I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt life kick me down a few times. I remember in one year, 8 people died in my friendship and family circles. Some of which were my father (heart attack), grandfather (found him in his chair with a smile), and a friend to suicide. Needless to say, I felt rage against the holy in high school. Since that time when I was 17, it’s made me ask, “what is spiritual anger?
So I reflected and did some research on instances where people experienced this type of feeling.
So, what is spiritual anger? Spiritual Anger is a type of emotion experienced against an Ultimate Source of meaning. Spiritual Anger is the anger one expresses when disappointed, irritated, frustrated, or furious at the divine. Resolving spiritual anger requires a dialogical approach to emotional health with the holy.
Defining Spiritual Anger
Spiritual Anger works like any other anger, but with a few twists. Defining spiritual anger accurately can be challenging. Especially, since so much of it is based on transcendent related problems.
To do this well, I make a distinction between anger as an evolutionary quality and anger in relation to the divine. To further stimulate this conversation, let’s pull some descriptions from past patients I’ve met.
First, check out what medical nursing has said about this:
Spiritual anger, as evidenced by expression of frustration or outrage at God for having allowed illness or other trials, comments about the “unfairness” of God, and/or negative remarks about institutionalized religion and/or its ministers or spiritual caregivers.[ref]North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA), 1999, page 67[/ref]
North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA)
Anger From an Evolutionary View
When I teach on anger, I regularly focus our discussion with Robert Plutchik’s theory of emotion. Plutchick developed a cross-study analysis between animal and human emotion. His eight primary emotions – anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy – excited researchers for their connection to the evolutionary process.[ref]Plutchik, R. (1980). A general
It’s still one of the most influential theories of emotion out there.
Plutchick argued for these 8 basic emotions which reveal a biologically primitive evolution in order to increase the reproductive fitness of the animal.
Finding out that we have a lot more in common with animals unlocks anger for us humans too.
How you might ask?
We may not be able to change the problems in our life but we can change how we relate to them.
The first way to change our anger is by appreciating it.
It enhanced our survival instincts for thousands of years but left unchecked and without reflection, we can follow in the footsteps of our fierce ancestors.
Anger is a fuel. You need fuel to launch a rocket. But if all you have is fuel without any complex internal mechanism directing it, you don’t have a rocket. You have a bomb.”[ref]Gil Schwartz, Men’s Health, July 2006.[/ref]
Gil Schwartz
Understanding anger begins with acceptance that we are more than rational beings, we’re animals too.
We can’t deny millions of years of biological instinct, but we are responsible for it when triggered.
For instance, each emotion is triggered by a “stimulus event” then a thought follows (“cognitive appraisal”) and the feeling (“subjective reaction”). These three lead to two more reactions a “behavioral” action and this practice serves us with an evolutionary function.
| Stimulus | Thought | Subjective Reaction | Behavior | Function |
| “Obstacle” | “Enemy” | Anger | “Attack” | “Destroy” |
Anger also stimulates a range of expression from mild to high intensity.
| Mild | Low | Medium | High | Intense |
| Annoyance | Irritation | Anger | Rage | Fury |
Understanding that anger has a range in its delivery results in more honesty in a relationship.
When my relationship to anger only has two options, on or off, then I’m a jerk one moment or a nice cream puff the next.
The better route is a dynamic relationship with anger which will naturally inspire a more flexible relationship with others.
I’ve written on the difference between anger and hostility here. Be sure to see how anger affects you physically there as well.
Spiritual Anger: Rage Against a Holy Object
As mentioned, we’re animals, but we’re also transcendent too. At around 150,000 years ago, our brain went through some nifty upgrades. Our Cerebral cortex allowed us to process and develop self-consciousness.
We not only reflect about “why” we are angry, but can change the triggered and reactionary responses of our primal urges – or at least, not allow them to take the lead so often or blow up like ticking time bomb.
The earliest development of religious observance surrounded the Sumerian Culture. A semitic people called the Akkadians settled in what is now western Iran around 4000 B.C.
What they reveal about humanity stimulate discussions – humans as essentially animals and essentially religious.
Our acceleration into the homo Sapien started a sprint into the homo religiosus (the essentially religious leader).
Emotions such as mad, glad, sad, and afraid no longer applied to the immediate natural environment. They quickly became aids or determinants in our relationship with the divine too.
Spiritual Anger in particular is a kind of aid in our relationship with the divine.
Spiritual Anger can is detrimental to your health if left unchecked.
Thus, anger against your divine source, whether it be “God” or “The Universe” or fate/destiny all have the same process but with different ideological content.
As I’ve said elsewhere, Anger can be a great motivating force. It enables you to find clarity, security, and power for whatever task is in front of you.
However, if anger is left unchecked it can become an attitude of hostility.
In this sense, we can feel that the Holy is against us and we enlist against them as our “enemy.”
As a chaplain in healthcare, I often see this type of anger. You can think of spiritual anger as a kind of relational discord that could use some simple communication to work it out.
To do that, we may need a diagnosis of spiritual anger.
Signs, Symptoms, Risks of Spiritual Anger
Sometimes what we need is a soul-physician to look after our spirit to see what’s there.
Signs
In clinical diagnosis, the nurse or doctor would take a look at your physical “signs” those are the objective signposts that tell you something is going wrong.
