it all began to grow. That same semester in EDT 110, we were asked to compile a literature review about an educational topic of our choice. *Ding* A lightbulb went off! Because of my experience with ECHO and Lalanne, I decided to look into research on how using spirituality and religion in classrooms impacted student’s work ethic, focus, and even their mental health. Completing this literature review brought a new sense of fascination with the connections between spirituality, religion, and mental health. 

For about a year, I filed this curiosity away far back in my brain; that is, until emails came rolling in from the honors program about applying to the Berry Summer Thesis Institute. For a few weeks, those emails ended up in the trash. Me? Writing a thesis? Ha! Not a chance. Growing up, I struggled quite a lot with writing and completing research papers. My patience was slim to none when it came to extensive reading and having to sift through what felt like a million pages to find an answer. But that curiosity kept creeping up on me. So … what if I actually pursued a research question relating to spirituality and mental health? That felt like a huge task. Was I really capable of doing this?

It turns out I was. For my project, I looked specifically at research relating to the young adult population (18-25) of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the United States. I wanted to see how these populations can use or are using spiritual and religious practices to cope with suffering due to mental illness. I conducted research through the study of publishings by theologians, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists who have written about and researched the integration of psychology and theology.

God used my journey with the Center for Catholic Education in a unique and beautiful way. I never would have pursued a research question, especially one so close to my heart, had it not been for the opportunities I have had since beginning my work here. My final literature review from this past summer is published in the 2019 Proceedings from the Berry Summer Thesis Institute, on page 8: https://issuu.com/udhonorsnews/docs/bsti_proceedings_19_online

Edited by Barb Miller