Emerging Adult Religiosity and Spirituality: Linking Beliefs, Values, and Ethical Decision-Making

Patricia Herzog,De Beadle

doi:10.3390/rel9030084

Patricia Herzog, De Beadle

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9030084

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Abstract

This paper challenges the “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) category as a methodological artifact caused by interacting two closed-ended survey items into binary combinations. Employing a theoretically rich approach, this study maps the multiple ways in which the religious and the spiritual combine for emerging adults. Results indicate that most emerging adults have a tacit sense of morality, displaying limited cognitive access to how moral reasoning relates to religious and spiritual orientations. This longitudinal study investigates efforts to raise moral awareness through: exposure to diverse religious and spiritual orientations, personal reflection, and collective discussion. Relative to control groups, emerging adults in this study display increases in moral awareness. We combine the results of these studies to formulate a theoretical framework for the ways in which beliefs, values, and ethical decision-making connect in expressing plural combinations of religiosity and spirituality. The implication is that direct attention to religiosity and spirituality — not avoidance of — appears to facilitate ethical decision-making.

Highlights

This study investigates the nuances of the term “spiritual but not religious,” commonly known as SBNR
Ethical Morality was a crosscutting category that was not a fourth cultural package and rather a more behavior-oriented set of themes than the belief-oriented set of themes described in the three cultural packages
Spirituality into a different category that focuses on articulation of the moral values undergirding ethical decision-making

Summary

Introduction

This study investigates the nuances of the term “spiritual but not religious,” commonly known as SBNR. Rather than treating the interaction between religiosity and spirituality as binary, we investigate the multi-dimensional ways in which spirituality and religiosity combine for American emerging adults. We study whether and how religious and spiritual beliefs link to cultural values and ethical decision-making. We combine analyses from two related studies – the first is a nationally representative survey, and the second is a longitudinal experiment. Our qualitative analysis centers on responses to questions regarding religiosity, spirituality, morality, and ethical decision-making. Findings indicate that most emerging adults have a tacit sense of morality, with limited cognitive access to their reasoning for deciding moral actions as they relate or not to their religiosity and spirituality

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Results

Conclusion