Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341409
Aryeh Lazar
Measures and conceptualizations in the psychology of religion have been developed on predominantly Christian samples and their transportation to the study of other religions can be problematic. A review of empirical research on Israeli Jewish samples in different research areas—measuring religiousness, religious motivation, mystical experience, prayer, religious support, religious fundamentalism, and religiousness & sexuality—is presented and the significance of differences in orthodoxy / orthopraxy orientation, religious theology and belief, religious practice, and sociological aspects of religious life for empirical research in the psychology of religion is demonstrated. Methodological recommendations in each instance are provided. Many of the insights and recommendations presented here are applicable to the study of additional non-Christian religions.
{"title":"The Challenges of Research in the Psychology of Religion among Jewish (Israeli) Samples","authors":"Aryeh Lazar","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341409","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Measures and conceptualizations in the psychology of religion have been developed on predominantly Christian samples and their transportation to the study of other religions can be problematic. A review of empirical research on Israeli Jewish samples in different research areas—measuring religiousness, religious motivation, mystical experience, prayer, religious support, religious fundamentalism, and religiousness & sexuality—is presented and the significance of differences in orthodoxy / orthopraxy orientation, religious theology and belief, religious practice, and sociological aspects of religious life for empirical research in the psychology of religion is demonstrated. Methodological recommendations in each instance are provided. Many of the insights and recommendations presented here are applicable to the study of additional non-Christian religions.","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341409","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48370881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341400
Kenan Sevinç
Numerous studies have shown that the number of nonreligious people in the World is increasing and that people without religious affiliation demonstrate more liberal attitudes on controversial issues than affiliated people. Research suggests these differences may arise from the higher education level of the nonreligious and/or cultural context. To further explore the effects of culture on the attitudes of nonreligious, I analyze data from The Global Attitudes Project-Spring (2013). The data were downloaded from the Association of Religion Data Archives, www.TheARDA.com and were collected by Pew Research Center. When the data were analyzed, 6746 of the participants (18.2%) were found to be nonreligious. Three of the countries with the highest rate of nonreligious are from Western Europe (Czechia=69.5%, Britain=44.4%, Germany=35.3%) and three of them are from Far East (China=83.4%, Japan=45.4%, South Korea=42.6%). I compared attitudes of nonreligious from these countries (N=4581) towards abortion, contraception use, and homosexuality. The results indicate that nonreligious people living in the Far East find abortion, contraceptive use, and homosexuality more “morally unacceptable” than Western Europeans. This suggests that attitudes among the nonreligious are not homogenous, and that cultural factors are important variables to consider in future research.
{"title":"Attitudes of the Nonreligious toward Abortion, Contraceptives, and Homosexuality: Comparing the Far East and Western Europe","authors":"Kenan Sevinç","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341400","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Numerous studies have shown that the number of nonreligious people in the World is increasing and that people without religious affiliation demonstrate more liberal attitudes on controversial issues than affiliated people. Research suggests these differences may arise from the higher education level of the nonreligious and/or cultural context. To further explore the effects of culture on the attitudes of nonreligious, I analyze data from The Global Attitudes Project-Spring (2013). The data were downloaded from the Association of Religion Data Archives, www.TheARDA.com and were collected by Pew Research Center. When the data were analyzed, 6746 of the participants (18.2%) were found to be nonreligious. Three of the countries with the highest rate of nonreligious are from Western Europe (Czechia=69.5%, Britain=44.4%, Germany=35.3%) and three of them are from Far East (China=83.4%, Japan=45.4%, South Korea=42.6%). I compared attitudes of nonreligious from these countries (N=4581) towards abortion, contraception use, and homosexuality. The results indicate that nonreligious people living in the Far East find abortion, contraceptive use, and homosexuality more “morally unacceptable” than Western Europeans. This suggests that attitudes among the nonreligious are not homogenous, and that cultural factors are important variables to consider in future research.","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341400","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41355427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341406
Meike Haken
This contribution contrasts the dichotomization of individualization and communitization of religion, which is still prominent in the social sciences, with a religious phenomenon that shows that religion must be understood beyond the opposition of these spheres. Against the background of a corresponding concept of religion, the popular religion (Knoblauch 2009), which continues Thomas Luckmann’s theory of religion (1967), the concept of Celebrations will be presented. This empirically generated concept relies on self-recorded video data of Christian events in Europe. Celebrations are to be understood as religious events that are based on a specific affective order, which is able to merge the most diverse cultural communicative forms on the level of individual religiosity and community (cf. Haken 2020a, 2020b). Referring to web-based data on the Hindu Kumbh Mela in India, the transferability of the concept of Celebrations is exploratively applied to another religious event.
