Making Sense with Analogy: Coherence Building in Spiritual Narratives of Physician-Researchers
Making Sense with Analogy: Coherence Building in Spiritual Narratives of Physician-Researchers

Summary/Abstract: Several forms of coherence are seen as essential for a successful life narrative that supports identity: linguistic, chronological, sequential, and coherent resolution. Spiritual-but-not-religious scientists require an additional form of coherence as they construct their spiritual identities: coherence understood as alignments that link scientific knowledge and values meaningfully with extra-scientific realms. This essay examines the role of analogical thought in generating coherence. Analogy is a fundamental mechanism of thought that generates relationships and extends models of organization from one arena of knowledge or experience to another. This essay presents narrative examples from three spiritual-but-not-religious physician-researchers who use different strategies of analogical thinking to resolve questions about the nature of god.

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