Intrinsic religiosity protects believers from the existential fear of a human Jesus

The present study examined the role of internalised religious beliefs in defending against existential concerns aroused from a creaturely Jesus. Prior work has found that biologically human traits (e.g., vomiting, sweating, etc.) can increase death concerns when applied to both humans and a god. Int...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
VerfasserInnen: Arrowood, Robert Britton (Verfasst von) ; Cox, Cathy R. (Verfasst von) ; Weinstock, Maddie (Verfasst von) ; Hoffman, Jill (Verfasst von)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Veröffentlicht: 2018
In: Mental health, religion & culture
Jahr: 2018, Band: 21, Heft: 5, Seiten: 534-545
weitere Schlagwörter:B Creatureliness
B existential anxiety
B Fear of death
B terror management theory
B Intrinsic religiosity
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The present study examined the role of internalised religious beliefs in defending against existential concerns aroused from a creaturely Jesus. Prior work has found that biologically human traits (e.g., vomiting, sweating, etc.) can increase death concerns when applied to both humans and a god. Intrinsic beliefs, however, have been shown to reduce mortality awareness. In the current study, religious participants were primed with thoughts of either a human or neutral Jesus followed by a single item measure about fear of death. A moderated regression analysis found that whereas high intrinsic individuals were buffered from existential concerns, low intrinsic individuals experienced a greater fear of death when primed with a human Jesus. These results replicate prior work within terror management theory and the psychology of religion suggesting that internalised beliefs serve a protective function against existential anxieties.
ISSN:1469-9737
Enthält:Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2018.1512564