{"title":"Celebrations: Religious Events beyond the Dichotomy of Individualization and Communitization","authors":"Meike Haken","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341406","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This contribution contrasts the dichotomization of individualization and communitization of religion, which is still prominent in the social sciences, with a religious phenomenon that shows that religion must be understood beyond the opposition of these spheres. Against the background of a corresponding concept of religion, the popular religion (Knoblauch 2009), which continues Thomas Luckmann’s theory of religion (1967), the concept of Celebrations will be presented. This empirically generated concept relies on self-recorded video data of Christian events in Europe. Celebrations are to be understood as religious events that are based on a specific affective order, which is able to merge the most diverse cultural communicative forms on the level of individual religiosity and community (cf. Haken 2020a, 2020b). Referring to web-based data on the Hindu Kumbh Mela in India, the transferability of the concept of Celebrations is exploratively applied to another religious event.","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341406","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49215545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341403
David L. Ellis
{"title":"Religion in the Modern World—Celebrating Pluralism and Diversity, written by Ward, Keith","authors":"David L. Ellis","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341403","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341403","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64971756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341398
Ramona Bullik, S. Özışık, Anika Steppacher
How do people perceive their own religious, spiritual or atheist biography? This is a question that our research team has been focusing on for nearly two decades. Our developmental perspective critically, but constructively relates to Fowler’s (1981) Faith Development Theory, as described in Streib’s (2001) approach of religious styles, paying tribute to the fact that development is not, in most cases, a linear upward process. By combining Fowler’s structural evaluation method with approaches to content analyses, this paper will show the merit of these qualitative methods when looking at (religious) development in different surroundings. For that purpose, we present case studies with different cultural backgrounds. Their different trajectories and possible commonalities will be shown on a structural as well as on a content level. This approach enables us to reconstruct movement within the religious field and will show how this is displayed on a subjective, biographical level.
{"title":"Development in Religious and Non-Religious Biographies from a Cross-Cultural Perspective","authors":"Ramona Bullik, S. Özışık, Anika Steppacher","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341398","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000How do people perceive their own religious, spiritual or atheist biography? This is a question that our research team has been focusing on for nearly two decades. Our developmental perspective critically, but constructively relates to Fowler’s (1981) Faith Development Theory, as described in Streib’s (2001) approach of religious styles, paying tribute to the fact that development is not, in most cases, a linear upward process. By combining Fowler’s structural evaluation method with approaches to content analyses, this paper will show the merit of these qualitative methods when looking at (religious) development in different surroundings. For that purpose, we present case studies with different cultural backgrounds. Their different trajectories and possible commonalities will be shown on a structural as well as on a content level. This approach enables us to reconstruct movement within the religious field and will show how this is displayed on a subjective, biographical level.","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341398","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48850315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341405
B. Schmidt
{"title":"Indigenous Perspectives on Sacred Natural Sites: Culture, Governance and Conservation, edited by Jonathan Liljeblad and Bas Verschuuren","authors":"B. Schmidt","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341405","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341405","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44578123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341408
Hande Gür
Mevleviye as an Islamic religious order is established in Anatolia after the passing of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi in the 13th century. Based on bigger ethnographic research, this paper tries to delve into the distinction between spiritual and religious from the perspective of new Mevlevis of contemporary Mevleviye in Turkey. The authenticity of new Mevlevis’ standpoint while defining themselves as spiritual but not religious reflects the effects of modernization and individualization in Turkey as well as Mevleviye’s particular approach to spirituality. This reflection seems to reveal the flaws of Western definitions of the spiritual that is often presented as a contrary notion to being religious. Besides offering a discussion on the case of new Mevlevis’ understanding of spiritual and religious, this paper also argues that spirituality has to be studied empirically and defined in regards to its context and culture rather than as an essentially contrasting notion to being religious.
