Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-xh428 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-16T09:03:34.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Coming soon

Scrupulosity

Religious OCD and Spiritual Perfectionism

Expected online publication date:  08 October 2026

Anastasia Philippa Scrutton
Affiliation:
University of Leeds

Summary

Scrupulosity is sometimes regarded as a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which focuses especially on religious obsessions and compulsions, or more generally as an excessive form of religious or spiritual perfectionism. In this Element, drawing on my own experiences and those of people within different religious traditions, I will expand our understanding of the phenomenology of scrupulosity, including ways it is experienced differently by people within different religious traditions. Next, I will consider why there is scrupulosity, exploring psychological and theological perspectives. Finally, I will then turn to the question of whether scrupulosity can be spiritually innocent; i.e. that, in spite of scrupulosity being (I argue) a spiritual disability, a person might gain spiritual benefits as a result of having scrupulosity that they would probably not otherwise gain. Finally, I will consider the implications of my argument for clinical and pastoral contexts, and for the philosophy of religion.

Information

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Scrupulosity
Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Scrupulosity
Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Scrupulosity
Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
×