A national-scale typology of orientations to religion poses new challenges for the cultural evolutionary study of religious groups
Religious groups differ in theology, ritual, and modes of self-governance. However, the extent to which such differences capture the variation of religious individuals remains unclear. Latent Profile Analysis offers a powerful statistical method for obtaining typologies from the response profiles of...
| Authors: | ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2020]
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| In: |
Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2020, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 239-251 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
New Zealand
/ Religiosity
/ Disparity
/ Religious group
/ Assessment
/ Religion
/ Culture
/ Theory of evolution
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AE Psychology of religion CB Christian life; spirituality CH Christianity and Society KBS Australia; Oceania |
| Further subjects: | B
Church
B Sect B New Zealand attitudes and values study B schismogenesis B Religion B Schisms B LPA B God |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Religious groups differ in theology, ritual, and modes of self-governance. However, the extent to which such differences capture the variation of religious individuals remains unclear. Latent Profile Analysis offers a powerful statistical method for obtaining typologies from the response profiles of religious individuals. Here, we draw on a national sample of religiously-identified New Zealanders (N = 1484) and use LPA to obtain typologies for diversity in attitudes to religion as assessed by a combination of religious orientations, fundamentalism, and religious group narcissism/humility. The most parsimonious model recovers five types. To illustrate the importance of this descriptive typology, we evaluate the predictions of a church-sect theory against it. Consistent with church-sect theory, we find a greater density of intrinsic/exclusive types (Fundamentrinsics and X-trinsics) among informal/marginal religious groups and a greater density of extrinsic/inclusive types (Moderinsics and Disaffected) among established/mainstream churches. However, the data also reveal an unexpected feature: about 50% of religious affiliates across both marginal and mainstream Christian groups present as either Questrinsics or Moderinsics. Collectively, our findings illustrate how rigorous descriptive statistical models may combine with national-scale data to evaluate classical theories of religious change, while also raising new explanatory challenges for future evolutionary scholars of religions. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-5981 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2019.1678516 |
