The Emotional Healing Efficacy of the Holy Bible for the Christian Students of National Taiwan University: An Exploratory Study

The Holy Bible is suitable reading material for bibliotherapy. Previous studies have found that when Christians read the Bible more often, they feel more satisfied with their daily lives. Many Christians and priests also agree that reading the Bible can help people endure hardships. Therefore, this study involved the application of bibliotherapy. The researcher deployed semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 undergraduates and graduate students from National Taiwan University. This study evaluated the emotional healing efficacy of the Bible by examining the reasons that Christians continue to read the Bible as a daily habit and the emotional healing processes of identification, catharsis, and insight. Additionally, the factors that affected the emotional healing process were analyzed. The findings showed that most interviewees believed that reading the Bible alleviated their negative emotions. Stories and biographies, poetry, doctrines, symbolism, and historical narratives could provide a full process of emotional healing efficacy for Christians who suffer from such problems as struggling with their future careers, relationships with others, feeling ashamed of their religious beliefs, self-identity problems, negative emotion regulation, breakups with significant others and grief from bereavement. The factors that affected emotional healing efficacy included the following: Christian students could relate their personal situations to the Bible; the infectious emotional expression of the authors or characters in the Bible; and the positive problem-solving methods or attitudes employed by the authors or characters. On the basis of the results of this study, the researcher suggests that Christian undergraduate and graduate students and their friends and tutors could use the Bible as a emotional healing reading material. Furthermore, churches could adopt the theory and method of developmental bibliotherapy and apply the concept of bibliotherapy to curricular Bible-reading activities. The researcher also recommends that libraries attempt to develop bibliotherapeutic services and identify emotional healing materials from their collections.