Pargament has also written multiple books, including The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice (1997; see article),[5] and Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and Addressing the Sacred (2007).
Both of these seminal works provide a systematic program of empirical research, guided by theory, that is of practical relevance to helping professionals.
The collaborative style of religious coping has been found to have the greatest psychological benefits, correlating with increased self-esteem and lower levels of depression.
[7] Thus, Pargament's work has helped set the stage for a large scale program of research on this subject: currently there have been over 250 published studies on religious coping.
For instance, he found that religious activity increased for Muslim-Americans after 9/11, and that in comparison with those who remained isolated and rejected by their religion, they experienced fewer symptoms of depression [8] Similarly, he found that negative religious coping among AIDS patients was associated with an increase in HIV-related symptoms [9] Pargament has described four major stances toward religion that have been adopted by psychotherapists in their work with clients.