For some people they show signs of spiritual anger in the following:
- Ambiguous speech about their relationship with the divine
- Ceased going to their faith community
- Seems highly triggered around religious/spiritual talk
- Dark humor around what religious/spiritual people do
Symptoms
Symptoms entail the quality of how they say they feel.
Depending on the range of anger whether it mild or intense, you probably have good reasons for your anger with the divine.
“I hate God. He never came through for me. When I prayed that my mother would be healed, she died a horrible death. Where was he?”
Patient Bob (Fictitious Name)
Others may experience a kind of “yes, but no” relationship with the divine. A part of them loves “God” or how the “Universe” has helped them in the past. This part of them realizes that their Ultimate Source is far more powerful and there’s a kind of futility to fighting against the omnipotent.
But the other side of them says something is deeply wrong and the “Big Guy Upstairs” just didn’t come through.
In this case, this is spiritual disappointment. According to Plutick, disappointment is a combination emotion: anticipation + sadness. When we feel the Holy has let us down we become spiritually disappointed.
“I’m a devoted Catholic. I’ve spent years going to Mass, sacrificing my time to God, and now the one time I needed him to come through, he didn’t. I just don’t get it.”
Patient Joe
I’ve been disappointed with “God” several times (losing a job opportunity, loss of my father, feeling like you’re in the wrong profession, dumped by an ex-girlfriend), but luckily I’ve also mended my relationship with the holy.
This is why I think there may be a third category of spiritual symptomatic anger.
Intimacy.
If you want to be close to someone, you’re going to get angry at some point. Anger has to do with values and aspects of yourself and life that are important to you.
If you’re not getting angry in your relationship, friendship, or spirituality, then chances are you haven’t gotten to the important weighty things of life yet.
Meaning has to do with what is valuable. Anger is about upholding the valuable side of your boundaries and what you consider matters.
Risk of Spiritual Anger
Another health question is, “When are you at risk of spiritual anger?” When you notice the following items:
- Tragic incident has occurred, where innocent people have died
- You feeling ambivalent about your relationship with the divine
- You’re avoiding conversations about spiritual topics you once loved
- You feel you can’t enjoy the same spiritual music you once did
- You avoid religious/spiritual communities
- You are cynical about the divine and use dark humor
At this point, you’ve probably discovered that not all spiritual anger is bad for you. In fact, a lot of spiritual anger is directed toward the injustices that take place in the world. Anger can motivate us toward clarity and power to conquer the horrid and aberrant injustices of our world.
Without a little anger about human trafficking, prostitution, the war on drugs, corrupt politicians, and ethnic cleansing, how can you really say you’re a spiritual person?
It’s our love for the lovable that we feel rage against the holy at times.
Unfortunately, a lot of the spiritual anger that I’ve seen working with illness and dying has related to past spiritual abuse – when a religious leader or community has used spirituality to hurt or control others.
This is something that fills me with spiritual anger. I’ll leave this for another post.
For today, reflect on these two below, for a spiritual way of approaching anger with the divine.
Nothing Changes till it Becomes What It Is
This is my mantra when it comes to working through challenging emotions like anger.
Anger in religious and spiritual communities tend to be shunned. This is why I say this line in my home, at my work with my students, and in my head….repeatedly.
Nothing Changes till it Becomes what it is.
Say this next time you feel a heat forming in your chest.
Be present with the sensation, then see if you can put a word to it: mad, sad, glad, afraid.
If you can identify the anger, just acknowledge it, “I’m in the angry boat.”
And if there are people who love you nearby, try saying, “I’m in the angry boat, anyone else?”
Nothing changes till it becomes what it is. It’s a mantra and a way of life.
The irony is that when we can just affirm where we are at with our spiritual anger it actually goes away quite often.
Try it today.
Reframing Anger as the other side of love
Within the Christian tradition, I’ve often asked, “how can God be a god of Wrath?” Stanley Grenz was a prominent theologian and answered this with a unique spin that has forever stuck in my mind.
Anger is really the other side of love.
When you love someone and you don’t feel jealous that they’ve cheated on you, did you really love them? Anger reveals that we feel something important has been crossed, some boundary eliminated. Boundaries were up to protect what is valuable to us.
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” [ref]Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa.[/ref]
Mother Teresa
May you get spiritually angry about the abuse, the hunger, and the injustice in the world. May this spiritual anger not lead to cynicism or hostility, but love for your fellow human being.
May you mend the severed relationship with the divine. May you hear the words, “I know your pain and I’m angry too.”
May your disappointment turn to trust and your anger to hope.
Related Questions
How do I let go of anger and hurt? Remember the ABC’s of anger. A is for Acknowledge. Don’t push it aside. Simply acknowledge you are angry or have been hurt to yourself and perhaps to others. B – Belief. Check in with your assumptions about why your angry. Are you assuming or guessing? C – Communicate. Tell the person “that puts me in the hurt and angry boat.” Try these out today.
What is the root cause of anger? There are many options when considering the root cause of anger. For most, anger is a secondary emotion. It tends to operate alongside other emotions such as fear and sadness. If you’re using a hammer to kill a fly you may want to think about if your anger is a projection from a past relationship. Perhaps, you’ve made an assumption. Try guessing next time.