{"title":"Spiritual but not Religious?","authors":"Hande Gür","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341408","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Mevleviye as an Islamic religious order is established in Anatolia after the passing of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi in the 13th century. Based on bigger ethnographic research, this paper tries to delve into the distinction between spiritual and religious from the perspective of new Mevlevis of contemporary Mevleviye in Turkey. The authenticity of new Mevlevis’ standpoint while defining themselves as spiritual but not religious reflects the effects of modernization and individualization in Turkey as well as Mevleviye’s particular approach to spirituality. This reflection seems to reveal the flaws of Western definitions of the spiritual that is often presented as a contrary notion to being religious. Besides offering a discussion on the case of new Mevlevis’ understanding of spiritual and religious, this paper also argues that spirituality has to be studied empirically and defined in regards to its context and culture rather than as an essentially contrasting notion to being religious.","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341408","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45773993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341407
Sarah Demmrich, Ulrich Riegel
{"title":"Editorial to the Special Issue:","authors":"Sarah Demmrich, Ulrich Riegel","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341407","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341407","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41539550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-11-11DOI: 10.1163/15709256-12341394
Iris D. Hartog, Michael Scherer-Rath, Tom H. Oreel, Justine E. Netjes, J. Henriques, J. Lemkes, A. Vonk, M. Sprangers, P. Nieuwkerk, H. Laarhoven
The theoretical model: ‘Narrative meaning making and integration of life events’ hypothesizes that life events such as falling ill may result in an ‘experience of contingency’. Through narrative meaning making, this experience may be eventually integrated into patients’ life stories, which, in turn, may enhance their quality of life. To contribute to our understanding of this existential dimension of falling ill and to further validate the theoretical model, we examined the relationships among the concepts assessed with the RE-LIFE questionnaire. Two hypothesized mediation models were assessed using regression-based serial multiple mediation analysis. Model 1, assessing the influence of ‘experience of contingency’ on ‘acknowledging’, was significant and showed partial mediation by indirect influences through ‘negative impact on life goals’ and ‘existential meaning’. Model 2, assessing the influence of ‘experience of contingency’ on ‘quality of life’, was also significant, with a full mediation by the variables ‘negative impact on life goals’, ‘existential meaning’ and ‘acknowledging’. In conclusion, several hypothesized relationships within the theoretical model were confirmed. Narrative meaning making and integration significantly influence people’s self-evaluation of their quality of life.
{"title":"Reconstructing Disruptive Life Events Using the RE-LIFE Questionnaire: Further Validation of the ‘Narrative Meaning Making of Life Events’ Model Using Multiple Mediation Analysis","authors":"Iris D. Hartog, Michael Scherer-Rath, Tom H. Oreel, Justine E. Netjes, J. Henriques, J. Lemkes, A. Vonk, M. Sprangers, P. Nieuwkerk, H. Laarhoven","doi":"10.1163/15709256-12341394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341394","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The theoretical model: ‘Narrative meaning making and integration of life events’ hypothesizes that life events such as falling ill may result in an ‘experience of contingency’. Through narrative meaning making, this experience may be eventually integrated into patients’ life stories, which, in turn, may enhance their quality of life. To contribute to our understanding of this existential dimension of falling ill and to further validate the theoretical model, we examined the relationships among the concepts assessed with the RE-LIFE questionnaire.\u0000Two hypothesized mediation models were assessed using regression-based serial multiple mediation analysis. Model 1, assessing the influence of ‘experience of contingency’ on ‘acknowledging’, was significant and showed partial mediation by indirect influences through ‘negative impact on life goals’ and ‘existential meaning’. Model 2, assessing the influence of ‘experience of contingency’ on ‘quality of life’, was also significant, with a full mediation by the variables ‘negative impact on life goals’, ‘existential meaning’ and ‘acknowledging’. In conclusion, several hypothesized relationships within the theoretical model were confirmed. Narrative meaning making and integration significantly influence people’s self-evaluation of their quality of life.","PeriodicalId":42786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15709256-12341394","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46571090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}