A Model of Change of Religious Affiliation

Abstract

Using a Durkheimian framework this model employs deficiency variables in an attempt to explain change of religious affiliation. All four independent variables (deficit of social rewards, deficit of consistency of life experiences, deficit of religious solidarity, and personal influence) were predicted to be positively related to the dependent variable. Data on 3574 inquirers enrolled in a course of instruction on the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church between 1958 and 1965 were analyzed to test the four major hypotheses. High rates of religious affiliation change occurred among inquirers with two or more deficits who were engaged or married to a Catholic. C hange of religious affiliation is defined here as a process by which an individual attaches to an organized religion by becoming a member of that religious group, and in this act of affiliation, accepts the teachings of the group. Because this process involves the acceptance of values held by a religious group as well as membership in the group, it is a complicated social act. It is our position that attempts to explain this phenomenon would benefit by the introduction of relevant sociological variables. Therefore, the central question in this model of religious affiliation change is, What sociological factors are positively associated with the formal entry into a church in which one had no prior membership? Empirical studies of religious conversion have been few and far between since Edwin D. Starbuck's The Psychology of Religion, which was published in 1900. When studies have been made, they usually have involved sample sizes of less than two hundred, and this has restricted the analysis considerably (Axtel, 1953, Babchuk, *This paper represents a portion of an empirical study of the social determinants of change of religious