Image of God and Democratic Orientation: What Kind of God Matters?
Objective. The goal of this article is to analyze how individual perception and apprehension of religion is associated with the democratic values and norms of European citizens. Method. We used a multi-level regression fixed effect estimate which is based on data from the 2017 cross-national Europea...
| Published in: | Nordic journal of religion and society |
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| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Universitetsforlaget
2023
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| In: |
Nordic journal of religion and society
Year: 2023, Volume: 36, Issue: 1, Pages: 4-18 |
| Further subjects: | B
Multilevel Analysis
B European Values Study B Personal god B democratic orientation B god as spirit or life force |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Objective. The goal of this article is to analyze how individual perception and apprehension of religion is associated with the democratic values and norms of European citizens. Method. We used a multi-level regression fixed effect estimate which is based on data from the 2017 cross-national European Values Survey (EVS). Results. We found that understanding religion as a personal god, as opposed to understanding religion as spirit/life force, significantly negatively relates with democratic orientation, and positively relates with anti-democratic orientation. Hence, understanding religion as a spirit/life force supports individual democratic orientation and protects from anti-democratic orientation. We also found that the effect of the personal god on both democratic and anti-democratic orientation is much stronger in the post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe. Conclusions. We conclude that the personification of god represents an authoritarian mode of religious personality which plays a negative role in evaluating democratic values; while understanding religion as a spiritual/life force provides a generalized metaphysical path which is in accordance with democratic orientation. |
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| ISSN: | 1890-7008 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nordic journal of religion and society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18261/njrs.36.1.1 |