“Exceptional Bodies” and Lived Religion: Religious and Spiritual Experiences Among Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer

ABSTRACT A paucity of research has examined the lived religious practices of women with terminal cancer. The purpose of this paper is to examine how women with metastatic breast cancer engage in religious and spiritual practices, both inside and outside traditional religious institutions. We utilize a two‐stage Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Design consisting of a national online survey with 310 respondents and 33 follow‐up interviews. Findings show women with metastatic breast cancer engage in a variety of lived religious practices with more women reporting their participation outside of religious institutions. Common religious and spiritual experiences include attending services, reading religious texts, engaging in prayer, helping others, meditation, bodywork, and spending time in nature. We argue that this combination of practices that create lived religious experiences may be more likely to be seen among women in body crisis, whose appearance is negatively affected by an illness.